Around this time last year, Microsoft released a new version of the Edge browser based on Chromium. At the beginning I was of course happy to see this kind of update. After all, the original Edge is really embarrassing to use. It is only used when reading e-books-as an epub reader, Edge has almost no rivals; and this time " The occurrence of "defection" makes using Edge as the main browser a more realistic option. So when you look at past articles, you will even find that I wrote an article specifically to praise the changes.
However, the subsequent development hit me hard. One is that the new version of Edge is just one of countless similar Chromium browsers. There is no good reason for me to migrate over, so the biggest benefit of this update for me seems to be just a nice new icon; the second is Microsoft Once again the fine tradition of "what users love, I cut what", it was suddenly announced in August last year that the old version of Edge would no longer support epub e-book reading (of course the new version did not support it from the beginning), and it was in November Put it into practice in the update. After one night, all epub files can no longer be opened through Edge.
I still haven’t figured out why Microsoft failed to completely erase the traces of Win 7 in the system five years after the release of Windows 10, but so persistently and efficiently passed a popular feature specifically Update cut off. From the news rating of cnBeta, we can see the confusion of users:
Anyway, it's done. I have to find a substitute to prevent the e-book in the hard drive from losing value. But the reality is a bit cruel: there seems to be no useful epub reader on Windows.
▲ The style of other readers is like this...
Adobe Digital Editions? The slow lag is suffocating; Calibre's UI is really not flattering, and the file name is converted into pinyin; as for freda and Book Bazaar Reader in the app store, even the most basic typesetting is not good...
The end of this frustration is Neat Reader, which I tried by coincidence later-it may be the best multi-platform e-book management solution.
Good-looking is justice
What is the biggest advantage of Neat Reader? It's simple: it looks good.
Of course, this is not to say how high its "absolute beauty" is, it is simply that it is set off well by its peers. After the aesthetic devastation of other readers, as long as the layout is not messy, the spacing is moderate, and the content is not presented in Arial or Bold Microsoft Yahei, I am grateful.
What's more, the richness of custom settings provided by Neat Reader has exceeded my expectations. The page turning/scrolling mode is selectable, five colors, different font sizes, spacing and paging mode and other details can be changed according to personal preference. Although these settings seem to be just "basic operations" for reading software, but, alas, they are set off by peers. E-book management software that can achieve these basic functions on Windows, where the software ecology is increasingly poor, is rare. In contrast, Neat Reader's clean and refreshing UI and perfect preferences are a surprise.
"good-looking" is satisfied, but the software has many defects in "humanization". For example, the book catalog cannot be folded; what's worse, when adding books, you can't do batch operations. You can only move them in one by one. The experience is very torturous. So at present, Neat Reader is more suitable for reading a small number of books rather than acting as a management tool for large e-book libraries, which has to be said to be a pity.
Rich note-taking tools
Many readers on Windows, such as freda, are surprisingly crude: they cannot even copy the content of the page. On the contrary, Neat Rreader provides a wealth of reading tools as an excellent representative.
Use the left button to select the content and the toolbar will pop up. The four buttons above represent: add notes, online translation, copy content and web search, and the bottom is different colors of highlight There is no problem in meeting general reading needs. Built-in Google Translate is especially useful when reading foreign books, and the response speed is much faster than the old version of Edge, which is slower and smoother than the Cortana assistant.
Don’t worry about being tied to this software because you have taken notes. It supports exporting notes. Right-click the book on the bookshelf and select "Export Notes", and you will be redirected to a page that lists all the notes of the current book. You can copy it into plain text and paste it, or send it to Evernote more conveniently to ensure your own Knowledge is not limited by the software system.
Multi-platform cloud synchronization
If the above are just conventional functions that are not attractive enough, then the "multi-terminal cloud synchronization" as the core advantage of Neat Reader is probably worth your consideration.
Although this feature was only implemented after several years of publicity, it can be used anyway: it spans the Web, Windows, macOS, Android and iOS platforms, and implements different platforms Real-time synchronization of reading progress between. In other words, you can read halfway at home, go out, and take out your phone/tablet on the subway to continue reading. And Neat Reader does not limit the number of devices that can be synchronized. As long as the same account is logged in, any device can access cloud data. It is completely unexpected that this "walk-and-go" modern lifestyle can be applied to the very traditional field of local file-style e-book reading.
When collecting local e-books, storage reliability is also a problem that must be faced. Hard drives are always not so reliable. In the past, in order to avoid the loss of files that took a lot of time, I had to find a way to manually backup them to other devices or the cloud. The cloud storage function of Neat Reader solves this problem: after purchasing a member, you can get 10GB of cloud storage space. Books added to the bookshelf can be uploaded to the cloud with one click and synchronized freely on other devices. While reading, the problem of e-book backup was solved incidentally.
Summary: The best stopgap measure
Yes, in my opinion, this subtitle is the most appropriate evaluation of Neat Reader.
Is it easy to use? Not bad, but it is limited to epub file reading, and its advantages can only be highlighted when compared with other bad software of the same type on Windows; if it is macOS, MarginNote is much more fragrant.
On the other hand, the demand for epub reading is gradually declining. Only those foreign books or books that are out of print have to turn to local e-books. As for books that can be easily bought in China, whether it is a physical book with an average of more than 20 yuan or a WeChat reading, it is a better choice, which can support the author and get a better reading experience.
This is why I say it is just a "stop solution": it is not the best reading software, but there is probably no better choice on Windows; local e-books are also not the best way to read , It's just a last resort at certain times.
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