1. If you did not install the main program, download and install it
http://www.the-ebook.org/e107/e107_files/downloads/bd/BookDesigner40.zip
2. Download and unpack to Program Files/ Book Designer 4.0 directory the iLiad update
http://www.the-ebook.org/e107/e107_files/downloads/bd/Bd_Update_2006_09_13.zip

Notes
1. To run iLiad module: Make eBooks -> iLiad
2. It is recommended to make pdf files.
3. Despite of html and text creation options are activated it is not recommended to use them because the corresponding iLiad viewers are quite weak. But if you will, bear in mind the following things:
- html. If your book language is not English, choose "Times New Roman" font.
- text. Do not use it to make non-English books.

I tried it now for the first book - and it works just like expected.

Thank you for doing this.

Okay...I just tried the software and must say i'm very disappointed. I couldn't get it to make a proper file for my Iliad. It did a very good job of converting my PDF to HTML, then it automatically created a headline where no headline belonged...welll...I could switch that off...but the problem was, that it just wouldn't make an output file that fit the screen of the Iliad.

I set my options, left all the margins on 0, didn't change anything concerning the Size, but it gives me lots of margins on the Iliad and the line-spacing is much too small (maybe I can change that...). So, I'm back to OpenOffice that gives me better output with less hassle at the moment. Of course, the Program itself is very nice, and the ability to easily convert several formats to "Iliad-PDF" is very nice, at the moment it doesn't seem to work well enough for me to justify dumping my trusted old OpenOffice method.

Also, the fact that it needs MS-Word is a bit of a bother...I had to install both PDFCreator and MS Word to run the program which is a bit of a bother, espcecially as Word is not free...maye something can be done here to support OpenOffice?

Keep up the good work, we are all very happy that somebody is trying to make converting files for the Iliad easier for us!

linespacing is a parameter you can change. it's 80% by default, that's not enough.

and, well, the margins. That's right.

Thanks vvv! I had a quick test. I found it very easy to create nice looking pdf or htm files, which fit my iliad!

A very good feature is that the screen is used to its full extent. With htm lines wrap to screen, when scaling up! :happy2:

Files convert well to text files. I did only some testing with import formats to avoid edit need of the imported data. The only thing I haven't managed so far is to get embedded pictures with my files. If I can find a way to do this, this program is a very nice tool indeed! :nice:

I'll continue with testing on weekend.

Enclosed a sligtly unsharp shot of a first result.

Importing Word rtf files work best for me - no reformating needed and pictures are included! :)

so you get the big margins too...doesn't anybody else think this is an issue?

I would...

But I have a nice little template in openoffice which works happily for me so I don't need to try (and would need to buy word anyway)

so you get the big margins too...doesn't anybody else think this is an issue?

I especially dislike big top&bottom margins.

I would...

But I have a nice little template in openoffice which works happily for me so I don't need to try (and would need to buy word anyway)

Would you mind sharing that with us? :shy:

so you get the big margins too...doesn't anybody else think this is an issue?

I can live with the margins, which you see on the pictures. Sometimes it produces very big margins for reasons I don't understand.. With html there are no margins (here I would like to have 2-3 mm - with borders I get it). However I dislike the that with html the page turn is not very exact - last line shows up on next page. Embedded pictures have so far not transfered to html. I'm sure these issues can be fixed.

It is not perfect yet, but certainly an interesting approach.

Importing to a Iliad template, often doing some adjustments and printing directly to pdf is the direct other option, which work pretty well as well.

With a summary that I get I found the BookDesigner to be quite convenient.

Anyway I hope we get full screen mode soon to me this is even bigger issue than margins :wink:

i think i figured out what the problem is: the page size of the produced pdf is 11,69*8,26 inch, that means the page is slimmer then the recommended 5*4 by a factor of 1,13.

The format would be right for an iliad without status bar, though.

Unfortunately there seems to be no option to set the page size.

I think DHer is on the right track.

Anyway look at the inclosed picture of the html transformation. No margins.

This file has a border line left and right - so I get small "margins" on left and right. Font may be scaled. Top and bottem lines are cut. The cut lines can be read on previous and next page. So a part of the content shows up twice. With exact page turns and included embedded pictures this format would be perfect?! :thinking:

There's a difference between pdf and html viewing on the iliad.

PDFs are rendered as static pages and scaled so they fit completely on the screen. If the aspect ratio is wrong, you get white margins.

The html viewer is just the gecko engine you know from firefox, embedded using the minimo browser. You can't really *flip* the page, you just scroll down the amount resembling a little bit less then one page. I believe you understand why there are no white margins, except you force them with borders.

But you're right, with some polish the html viewer might be the best choice as document viewer at the moment.

Thanks for the info! :)

PS: There are many ways to produce HTML files. Is there a best way to do it for Iliad supported format?

I set my options, left all the margins on 0, didn't change anything concerning the Size, but it gives me lots of margins on the Iliad
Additional margins appear due to MS Word bug (or feature) which rounds the custom page size to the nearest standard one. I am looking for the way to fix it. But if I will not be able to fix it, I will add Open Office to the "pdf printer" list, and everything will be ok.

But you're right, with some polish the html viewer might be the best choice as document viewer at the moment.

Personally I've found that if I set the media size correctly, select my favorite font (Tiresias) and use Pages on my Mac I get excellent results. Pages break in predictable or forced places of my choosing (chapters begin on new pages) and the flip rate isn't any slower than the HTML. Plus I don't have all the headaches with a PDF that I have with HTML to put all the iLiad stuff into the HTML and produce a manifest.xml.

I appreciate the Librie's ability to re-size fonts on the fly but you know? The pages breaks get all silly on you when you use that feature. Some times there is no substitute for using a proper tool to reflow the document when you change something manifest like the primary font size. :)

And a web browser is not an ebook reader. But with a few whacks upside its code base minimo might become more like MS Reader...

I appreciate the Librie's ability to re-size fonts on the fly but you know? The pages breaks get all silly on you when you use that feature. Some times there is no substitute for using a proper tool to reflow the document when you change something manifest like the primary font size. :)

There is a fundamental error in Librie (lrf) format: the pages are defined as static objects instead of to be dynamic ones. Such an approach is ok for comics (it was the initial idea of lrf-format) but it is not suitable for e-books. So, if you want a nice-looking e-book, all the pages have to be pre-parsed for chosen font sizes (as it is done in BookDesigner Librie module, modes "simple" and "advanced"). But in this case you cannot change the Librie magnification because the formatting is static.
On the other side, an e-book can be made without pre-parsing. In this case the magnification option will work properly but the page breaks can occur at any place.
In general, all these lrf problems are due to the only reason: they tried to invent a pdf-like format. But because such a format type is not suitable for e-books, the above problems appear.