Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Ipad and html

It's on the web, but I want it in my pocket. Sort of as a book.

Admiral Haddock — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:02:43 -0800

What's the best / easiest way to process / format material I've downloaded or copied from the web to read on Apple's Books app? On a Kindle? If I format for the Kindle, would the material be synced on both devices if I use the Kindle iPhone app as my reader? I've been using Calibre to rip ePubs, but there has to be an easier way than what I'm doing, which takes forever. I have an iPhone 4. I am considering getting a Kindle. There is a lot of content I want to read (public domain, blogs, how-to stuff, friends' stories) that is not on Gutenberg. I want to render that material in some format that I can read on my commute; I realize that iPhone reads ePub, but the Kindle does not--so I may end up having to encode two different files.

What is the best way to get an HTML-formatted webpage to look right? Assume basic formatting--italics, special characters, nested paragraphs--but no tables or graphics.

So far, what I've been doing has been to 1) grab the html source code for the stories I've been reading and then 2) waste a couple hours stripping out the tags and web characters, and reformatting the entire thing in Word, then 3) print to a PDF, then 4) having Calibre make an ePub from the PDF (it does not like my .docx files). This seems like madness. It takes forever for a novella-length story.

What's the best way of getting formatted text into a clean file for reading on a mobile device? I suppose I could print to PDF from Safari, but I want as clean a file as possible--I don't want graphics and footers with "page 1 of 75" as part of the text I read on my phone (I realized this morning that the Word file I used to make this morning's read had footers with the file name which appear in the middle of paragraphs in the ePub file). It should just be text, as if I purchased a commercial title.

Bonus question--if I were to encode for the Kindle app on the iPhone and also have a Kindle, would it sync my own files between the devices, so that it would know I read up to page 77 on the iPhone/iPad and then automatically open to page 78 when I start the Kindle?

Looking for beautifully designed mobile websites.

Brent Parker — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:05:50 -0800

I am looking for beautifully designed websites built for viewing on mobile devices. Bonus points for those that are accessible with voice over.

iPad and multi-select dropdowns without ctrl-click

xorry — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:38:31 -0800

We recently purchased an iPad at the office for testing with our website. I'm trying to figure out how to operate a multi-select drop down on the thing. There's no control-click.. If it's not possible, is there an iPad specific workaround? Just in case it matters I don't think it's actually just a simple HTML element but due to design concerns the functionality is a mix of javascript and css to display a stylized drop down list with the ability to select/deselect multiple options with the ctrl/shift keys.

How to best turn outlines into menus on a Web, mobile, and/or desktop app?

jimmymcvee — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:51:14 -0800

Can you advise me on creating my research tool? Do you know a way to turn outilnes into interactive menus on the Web? How about on a mobile device ? Is there an app that is for iPhone apps what Dreamweaver is for Web sites? My extended question: I was wondering if someone could advise me on a tool I'm building for myself (which I will eventually develop for others to enjoy and perhaps purchase). I'm obviously not much of a coder.

What I want to create on a mobile device (or at least on the Web) is pretty basic, comprised of menus and sub menus of data.

For starters, it'll just be a reference tool. Later, I'll add some more advanced functionality.
The rapid scrolling and clicking through menus that's possible on these mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Android) would make them great platforms for my tool. I just need a way to build and update it easily. That's the kicker.

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Plan A:
First, I've created outlines in OmniOutliner and exported them as HTML unordered lists. Second, I've been learning basic CSS coding because it seems like the best way to turn those exported outlines into interactive hover/flyout menus on a web page (you don't even need Javascript), which could in turn provide me with a good template for an iPhone/iPad app. However, the CSS code gets overly complicated and is not easily updated.

Plan A.2: Another way to go (beyond flyout menus) is to just mimic an iPhone menu on the web (with CSS and Java). I might end up using this guy's code as a starting place: http://joehewitt.com/files/iphone/navigation.html#_albums
Here's a a similar USC site built for mobile: http://mobile.usc.edu/
The problem with that approach is that each list in the menu/outline requires a new HTML page. Ugh.

Also, I want to make something that can be cached on the device, not requiring internet. I wonder if that can be implemented or if no internet makes all these "built for mobile" web sites moot. I mean, if I can save a Web archive to my desktop, I imagine it can be done on the iPhone (and in reverse).
In other words, I'd rather have an app installed on the iPhone, that runs natively. Not a web-hosted app.
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So, plan B: I'm looking for alternates for turnings outlines into menus. The next thing would be to look at Mac's Interface Builder to create an Mac app that is simply a bunch of menus (and later make it something more). But I don't know if that'll be any easier or quickly updatable. Any experience with that? I gotta find some forums...

Of course, I'd rather have this be cross platform.

________

Plan C:
For *real* iPhone code, I'm hoping to hunt down a program that is to iPhone/iPad apps what Dreamweaver is to Web page creation. Something like StencilsApp that generates real code. There are a lot of red herrings out there and folks that want hosting and development fees. But, I'm sure more and more solutions for non-coders are going to emerge. Know any besides SwebApps?

What other approaches would you suggest?

Thanks for any advice!