June BRM Digital is Massive but misses contents?

[ianmaccormac]

Hi

Great read for June with lots of extras but no contents pages. Please add two more pages please!!

Cheers Ian in Blackpool

[AY Mod]

I hadn't noticed when I flicked through the Digi edition earlier Ian. I have had a chat with the office and it's an intended omission this month as a test as the page numbers on the Contents page do not correlate with the Digital page numbers due to the digital extras which are placed between the conventional pages. As you say there's lots of extras in this month.

 

The print version will have a Contents page.

[ianmaccormac]

Right, its the page I always look at first and have missed it greatly!

Cheers

Ian

[AY Mod]

Duly noted. In an ideal world there should be a different Contents page for the digital issue but that would mean Ruth wouldn't get any sleep.

[JohnR]

In a digital world, would it not be possible to have a contents page with links, rather than page numbers? So the reader clicks on the item that interests them and are taken directly there?

[AY Mod]

2 minutes ago, JohnR said:

In a digital world, would it not be possible to have a contents page with links, rather than page numbers?

 

It does work that way in our Exact Editions version but not the Pocketmags version.

[Kiwi]

32 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

It does work that way in our Exact Editions version but not the Pocketmags version.

 

I’ve  no idea what differences there are in production processes for each of the major magazines for PocketMags, but I have just checked latest editions of all four in PocketMags. 

 

Hornby Mag and Model Rail have similar issues to BRM, in that page numbers don’t match printed contents pages, and don’t link from contents to page, presumably because if the extra digital pages. Railway Modeller however has neither issue. Page numbers match and links from contents to pages work. But I suspect it is the only one not include any digital-only content. 

 

Personally I don’t regard this as a major problem though. Navigating through the pages, at least on my iPad is pretty slick (using the slide control at the page bottom) so no big deal as far as I’m concerned. But I would also prefer to have the contents page back next month, even with the different page numbers. 

Edited May 16, 2019 by Kiwi

[D9020 Nimbus]

Hornby Magazine used to have links that worked from the contents page (and even from the cover).

 

Rail Express uses the "contents" facility that Pocketmags provides—there's a button in the left-hand corner which pops up a contents list. This works well, it also results in the contents being listed in the app, and you don't have to go to the contents page first.

 

I take it from the comments that there is no contents facility in this month's BRM. Not being able to go straight to a particular article in the future is inconvenient — the bookmarks facility is inadequate since you can't tell what each bookmark relates to.

 

I won't be purchasing this month's BRM. I hope you reconsider this issue in the future.

[AY Mod]

16 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

I won't be purchasing this month's BRM

 

The Pocketmags contents page in previous months were not dynamically linked before, would you have bought it this month if it had a static contents page? 

[Andy Hayter]

I have to say that I had never noticed the page number mis-match, but I do find the contents page useful as a quick cross check that I am looking at the right edition when trying to re-trace articles.  A lack of those pages means I will have to scan the whole magazine - a real PITA - so please reconsider what seems to be a retrograde move even if made with the best of intentions.

[D9020 Nimbus]

23 hours ago, AY Mod said:

 

The Pocketmags contents page in previous months were not dynamically linked before, would you have bought it this month if it had a static contents page? 

I would, if the page numbers were readable—they were in the previous issue. If the page numbers mismatch, I can at least see how far out I am. The dynamic Pocketmags contents page is the more usefu, however. As well as REx, I notice the current Hornby Magazine has this (might have had it for some time, for all I know).