Trouble installing Instapaper button

[Alice9]

I bought my iPad 2 about 3 weeks ago. I am not an 'i' person in general, my desktop and laptop are PCs, one running mainly IE, the other Firefox. I do have an iPod, so I am somewhat familiar with iTunes.

Anyway, after reading a lot of reviews, I decided that Instapaper was the app for me - I love the idea of scooping up stuff to read later, offline. So I loaded it and at first, found a few articles I liked, but only could get them INTO Instapaper by cutting and pasting the URL directly into Instapaper (IP after this, I'm getting tired of typing it!).

So I followed the lengthy, cryptic instructions (beginning with 'you have to do this in portrait, landscape won't word) and it worked okay until the very end. Here's what I did:
First I added Instapaper to my bookmarks.
Then I copied a box of what looked like HTML text and SAVED IT.
Then I tapped edit and selected IP.
Then I tapped it's URL, tapped the X to clear it.
Then I pasted the saved text.

So far so good.

But the next instruction was to SAVE it - the illustration showed a SAVE button at the top of the bookmarks box- but I didn't have a SAVE button that showed. So it wouldn't save.

And I didn't get a Read it later button on the toolbar in Safari, which is what I wanted.

Any ideas? Maybe the problem is I don't really know Safari or how bookmarks work in Safari. Thanks in advance for any help.

Alice

 

[Mickey330]

Yeah, it's a bit confusing - cause what you're doing is actually altering a Safari bookmark ... which is not really making a real button on the toolbar.

When you pasted that long string of text into the URL box of your Instapaper bookmark, you didn't need to "save" anything. The very act of pasting it created it. No further action/saving required...

The bookmark you created and called Instapaper serves as the "button" in Safari. If you just press on that bookmark, it'll do the actions you need (save to Instapaper).

You could move that Instapaper bookmark to Safari's toolbar. Then, while not a button, the bookmark will be readily available for you to press and thus save to Instapaper.

Hope this helps; let us know how you get on.

Marilyn

 

[Alice9]

So, when I press that bookmark, it's like saving it to Instapaper? Okay, I'll try that. Now, I saw on the Instapaper site that certain apps work seamlessly with it, like Flipboard. What does that mean? I won't BE in Safari to tap the bookmark - how would I save something from Flipboard to read later in Instapaper?

(Also, I've noticed that most apps have very little documentation - I know everyone thinks their software is intuitive, but you know... it never is!).

Alice

 

[Mickey330]

I can't speak for Flipboard, because I don't have it - however - a lot of apps have a "send to Instapaper" type button somewhere within them. That's probably what's going on with the Flipboard/Instapaper seamless remark...

Yes, pressing the bookmark is like pressing a button. The screen (in Safari) should show as saving and the spinner should be going at the top. Sometimes, my logon isn't current and I'm prompted to enter the info again - but that's rare, so far.

And yes, sometimes intuitive software isn't!

Marilyn

 

[twerppoet]

Flipboard is an RSS feed, FaceBook, Twitter, and curated site reader that acts a lot like a magazine. Some people swear by it. I really like the look and feel, but need a more efficient interface for my many RSS feeds. It's free, so check it out if you are curious.

Reeder is another app that has an Instapaper button. It also does Readability (similar to Instapaper) and Evernote (as of the last update). It syncs with Google Reader. This is my most used news reader on the iPad.

iCab Mobile (an alternate browser that many people like) also has built in Instapaper capability. Though not as fast as Safari, the browser offers some nice interface options.

 

[Alice9]

I've used Google Reader on my desktop, I'll look into Reader. What I did with Flipboard and would presumably work with other apps, is to put the Instapaper email address in my contacts. So from Flipboard, I emailed the link to Instapaper - that worked fine. I was concerned that the article was multiple pages, but the whole thing transferred, so maybe the 'pages' in Flipboard are not really separate pages.

So far so good! Now the idea is that the content on Instapaper (once it's THERE) is available to read offline, right? And you can't trash things, you can just Archive them? I dragged something I was done with to the trash can and it put it in the Archive.

Thanks for all the help!
Alice

 

[twerppoet]

So far so good! Now the idea is that the content on Instapaper (once it's THERE) is available to read offline, right? And you can't trash things, you can just Archive them? I dragged something I was done with to the trash can and it put it in the Archive.

Thanks for all the help!
Alice

For offline reading, you need to remember to open the Instaparer app on yhe iPad and let it sync while you have a connection. Stuff that you add using other apps and links won't be there unless you do. With Reeder you need to consider what you are viewing. If all you see is the RSS feed, it will only link that. To get the full article you need to go to the website, which you can easily do in Reeder.

Think of Archive as a very neat trash can. To permanently delete an article you have to delete it a second time from the Archive list.

 

[Alice9]

Oh, and I've discovered Folders too, very nice! Much better than a big lump of articles. This is a great app!