I present to you Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. Here is book #1 Stand by for Mars by Carey Rockwell.

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet was one of the hottest science fiction properties of the 1950's. Tom was presented to the public as a comic strip in the daily funny papers, as a television series in 1951 and then again in 1954, as a radio series in 1952 and as a series of books. Standby for Mars was the first volume in the book series, introducing Tom and buddies Astro and Roger Manning and the world of the Solar Guard to readers. The book opens as Tom, Astro and Roger enter Space Academy and begin their training to become members of the Solar Guard. The boys go through the rigors of Academy training and are taken under wing by Capt. Steve Strong and Dr. Joan Dale. Relations between the boys are stained with Tom and Astro unable to understand Roger's hostile attitude towards the Academy and the Guard. The trio seem destined to be bounced out of the Academy due to the rancor between Roger and the other two boys. Then the boys are stranded on Mars when their training flight crash lands and in the ensuing action Roger reveals the cause of his animosity towards the Solar Guard and the Academy.

Version 1.0 had 13 views

This should make for an interesting comparison. The one you posted is 3 times as large as
the one I posted earlier. Folks can get an idea of the comparison of Book Designer and ebook publisher so far as imp files are concerned.

Does ebook publisher support hyphenation? Book Designer does. That's all I know might be a practical difference. Have a compare please. I'd love to know the differences.

Does ebook publisher support hyphenation? Book Designer does. That's all I know might be a practical difference. Have a compare please. I'd love to know the differences.

I haven't been very impressed with the hyphenation in Book Designer. For me at least it seems to hyphenate in incorrect places. Does it have a dictionary?

Ebook publisher only supports hyphenation if there is already a hyphen in the text or you use one of the two keywords at potential hyphenation points. These are: *­ and ‌. It does not have a hyphen dictionary but I have placed these in some of my text to help when the font size is changed. I wouldn't expect hyphens to cause the problem. I suspect it is using images instead of fonts or something drastic like that.

Dale

I haven't been very impressed with the hyphenation in Book Designer. For me at least it seems to hyphenate in incorrect places. Does it have a dictionary?

Ebook publisher only supports hyphenation if there is already a hyphen in the text or you use one of the two keywords at potential hyphenation points. These are: * and ‌. It does not have a hyphen dictionary but I have placed these in some of my text to help when the font size is changed. I wouldn't expect hyphens to cause the problem. I suspect it is using images instead of fonts or something drastic like that.

Dale
Book Designer does have a dictionary of some sort used for spell checking. No idea how it does it's hyphenation for IMP format.

Book Designer does have a dictionary of some sort used for spell checking. No idea how it does it's hyphenation for IMP format.

It hyphenated good to go-od. Lots of stuff like that. I always turn it off. I think it is hyphenating in Russian! The book is huge, the punctuation is ugly, particularly " and !. The images are terrible. Compare it for youself. See if choosing a generic serif font will decrease the size. I am beginning to think it is using images for fonts although the display speed is good. I can't click on a word to search or use the built-in dictionary.

Something is drastically wrong.

Dale

Book Designer does have a dictionary of some sort used for spell checking. No idea how it does it's hyphenation for IMP format.

When all else fails look at the help documentation. Here is what Book Designer says about imp files:

With this option you can create the files for GEB1150/2150, REB1200 and Hiebook devices.
"Make Book Image" method creates the book file consisting of the filtered images of the book pages. The page image filtering uses special algorithms allowing one to make the output file size 30-50 times smaller. As a result despite of the output file size is several times bigger that the input one, it is acceptable for the usage with the device. The output file size depends on the chosen settings and typically it is about 4-5 mb per 1000 pages.
advantages
1. MultiLangual support (all the symbols supported by BookDesigner will be shown on the device screen).
2. Hyphenations.
3. Any fonts of the user choice.
4. Any font combinations in the book.
5. MultiLangual support is provided on the file level (without any changing in the device OS)
disadvantages
1. The output file is rather big (depending on the chosen settings, it can 3-5 or more times bigger than the input one).
2. Bookmarks and links are not supported.

Well there is the answer. It is a bunch of pictures of the pages, and evidently with poor gray scale support.

To keep this from happening do not turn on multi-language support. Then you will get a normal book but there doesn't seem to be much control over it. Still have to explore this some more.


Dale

Try this copy please and tell me which one to keep. Thanks.

There is no question. The new one is much better however, the one I did is still better so I think you should concentrate on 02 to ?? instead of repeating 01. This one is way smaller. It uses x-small font instead of the small font that I used and it permits zoom mode to switch to medium font (mine goes to large) which the other one did not support. (This is a preference thing, I happen to like the slightly larger font but others may prefer yours.) Search will work on this one. Links will work on this one. Images are much better although the first image got dithered when you converted it from color. Turn dithering off and use Irfanview to massage the file.

Differences between yours and mine are now subtle. I have curly quotes and apostrophes while you have straight ones. To perform this magic in BookDesigner you can bring up the special characters form and paste a few samples on the page. These can then be copying to the search/replace form to perform the switch. (You can't place the special characters directly in the form so far as I can tell.) It is tedious but I think the books look better afterward. You have to be a bit creative on how you do the search and replace. The only other difference is that I have control over the margins (I tweaked them in a bit) and I have widows and orphans control. I am not sure how to do either of those things in BD but I suspect you would need to create a css entry to do it. The build form for this option could but does not provide for margins.

I am only just learning BD myself but it is very unforgiving and crashes on practically every input file I give it. It seems to have no error checking and if it doesn't like a file it simply crashes instead of providing an error message. I have gotten some files to work so I need to develop expertise on what it does and does not like.

All in all though I think you are on to it.

Dale

Do you have the 07/30.2007 update of BD? That one is very stable. The previous update is the one that seems to crash a bit. I don't have as much control as you do when I use BD. But the good thing is I can generate an LRF, PRC, and IMP from the same source. I have books 2 & 3 formatted which I plan to convert to IMP this weekend.

I've just removed theoriginal version I posted in place of the proper version. Well, as proper as I can get BD to make.

Do you have the 07/30.2007 update of BD? That one is very stable. The previous update is the one that seems to crash a bit. I don't have as much control as you do when I use BD. But the good thing is I can generate an LRF, PRC, and IMP from the same source. I have books 2 & 3 formatted which I plan to convert to IMP this weekend.

I've just removed theoriginal version I posted in place of the proper version. Well, as proper as I can get BD to make.

I downloaded a 5.0 beta I believe from sometime back. I did download the 7/30 updates and compared them with what I had and what I had was just as new. I am not sure how to start over to see if this would make things more stable.

Dale

I downloaded a 5.0 beta I believe from sometime back. I did download the 7/30 updates and compared them with what I had and what I had was just as new. I am not sure how to start over to see if this would make things more stable.

Dale
Just go to the book designer sticky in the Sony Reader contents section. Download 07/30/2007 and update from there. Then you'll definitely have the latest version.

Just go to the book designer sticky in the Sony Reader contents section. Download 07/30/2007 and update from there. Then you'll definitely have the latest version.

Well I finally got that version installed and it seems to be just like what I had before but I still have some testing to do. By the way it was very difficult to upgrade it or remove it. The installation tools would always find some file it didn't like and would go no further. Even the remove said it couldn't find a particular file and would then not proceed to remove any others. Why would it fail trying to remove a file it could not find you ask? Good question but that is the way it works. Go figure. Anyway I finally just erased all of the files manually and then installed from scratch. Did the update you suggested and I am running again, but as I say, it seems about the same unforgiving product I had before.

Does the spell check work for you? For me it crashes the whole program. Perhaps I am missing a dictionary. Please advise.

Dale

Well I finally got that version installed and it seems to be just like what I had before but I still have some testing to do. By the way it was very difficult to upgrade it or remove it. The installation tools would always find some file it didn't like and would go no further. Even the remove said it couldn't find a particular file and would then not proceed to remove any others. Why would it fail trying to remove a file it could not find you ask? Good question but that is the way it works. Go figure. Anyway I finally just erased all of the files manually and then installed from scratch. Did the update you suggested and I am running again, but as I say, it seems about the same unforgiving product I had before.

Does the spell check work for you? For me it crashes the whole program. Perhaps I am missing a dictionary. Please advise.

Dale
It works well here. I'm using Windows XP Pro. Spell check is not a problem. What I did was install 4.0 from the MSI file and then upgrade it with every version along the way. But it should eb the same as using the MSI to install and then using the 07/30/2007 version (posted to the forum) to upgrade. Also, there is a sticky thread for the book cleaner files (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=76715) that you should have a look at.

It works well here. I'm using Windows XP Pro. Spell check is not a problem. What I did was install 4.0 from the MSI file and then upgrade it with every version along the way. But it should eb the same as using the MSI to install and then using the 07/30/2007 version (posted to the forum) to upgrade. Also, there is a sticky thread for the book cleaner files (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=76715) that you should have a look at.

Thanks, I have a lot of learning to do.

Dale

Thanks, I have a lot of learning to do.

Dale

I'm happy to help if you need any. Feel free to ask.

I'm happy to help if you need any. Feel free to ask.

I think I have figured out why my spell checker crashes in BD. It seems to require a copy of Word to work and while I do have a copy installed it is word '97 so it might not be new enough. Another example of coding that assumes everything is perfect or it crashes. I never saw the need to update my word since I use framemaker for all serious work.

Dale

You could do all your cleaning up in Word 97 and then use BD for the final formatting/cleaning up.

You could do all your cleaning up in Word 97 and then use BD for the final formatting/cleaning up.

I have other tools that I prefer for initial cleanup. I haven't had much luck using word as input to other book builders such as mobi and eti. I haven't tried it as an input to BD but I am not happy with BD as a source for imp files anyway. I tried to use it for the last imp file I submitted (the biography of Buffalo Bill) but finally gave up since it wouldn't give me the control I wanted. (I am a nitpicker for quality and visual appeal.) I was able to get curly quotes and other special characters into BD but the font size, widow/orphan control, margins, spacing between paragraphs, and other issues finally made me abandon it for now.

By the way, I happened to find your book on how to use BD in the Sony section. Good job (although you stopped short of the curly quotes issue). That manual needs to be put somewhere where more people other than Sony users can find it. I was only studying BD primarily to honor your request for Melinda's book but now that Fan Fiction has been banned I have no real need to use BD any longer. When I replace my 1150 someday I may revisit that decision.

Dale

I get the curly quotes by loading into Word and doing a replace for all the quotes. Then I replace all the apostrophes as well.

I get the curly quotes by loading into Word and doing a replace for all the quotes. Then I replace all the apostrophes as well.

That is one way. It can also be done directly in BD.

You can use the search and replace dialog to do it.
Use the Insert > Special Symbols to get the curly quotes or whatever you need.
You cannot place these characters directly into the search/replace dialog but you can place them in a document. Place a sample in the document and then copy or cut the sample. Now paste the sample in the search/replace dialog. Don't worry that it may not look ok in the dialog. Just go ahead and perform the substitution and it will be ok.

Dale

How do you get the proper curly quotes for the ending and beginning quotes?

How do you get the proper curly quotes for the ending and beginning quotes?

The hard way. I search/replace for ." - ," - !" - ?" - "space - and sometimes -" or even '" depending on the book contents. This gets the right one and then all the others are left ones.

Single quotes are even harder. I search for space' and "' for the left one and then all the rest are right ones. Except this falls down when the book uses dialects and has words with missing leading characters. If I know it does this I manually fix them after the fact using a search for left ' or sometimes if I know the dialect word beginning I will search and fix it using search and replace.

Sometimes I get lucky on PG books when they use `` and ''

Not easy, have you got a better way? By the way, I am planning to automate this somewhat with a sed script.

Dale

MS Word does it fairly well. And if I see a mistake as I am reading, I'll go back to the source file and fix it. If it's a mistake that will be more then once, I'll fix all of those too. It's not 100% perfect all the time, but it's a lot better then manually replacing.

MS Word does it fairly well. And if I see a mistake as I am reading, I'll go back to the source file and fix it. If it's a mistake that will be more then once, I'll fix all of those too. It's not 100% perfect all the time, but it's a lot better then manually replacing.

I'll give it a try but I hate proof reading in word. Of course I am not really doing it manually but using global replace commands in the editor. It actually goes pretty fast but I am likely to write a sed script one of these days to automate the process. I can also use an emacs macro to get almost the same effect.

Dale

Once you have the quites and apostrophes fixed, you can then move the book to something else to do the proofing.