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2. Core Features

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Jimmy Pautz edited this page Apr 29, 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.

Linked Entries

Linked Entries automatically connects characters, locations, and historical figures when they are mentioned in each other's descriptions.

  • Smart Navigation: When viewing an entry (e.g., Abraham Van Helsing), you will see a "Linked Entries" button if other entities are mentioned in his bio (e.g., Dracula or Whitby).
  • Toggleable: You can enable or disable this feature under Settings → Linked Entries Settings. Disabling it will hide the button from detail dialogs for a cleaner interface.

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.

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 an X-Ray button in the dictionary popup. Tap that to instantly search your X-Ray data for that specific text.
  • On-the-fly Fetching: If you look up a word that isn't in your X-Ray data yet, the plugin will offer to fetch it for you. This sends the word and its surrounding context to the AI to create a new entry (character, location, etc.) without needing a full book scan.
  • Mentions Scanning: Locate every occurrence of a specific character or location in the book.
    • Background Scanning: If you have existing mentions data, scanning can happen automatically in the background to keep the reader responsive.
    • Manual Scanning: For new data, a manual scan will provide a real-time progress indicator showing chapter-by-chapter completion.
    • Deep Links: Tapping a mention will take you directly to that page in the book.
    • Settings: Control this under Settings → Mentions Settings.
  • 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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