[BookCat]

You really need to ask at the Calibre part of the forum. Calibre can convert pdf to lrf and makes a better job if there are no diagrams etc in the pdf, however the flow can be hit and miss. Sometimes you get strange breaks in the middle of a paragraph.
You don't need to convert to text first.
Go over to the Calibre section, my use of the software is very basic.

In the early days some people had firmware updates so that the 500 and 505 handled epubs better. But epubs convert very well with Calibre. You have to send your ereader to Sony to have this done, and I've got a feeling that they no longer provide this service.

An alternative to the above mentioned methods: instead of downloading the fan-fiction as pdf, why don't you copy and paste into Notepad, then, using a 505 template (easily created) copy and paste from Notepad into the template in Word, saving this as an rtf.

To create the template, set up a Word document of 9cm wide by 12.3cm long. Set the margins for about 1cm or less. Format first line indents for paragraphs. Under "properties" name this '505 template' (without the apostrophes) and save as a template.

When you need it, just look at the taskpane (if new versions of Word still have it) and you'll find it listed. Open it and paste your fanfiction into it. Select all, set the font at around 18pt, name the book in "properties" (otherwise the title won't appear in the ereader) and save as name of book or story. Always save as rtf, not doc or docx.

I really like doing it this way as it displays well on the 505. However, it WON'T display graphics. For that you'll need to use Calibre. See the Calibre experts.

Hope this wasn't too confusing!