What also makes reading a lot more comfortable is the clipr bookmarklet: http://code.google.com/p/clipr/
Poll: Do you select text while reading?
121–130 of 366 posts
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#122When people see that I highlight text while I'm reading, they always want to know what practical reason it serves. The simplest answer is that it kind of helps me track the text, but it's less than that. It also isn't quite just a nervous habit. The only description that makes sense to me is that it feels like a physical connection to the page. More like spinning a pen, or rolling an object in your hand while you thi…
Yes this is definitely what I do too. I also tend to repeatedly tap the paragraph on the trackpad, so that fits well with your nervous habit analogy.
I highlighted your comment about ten times while I read it. Wow.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#123Yes: OCD.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#124If I could flip to a reading mode where the center line is the point of scrolling[1] and puts a little extra separation between the center line and lines above and below, I would not highlight. Maybe a subtle greying of the lines above and below.
[1] instead of stopping the scrolling when the first line is on the top or the last line is on the bottom, it scrolls to the middle before stopping.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#125When I read the title of this post I thought "WHOA, other people do that too?!" and clicked through to take the poll. Your poll is going to have a heavy selection bias towards people who select text while reading. People who don't select text while reading will probably ignore this poll and go read an article on erlang best practices or Paul Graham's favorite color.
I had originally posted a poll with Often/Sometimes/Never answers, but I realized, like you point out, that this poll would have heavy selection bias. So I changed the poll to gather reasons why people select. That's probably more interesting data than Yes/No anyways. :)
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#126I believe it should be a standard feature on browsers to have some identifier or horizontal line so that when scrolling or page-down, you know where to pick up.
I use highlight to mark the current position that i 'm reading, then mouse-scroll up/down to read some text i missed.
Ideally, i would like to keep the last 2-3 text selections that I made highlighted.
I also hate Nytimes and PLoS for hijacking my selections
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#127Yes I do it as a tick. In fact I realized I was doing it while reading these comments.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#128I just randomly select text as I'm reading. In fact I find it annoying when I cannot do so.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#129No, but I can understand why, based on the responses so far. Makes sense. I'd think they'd be more useful if they were saved somewhere.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#130When people see that I highlight text while I'm reading, they always want to know what practical reason it serves. The simplest answer is that it kind of helps me track the text, but it's less than that. It also isn't quite just a nervous habit. The only description that makes sense to me is that it feels like a physical connection to the page. More like spinning a pen, or rolling an object in your hand while you thi…
Although I still think the contrast & place-tracking stuff is part of it, I'm realizing the want-to-fiddle thing is a big factor for me too. One thing is that when I use a trackpad (makes it sort of cumbersome to select text), I find myself idly playing with the two-finger scroll, pushing the page up and down even though I'm reading something in the middle of the screen. I think it's the same impulse.