Add Text Wrapping/Reflow to improve browsing experience!
Text Reflow would be a fantastic addition to IE in Windows Phone, as it makes the browsing experience so much better. Please vote and spread the word to hopefully make this happen!
Not sure what text reflow is?
Text reflow is a feature which allows the browser to - when you pinch-to-zoom - automatically and dynamically adjust and re-indent/reformat text on ANY web page for much improved readability.
You can seamlessly adjust the zoom level for comfortable reading, and the text always stays perfectly aligned within the page margins with no words cut off, no matter the zoom level - so no more panning left and right to read a whole line, or squinting at tiny fonts that are near-impossible to read.
How is this different from normally zooming in on the text you want to read? When you zoom in without reflowing, some browsers automatically detect the text/page width and set the zoom level accordingly - but this often leaves you with a tiny typeface which is really hard to read at a glance.
And if you zoom in further to actually make things readable, the text will be cut off so you’ll have to resort to panning back and forth to read the lines in full.
Text reflow solves all of this. And it’s a feature that is absent on many other platforms, such as IOS and some Android implementations.
Having this in Windows Phone would be a stand-out feature that would be a boon to usability and accessibility!
Here are the benefits of text reflow:
* It gives you a much, much (much) better mobile browsing experience
* It makes text readable at a glance, by reformatting it to your chosen zoom level
* Words & sentences are never cut off/outside the screen, so no flicking left and right to read
* No more eyestrain staring at tiny fonts - zoom to a comfortable reading size and the text remains formatted perfectly
* Works with ALL web pages - pages don’t have to be designed for mobiles to be readable
* You can still view the whole page with the layout preserved, exactly as the web designer intended
* It makes mobile browsing much more accessible for those with poor eyesight
And believe me, once you’ve tried text reflow you NEVER want to go back to using a browser that doesn’t support it.
Please spread the word and vote for this so it can hopefully be implemented in Windows Phone!
PS: Here’s an example of text reflow on an HTC device: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-WJCyNCXIo
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62 comments
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Android guy
commented
Just to clear things up, its the browser that has to allow it, not necessarily the phone, Firefox for Android lets you do it on any phone...
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Jaw
commented
This is basic stuff!
Like having a homepage, a forward button & quickly accessible favourites.Why does a Windows Phone cost sooo much when it is sooo unfinished?
Rather than waiting around for things that might or might never happen... The more I use Windows Phone 8 the more I think I was better off with Android.
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Yaniv C
commented
I cannot stress HOW MUCH I AGREE!!
I left WP due to lack of imperative apps and the fact the I had to go back and forth side to side while reading articles due to lack of text wrapping -
Dave
commented
Just got a galaxy s4 - not text reflow in brower, my old htc desire was a much better browser experience.
Gutted - sending phone back.
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africatwin
commented
only HTC and SONY can text reflow.
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Anonymous
commented
Thought I was the only consumer searching for reflow. Switched from Iphone to HTC Inspire years ago b/c of text reflow, but ready now for new phone BUT NONE REFLOW MY TEXT! Sales people never even heard of this feature. Are you kidding me? I refuse to replace my current phone until I find a large screen with text reflow. If you come across one plez post info here. Until then I'm dumping apps to keep my old HTC up to speed & hanging on to it.
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Anonymous
commented
It's not perfect, but the "speed mode" on UC Browser is a sanity saver. It is not true text reflow on zoom, but, on a per site basis, it is possible via the dropdown menu in the upper right, to enter speed mode and the text will be fitted to the window at a readable font size.
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Anonymous
commented
Too much time hand wringing over Angry Birds, Instagram, et al. and not enough time getting the fundamentals down. It's baffling how I have a more readable browsing experience on my six year old Symbian (with text wrap) than any Windows or iOS phone.
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Phillip
commented
We need this asap!!
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Anonymous
commented
This would be really useful in mobile office also.
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ottolambsdorf
commented
totally agree. i had iphone 4s, no text reflow as you surf. switched to htc desire hd because of much larger screen. i was surprised it had text reflow, had not heard of that before. once you enjoy text reflow any smart phone without it is just not acceptable.
i assumed text reflow was an android feature.
i just switched to samsung note 2 and am shocked it does not have text reflow. it turns out text reflow is a unique htc feature (can not understand why they do not stress that in their ads. i am also aware most reviewers of smartphones are quite incompetent as everything else being more or less equak, text reflow is a decion making feature. in fact, for anyone surfing with the smartphone, anything without text reflow is ESSENTIAL.
fortunately i sort of solved the problem with the Note by navigating with opera for mobiles which does have text reflow for most but not all sites.
i am keeping the note 2 because of that and because of the huge screen and the stylus which allows me to hand write notes and sketches; no longer i write notes on paper or quick drawings, shopping lists, etc. in fact i barely use my ten inch tablet now.
of ocurse, ANY iphone is just a ridiculous toy. no wonder the corporate phone at facebook is now the note 2, they have ditched their iphone 5s.
apple soon will soon be chewed up by samsung
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ijespah
commented
Text reflow is the first feature I look for in a phone, and it seems like fewer phones now have them.
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Carlos
commented
I agree text reflow it is as purchasing decision making feature.
I just switched to samsung note 2 from htc desire hd. I can not believe the note 2 does not have text reflow. This means when you zoom in into a web page the nines of text do not fit completely in the screen and is necessary to move the text right and left as you reade
To have text reflow on note 2 I had to install Opera browser as with other browsers no text reflow. However with htc desire hd you get text reflow with ANY browser!
I am keeping the Samsung because of the unmatcheo huge screen, the huge battery ano the ability to make hand written notes right on the the screen. Since no other phone has these features no other phone has these features, no other phone matches htc.
One of the reasons I switched from Iphone to htc was text reflow. Once you navigate with text reflow everything else is simply not aceptable. I thought text reflow was a built in android feature, it turns out is a unique htc feature.
Samsung must asap update all its existing galaxy phones, including the Note to have reflow.
If you are in the market for a smartphone or use a non htc phone, with the possible exception of the samsungs Note 2, I would not even look at the samsung galaxy sIII, the iphone 5, or any windows phone if you use the phone for web browsing even a little.
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anonymous
commented
This feature and swype will send me back to Droid!
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apinun
commented
OK,THANK YOU, I WANT AND WAITING......APPLICATION STANDARD FOR WINDOWS MOBILE.
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Nico
commented
If only manufacturers realised what this basic omission costs them in sales.
Clearly, those in charge aren't regular users of mobile web browsers.
Simply beggars belief that their ignorance is allowed to crucify sales.
There was a time when companies used to trawl the forums to pick up on these complaints.
The problem with such massive companies is that the decision-making lies exclusively in the hands of corporate suits rather than where it should be to create user-friendly devices - in the hands of software engineers.
The resources and sweat that manufacturers devote to gaining each extra 0.01% of market share are a sick joke, given the substantial losses sustained because of basic omissions.
But then, large corporations are organisation-centric not product-centric.
Any manufacturer that can come in and make a device without these dumb omissions will wipe the floor with all the competition. -
Max
commented
Please, add text reflow
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Peter Josefson commented
Used to android. Really loved wp8 at first but this omission makes it pretty useless...
Oh, and why is THIS site unreadable on my 8s without zooming and scrolling sideways? A joke? Or just incompetence?
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Wilhelm Von Hungern Sternberg commented
Yes, text reflow is a deal breaker for me too. I was about to order Lumia 920 but luckily I tried it first in a shop and realised that reflow was STILL missing. Having used Opera (which does support reflow) on N900 and N9 for almost 3 years it is quite surprising and extremely disappointing that there is no Web browser with reflow capability on Microsoft's and Nokia's latest and greatest flagship platform. I’m sure Opera would be happy to migrate their browser to WP7.5/8 but I suspect WP is such a developer hostile platform and/or MS is so jealously guarding its browser monopoly on WP that it is practically impossible for Opera to do the migration.
I guess that after having been using Nokia’s phones for 13 years the time has come for me to start looking at Androids. It is taking just too long from MS and Nokia to come up with a decent phone which doesn’t have one or more basic deficiencies (such as missing reflow in Web browser).
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Andre
commented
Please Microsoft add this to the browser. I hate having to scroll and scroll to follow the text. Opera does a great job at this on android. Why cant Microsoft just do this? We need this feature
