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2. Core Features

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Jimmy Pautz edited this page Apr 28, 2026 · 32 revisions

Here's a breakdown of what the plugin can actually do once you've fetched the data for a book.

Characters

This is a list of everyone mentioned in the story.

  • Details: Tap any character's name to read their bio, role, and occupation.
  • Search: Use the search icon to find a specific person quickly.
  • Fetch More: If you notice a minor character is missing, hit "Fetch More Characters". The AI will do another pass just looking for names it missed.

For information on how X-Ray data gets fetched and updated — including the background auto-fetch feature — see the Fetching page.

Timeline

The Timeline gives you a chronological summary of the plot, broken down by chapter. It follows your Spoiler Protection settings, so it won't show you events you haven't read yet if you're using Spoiler-free mode.

Historical Figures & Locations

  • Historical Figures: If you're reading historical fiction or non-fiction, this pulls up real-world info about actual historical people mentioned in the text. This may not be useful or even populate for fiction books.
  • Locations: Gives you a quick description and context for the places the story happens.

Mentions

Mentions scanning allows you to find every occurrence of a character, location, or historical figure throughout the book.

  • How to Use: Tap on any entity in the X-Ray menu and select "Find Mentions".
  • Wait for Scan: The initial scan for an entity's mentions happens in the "foreground" while you have the menu open. You should wait for the progress indicator to finish before closing the menu or attempting to navigate to a mention.
  • Navigation: Once the scan is complete, you will see a list of page numbers and context snippets. Tapping a mention will jump you directly to that page.
  • Background Updates: After an entity has been "activated" (scanned once), the plugin will silently update its mentions in the background as you read new chapters.

Tip

You can enable or disable this feature entirely under Settings → Mentions Settings. On older, low-power devices, it is disabled by default to ensure the best performance.

Author Info

If you want to know a bit more about the author, go to Menu → X-Ray → Author Info. If it's empty, you can run a quick search to pull their bio and birth/death dates.

Quick In-Text Lookups

You don't have to navigate through the main menu every time you want to check a character's name.

  • Selection Popup: If you long-press a word or name while reading, you'll see a dedicated X-Ray button directly in the dictionary/selection popup.
    • Instant Lookup: Tapping the X-Ray button will immediately search your local data for that character or location.
    • Inline Fetching: If the word isn't in your X-Ray database yet, the plugin will ask if you want to look it up using AI. This is a "Targeted Fetch" that only retrieves info for that specific name, making it much faster than a full book scan.
  • Highlights: If you long-press an existing highlight, the standard KOReader menu will pop up. There's an X-Ray option added in there too.
  • Keyboard Shortcut: If you happen to be using a device with a keyboard, pressing Alt + X will open the quick menu.

Language & Localization

The plugin interface and AI-generated content are fully localized into 8 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Simplified Chinese.

You can configure the language settings under Menu → X-Ray → Settings → Language:

  • Automatic (Follow System): Matches KOReader's global UI language.
  • Automatic (Follow Book): Matches the language of the book you are currently reading (ideal for bilingual readers).
  • Manual Selection: Force a specific language for all menus and X-Ray data.

Smart Detection: If you open a book in a supported language that differs from your current X-Ray setting, the plugin will automatically ask if you want to switch languages to match the book.

Checking for Updates

The plugin can check for new versions automatically. You can find this under Menu → X-Ray → Maintenance → Check for Updates. It's a quick way to grab the latest improvements without having to manually download files from GitHub.

There's also a weekly silent check that runs automatically when you open a book, so you'll get a notification if something new is available without having to think about it.

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