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Please Help a Newbie

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  Please Help a Newbie Ricardo Jimenez <rickyjim@earthlink.net> - 2015-07-14 10:57 -0400
    Re: Please Help a Newbie Big_Al <Big_al@invalid.com> - 2015-07-14 14:43 -0400
    Re: Please Help a Newbie Alan Meyer <ameyer2@yahoo.com> - 2015-07-14 21:49 -0400
      Re: Please Help a Newbie-Text Reflow Ricardo Jimenez <rickyjim@earthlink.net> - 2015-07-24 10:56 -0400
    Re: Please Help a Newbie tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net> - 2015-08-03 19:10 -0400
      Re: Please Help a Newbie Ricardo Jimenez <rickyjim@earthlink.net> - 2015-08-03 22:04 -0400
        Re: Please Help a Newbie tlvp <tPlOvUBpErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> - 2015-08-04 20:20 -0400
          Re: Please Help a Newbie Ricardo Jimenez <rickyjim@earthlink.net> - 2015-08-04 22:17 -0400

#20999 — Please Help a Newbie

I had never used a smart phone or touch screen device.  But I decided
to get an android tablet to be used mostly as an e reader for
technical and educational books.  I chose the Dell Venue 10 7000
because of good reviews.  I have been trying to get confident with it
for the past few days but have quite a ways to go.  I am looking for
suggestions for online help.  I have already downloaded lots of apps
from the google play store and transferred files from my windows
computer that I want to read on the tablet.

1.  The lack of menus accessible from the top of the screen, as you
have in PC programs, is most disconcerting.  I understand that you
have such access by swiping fingers in various ways but I haven't
found a general explanation.

2.  I installed the standard free file manager apps like ES file
Explorer but find them excruciatingly difficult to learn how to do the
simplest things that you can do with Windows Explorer like deleting or
moving a file to another folder or even making a new folder.

I guess this group is mostly for phone users.  Is their a similar one
for tablets?  Thanks in advance.

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#21001

Whiskers wrote on 7/14/2015 12:30 PM:
> On 2015-07-14, Ricardo Jimenez <rickyjim@earthlink.net> wrote:
>> I had never used a smart phone or touch screen device.  But I decided
>> to get an android tablet to be used mostly as an e reader for
>> technical and educational books.  I chose the Dell Venue 10 7000
>> because of good reviews.  I have been trying to get confident with it
>> for the past few days but have quite a ways to go.  I am looking for
>> suggestions for online help.  I have already downloaded lots of apps
>> from the google play store and transferred files from my windows
>> computer that I want to read on the tablet.
>>
>> 1.  The lack of menus accessible from the top of the screen, as you
>> have in PC programs, is most disconcerting.  I understand that you
>> have such access by swiping fingers in various ways but I haven't
>> found a general explanation.
>>
>> 2.  I installed the standard free file manager apps like ES file
>> Explorer but find them excruciatingly difficult to learn how to do the
>> simplest things that you can do with Windows Explorer like deleting or
>> moving a file to another folder or even making a new folder.
>>
>> I guess this group is mostly for phone users.  Is their a similar one
>> for tablets?  Thanks in advance.
>
> This seems to be the right place  :))
>
> A 'long touch' usually brings up a 'context sensitive menu' for whatever
> it is you touched.  Some things react differently to a single tap and a
> double tap.
>
> A web search such as
> <https://ixquick.com/do/search?q=how+to+use+android+tablet> brings up
> several 'how to' sites - but there is no single user interface for
> Android tablets - different versions of Android, and different
> manufacturers and suppliers putting their own ideas into effect, have
> complicated matters.  There are many alternative 'launcher' apps which
> users can download to change their own user interface.
>
> Dell are relatively good at providing help for their own products
> <http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-10-7040-tablet/pd?ref=PD_Family> -
> and of course there should be a user manual installed on the device or
> on a CD in the packaging.
>
I'll just add that I am too rather new to tablets and phones.  Only had a phone for 3 months now.  But as Whiskers 
stated, I've sat down with a friend with a different manufacturer phone and we both do things different.  We have 
different things on our settings menu and different ways just to get to settings.

File Explorer ES works the same on both phones (superficially) but when you long press an item, the content menu is 
different.  Probably due to manufacturers add-ons or our downloads.

It's a bitch to walk someone through their phone when your's is totally differnt.
And my tablet is different from phone too.  So I just play and figure it out over time.
Also note there is (on mine) 3 vertical dots at the top or bottom of some apps, which is a menu.   Sometimes you access 
different things that way.

Good luck.

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#21011

On 7/14/2015 10:57 AM, Ricardo Jimenez wrote:
> I had never used a smart phone or touch screen device.  But I decided
> to get an android tablet to be used mostly as an e reader for
> technical and educational books.  I chose the Dell Venue 10 7000
> because of good reviews.  I have been trying to get confident with it
> for the past few days but have quite a ways to go.  I am looking for
> suggestions for online help.  I have already downloaded lots of apps
> from the google play store and transferred files from my windows
> computer that I want to read on the tablet.
>
> 1.  The lack of menus accessible from the top of the screen, as you
> have in PC programs, is most disconcerting.  I understand that you
> have such access by swiping fingers in various ways but I haven't
> found a general explanation.
>
> 2.  I installed the standard free file manager apps like ES file
> Explorer but find them excruciatingly difficult to learn how to do the
> simplest things that you can do with Windows Explorer like deleting or
> moving a file to another folder or even making a new folder.
>
> I guess this group is mostly for phone users.  Is their a similar one
> for tablets?  Thanks in advance.

There are a lot of books written like "Android Tablets for Dummies", 
"100 Ways to Use Your Android Device", "Android Tablets for Beginners 
and Seniors", "Android Tablet Basics", etc., that try to give simple 
tutorials on how to use your device.

I suggest you get one.

I have found that the ideal way to pick a book is to go to a big 
bookstore that has tons of books, e.g., Barnes and Noble, pick out all 
their introduction to Android books, and take them to a table.  Then 
take a couple of problems that you are trying to figure out and look 
them up in each book.  You'll probably find one that explains things 
well, and in a way that you understand.

If that's not practical for you (e.g., no big bookstores nearby), you 
can use Amazon.  Read the review of other readers.  Look for books that 
have lots of reviews and lots of stars for their reviews.  Use the "Look 
Inside" feature to read a few pages.  Look at the section that begins 
"Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought ..."

A lot of these books are very cheap in Kindle editions.  If you've 
figured out how to use the Kindle reader, that's an option for you.  But 
if you prefer a paperback, the prices are still usually pretty cheap.

Read the book and use it as a reference.  I think after you learn a few 
things, you'll have the background to learn more and then more and it 
will all get easier.  You'll get surprisingly proficient in a matter of 
weeks.

Be sure that the book has information for your version of Android!  If, 
for example, you're using Android 4.4 or 5.1, don't buy an old book that 
only covers up to Android 2.3 or 3.0.

Best of luck.

    Alan

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#21265 — Re: Please Help a Newbie-Text Reflow

I wish to thank all that have made help suggestions on how to get
started on my new Android tablet.  One problem that has come up in
using the Chrome browser and readers such as Adobe Acrobat is how to
increase or decrease the text size without having to scroll right and
left to read a page.  Usually on a PC, control +/- handles this well.
Sometimes it works on the tablet and sometimes pinching and expanding
motions with one's fingers does the trick, but not consistently.  Also
I have noticed that pressing the screen causes and increase in text
size, but where on the screen you should press seems to be variable.
Are there any rules I can systematically follow from app to app?
Thanks.

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#21632

On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 10:57:15 -0400, Ricardo Jimenez wrote:

> ... I have already ... transferred files from my windows
> computer that I want to read on the tablet.

If they're PDF or MOBI or AZW files (or the like), you might be a prime
candidate for the Amazon "Kindle for Android" software -- lets your Android
device emulate a real live in-the-flesh Kindle. Was one of the first things
I installed on each of my household's three Android devices. Almost every
amazon.com general page has a link offering it.

Cheers; and HTH, -- tlvp
-- 
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.

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#21640

On Mon, 3 Aug 2015 19:10:01 -0400, tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
wrote:

>On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 10:57:15 -0400, Ricardo Jimenez wrote:
>
>> ... I have already ... transferred files from my windows
>> computer that I want to read on the tablet.
>
>If they're PDF or MOBI or AZW files (or the like), you might be a prime
>candidate for the Amazon "Kindle for Android" software -- lets your Android
>device emulate a real live in-the-flesh Kindle. Was one of the first things
>I installed on each of my household's three Android devices. Almost every
>amazon.com general page has a link offering it.
>
>Cheers; and HTH, -- tlvp

The Kindle for Android app is one of the first I put on my tablet. The
Kindle for the PC has more function.  For example, there is no back
button on the Android verson so (AFAIK) one has to set a bookmark to
find ones way back to a spot in the book where one follows a hyperlink
to another portion of the book.  Unlike most Android readers, the
Kindle app doesn't have any file management for itself. I think the
home screen yshows all azw files in internal storage but no pdfs.
Mobi files have to be in the kindle directory in internal storage to
be seen and opened by the Kindle device.  You need a file manager to
have the app open a pdf.  Of course if you rely on Amazon for all your
reading material, you can using the Kindle management on their website
to make sure a book is properly loaded for the Kindle app on your
device.

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#21685

Ricardo Jimenez wrote:

 > ... Kindle for the PC has more function.  For example, there is no back
 > button on the Android verson so ...

Mmm ... depends. Some Android equipment sports a physical [Back] button,
and that works as you'd expect with the Kindle-for-Android Kindle-emulator.
Case in point: the Motorola Droid X2 (Verizon-branded version, anyway).

Cheers, -- tlvp

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#21688

On Tue, 04 Aug 2015 20:20:28 -0400, tlvp
<tPlOvUBpErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Ricardo Jimenez wrote:
>
> > ... Kindle for the PC has more function.  For example, there is no back
> > button on the Android verson so ...
>
>Mmm ... depends. Some Android equipment sports a physical [Back] button,
>and that works as you'd expect with the Kindle-for-Android Kindle-emulator.
>Case in point: the Motorola Droid X2 (Verizon-branded version, anyway).
>
>Cheers, -- tlvp

Since writing the above, I have found out that on mobile devices, the
Kindle app uses the "progress bar" instead of the back button.  The
progress bar has a white circle indicating the current page in the
document and two small dots for the two previous positions.  You get
two chances to get to the previous position by tapping on the dots.  

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