We've moved.

http://readable.tastefulwords.com

The new version of Readable can be found at the above URL.

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Tutorial

The tutorial will quickly tell you a few things about how to use Readable.

It contains tips, tricks, shortcuts, and, last but not least, some insight into how Readable does what it does.

Steps to Using Readable

1. On any page, click the bookmarklet.

   If you're on a page containing a long article, this is probably the only step you'll need.

2. If step 1. didn't work, you need to show Readable where the content is. You can do this in one of two ways.

   (a) Select the content with your mouse, and then click the bookmarklet.

   (b) Hold down the Control (Ctrl) key on your keyboard and move your mouse around the page. When the section of the page you want to see is higlighted, click it (while still holding down the Ctrl key.)

3. If you're finished reading — or you want to get back to the original page — just click on the transaprent background that surrounds the text-box.

   To bring Readable back, after it has been hidden, follow steps 1 and 2 — or just click on the Readable App label that is now floating at the top of the page.

Details on Automatic Content Extraction

Readable will only be able to automatically extract content from web pages containing one large block of text (article pages).

Automatic extraction should work on most article pages on the web, including most blog posts. When it fails, please be understanding. (Use manual mode and you'll still be able to read.)

Details on Manual Mode

"Manual mode" ensures that Readable can be used on any web page — no matter the text on it, or the way said text is arranged.

When used in this way, as you saw in the video, Readable can display any text that you select; it won't always be pretty, but it will always be readable.

(In "Manual mode", Readable can be used in Google Reader, and even Gmail — everyone has that one colleague who loves writing really long emails using Bold, 16 point, Comic Sans MS.)

"Manual mode" isn't actually a mode at all (Aza Raskin would be proud); all you have to remember about using Readable is that you have to click the bookmarklet. If some text is selected when you click the bookmarklet, that text will be displayed; if nothing is selected, Readable will try to automatically extract the content from the page.

Shortcut for manual mode: Readable can be invoked on selected text, by ctrl-clicking anywhere in the document, after the text has been selected. (The shortcut will only work after Readable has been loaded into the document — e.g. after you have allready clicked the bookmarklet once.)

Second shortcut for manual mode: Readable can be invoked on a certain section of the page. Hold down the Control (Ctrl) — CMD on MAC — key and move your mouse around the page; when the section of the page you want is higlighted, click it (while still holding down the Ctrl key).

Non Obvious Features

• You can hide / close Readable by clicking inside the readable overlay, but outside of the text in that overlay (usually that means clicking somewhere on the transparent background that covers the web page).

• You can print the readable content by right clicking on the text inside the readable overlay and choosing the menu item that looks like "Print frame" (it could also be "This Frame > Print"), or, if you don't find something like "Print Frame", just choose "Print" (or something like it — for example, "Print Window").

• Readable will mark links pointing outside of the current document differently than links pointing inside the current document. (Usually, you'll see the differnce in the color of the link when you hover over it; colors differ depending on the color theme you've chosen).

• If Readable finds any internal links (like, say, footnotes), it will make sure to add reverse links to the targets. (That means that after you click an internal link to get to a footnote, you'll be able to click that footnote to get back to where the footnote is cited.)

• Readable will display images, but only images it deems to be large enough and important enough.

• In "Manual mode", Readable is much more lenient toward what content it keeps; it assumes that if you've selected the content, it must be important, and it will usually display all of it. And yes, that means you can also Select All (Ctrl + A) and invoke Readable in it's more forgiving form on the whole page, but that's not reccomended; take the time to actually select the content you want displayed (I guarantee you it will pay off).

• In Safari 4 and Internet Explorer 7, Readable will also work on text (.txt) files that you've opened in your browser. This doesn't work in Firefox 3.0 and Chrome 1.0 due to some (unnecessary, in my opinion) security restrictions.

More information

If you feel like reading some more on Readable, here's where you can find said information.

Get In Touch

If you would like to get in touch with me regarding Readable, this is the way to do it:

You can also get in touch with me via Twitter. If you'd like, you can even follow Readable App (@readable_app).

Possible reasons to get in touch:

• Report an issue
• Suggest a new font, layout, color, or other CSS setting
• Say 'Hi' — I like saying 'Hi back' to Readable's users