converting long, somewhat complex docs to eReader

[Richard Maseles]

Hello all. I am preparing word processing docs to convert into eReader format (or at least that is plan A). The first book would be about 400 pages long in manuscript form, would have footnotes (that I can simply put to the bottom of the "page," but I don't intend to paginate in a normal manner-- the text is broken up into chapters, subchapters, and sections) and would have an index that I have built. I understand that eReader will generate a table of contents based on headings, but I'll have to manually hyperlink the index and footnote entries.

Two questions come to mind although I'm sure that others will accrue as well.

1. I'm leaning toward converting to eReader from an HTML document so that the hyperlinks will export and I can also use the HTML version for something else, like Mobi. Has anyone else done this? What was your experience?

2. Has anyone converted a similarly long document to eReader? Was the resulting product stable, or prone to crashing? I see that eReader routinely does novels which are certainly as long as my text, but they may break them up into shorter, more stable chapters. I need this to be one document so that a single index can work for the entire text.

If you think of affiliated questions or issues I didn't mention, please feel free to do so, either in this thread or in an e-mail to me-- my addy is below. I'm posting a separate question regarding DRM and sales through eReader on another thread. I look forward to hearing from you.

Richard Maseles
richard@richardmaseles.com

[llasram]

Originally Posted by Richard Maseles

I'm leaning toward converting to eReader from an HTML document so that the hyperlinks will export and I can also use the HTML version for something else, like Mobi. Has anyone else done this? What was your experience?

I can't speak as a publisher / e-book seller, but from a pure technology standpoint that's the approach I'd recommend. From HTML you can go to every one of the current popular e-book formats. There are two caveats to that though. First, you currently need to use different tools, which will frequently treat the same source content different; I'm working on solving that problem with format support in calibre, but it's still a way off. Second, at this moment in time I think the only tool which can convert from HTML to eReader is OpenOffice.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by llasram

Second, at this moment in time I think the only tool which can convert from HTML to eReader is OpenOffice.

I have never used it, but see Making eReader books with OpenOffice and DropBook. You may not need to convert to HTML first, since Open Office should be able to import your word processing docs. In principle, Calibre can import your ODT file and produce ePub (say) but the needs of DropBook and Calibre may not be identical.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

I have never used it, but see Making eReader books with OpenOffice and DropBook. You may not need to convert to HTML first, since Open Office should be able to import your word processing docs. In principle, Calibre can import your ODT file and produce ePub (say) but the needs of DropBook and Calibre may not be identical.

No longer a need to go off to Teleread for this data. I have placed it in our own wiki where we can tweak it if needed.
Making_eReader_files_using_Open_Office_and_Dropboo k

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Richard Maseles

2. Has anyone converted a similarly long document to eReader? Was the resulting product stable, or prone to crashing? I see that eReader routinely does novels which are certainly as long as my text, but they may break them up into shorter, more stable chapters. I need this to be one document so that a single index can work for the entire text.

I've got an eReader book of a 2,770 page fanfiction novel, 800,000+ words. It had no problems. The .pdb file is slightly over 2mb.

I've never had any problems with very long eReader books. I have a Clié, which is older & slower than the Treos. I don't believe book length matters much at all, although number of links might.