Book Designer/MobiPocket Creator

Jules · 07-14-2008, 10:30 AM

I am trying to follow Harry T's tutorial on book designer, because I want to eventually use mobipocket creator to change my book to kindle format. Harry's tutorial says to go to this address http://www.gutenberg.org to download the file of the book you want. The book I want cannot be found. Does this mean I can't use book designer then? If I can't use book designer, does that mean I can't use mobipocket creator? Please help

mores · 07-14-2008, 11:13 AM

crossposting is a big no-no !

Jules · 07-14-2008, 11:16 AM

What do I need to do in order to get a book ready to use mobi pocket creator?

vivaldirules · 07-14-2008, 11:25 AM

Jules, if you'll start with the two tutorials that Harry T posted as Sticky threads here, you'll find the first one (Book Creation Tutorials) suggests what formats your starting text should be in and then describes how to use BookDesigner to make an ebook. The second one (Tutorial - How to Create a MobiPocket ebook) tells you how to take a BookDesigner file into a MobiPocket ebook using Mobipocket Creator. If those don't answer your questions, ask again here. There are other places to find texts that you can use to create ebooks with besides Project Gutenberg. But if it's not in the public domain, then you won't be able to do so legally for others and so you won't be able to post them here.

wallcraft · 07-14-2008, 11:33 AM

The BookDesigner step is required if you want a nicely formatted ebook from a source that isn't so well formatted. If your ebook is already "good enough" then you can go directly to the MobiPocket Creator step. This program will import several formats, but if you have a choice HTML or OEB (HTML plus an .opf file) is best. I suggest trying this on an example ebook.

Jules · 07-14-2008, 11:59 AM

The problem with Harry's Book Creation Tutorial which basically tells you how to use book designer, is that the images in his tutorial of what book designer is supposed to look like is not what my version of book designer looks like at all. He has a whole menu with File, Edit, Tools etc. My version has none of that which makes it impossible to use. Maybe this info would help. I work at a publishing company, and I want to take a book that we have already published and be able to convert it to kindle format. I have a pdf of the book that was made for the book printer. I can covert that into a ms word doc, (the layout is completely screwed up) and I can import the word doc into mobipocket creator, which it then converts to html, but I don't know if that is going to fix the layout, or if I need to use book designer or something else to get the layout right before importing it into mobipocket creator. I'm sorry if I am sound stupid, but I am so frustrated.

HarryT · 07-14-2008, 12:03 PM

Have you installed Book Designer correctly? You need to first install BD 4 using its installation program, and the unzip the BD 5 update on top of it, overwriting the BD 4 files with the same name.

Jules · 07-14-2008, 12:17 PM

i installed book designer 4, but how do i unzip the update on top of it?

HarryT · 07-14-2008, 12:35 PM

Unzip the update file into whatever directory you've installed BD4 into.

Jules · 07-14-2008, 12:57 PM

I extracted the update files into the same folder that the downloads were in, but it didn't replace them. The original file is called book designer 4.0. the update is called book designer.exe. When i open this, it looks right, but do i have to use the exe file everytime i want to use book designer?

slayda · 07-14-2008, 03:12 PM

If you are doing your own book, which it sounds like you are, BookDesigner (BD) will not really help you get it formated correctly any better than a product like Microsoft Word (or Open Word which is free to download).

If you are familiar with MS Word then use it to properly format your book and save it as either a .DOC or an HTML file. Either of these can be opened by Mobipocket Creator.

BD gives you more options for a variety of formats and once you have it working correctly is very useful but not any more useful than MS Word for creating an HTML file given an appropriate starting format.

07-14-2008, 10:30 AM	#1
Jules Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts Device: Kindle	Book Designer/MobiPocket Creator I am trying to follow Harry T's tutorial on book designer, because I want to eventually use mobipocket creator to change my book to kindle format. Harry's tutorial says to go to this address http://www.gutenberg.org to download the file of the book you want. The book I want cannot be found. Does this mean I can't use book designer then? If I can't use book designer, does that mean I can't use mobipocket creator? Please help

07-14-2008, 11:16 AM	#3
Jules Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts Device: Kindle	Mobi Pocket Creator What do I need to do in order to get a book ready to use mobi pocket creator?

07-14-2008, 11:25 AM	#4
vivaldirules When's Doughnut Day? Posts: 10,059 Karma: 13675475 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Houston, TX, US Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad	Jules, if you'll start with the two tutorials that Harry T posted as Sticky threads here, you'll find the first one (Book Creation Tutorials) suggests what formats your starting text should be in and then describes how to use BookDesigner to make an ebook. The second one (Tutorial - How to Create a MobiPocket ebook) tells you how to take a BookDesigner file into a MobiPocket ebook using Mobipocket Creator. If those don't answer your questions, ask again here. There are other places to find texts that you can use to create ebooks with besides Project Gutenberg. But if it's not in the public domain, then you won't be able to do so legally for others and so you won't be able to post them here. Last edited by vivaldirules; 07-14-2008 at 11:28 AM.

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07-14-2008, 11:13 AM	#2
mores Guru Posts: 834 Karma: 102419 Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Vienna, Austria Device: iPhone	crossposting is a big no-no !

07-14-2008, 11:33 AM	#5
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	The BookDesigner step is required if you want a nicely formatted ebook from a source that isn't so well formatted. If your ebook is already "good enough" then you can go directly to the MobiPocket Creator step. This program will import several formats, but if you have a choice HTML or OEB (HTML plus an .opf file) is best. I suggest trying this on an example ebook.

07-14-2008, 11:59 AM	#6
Jules Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts Device: Kindle	The problem with Harry's Book Creation Tutorial which basically tells you how to use book designer, is that the images in his tutorial of what book designer is supposed to look like is not what my version of book designer looks like at all. He has a whole menu with File, Edit, Tools etc. My version has none of that which makes it impossible to use. Maybe this info would help. I work at a publishing company, and I want to take a book that we have already published and be able to convert it to kindle format. I have a pdf of the book that was made for the book printer. I can covert that into a ms word doc, (the layout is completely screwed up) and I can import the word doc into mobipocket creator, which it then converts to html, but I don't know if that is going to fix the layout, or if I need to use book designer or something else to get the layout right before importing it into mobipocket creator. I'm sorry if I am sound stupid, but I am so frustrated.

07-14-2008, 12:03 PM	#7
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Have you installed Book Designer correctly? You need to first install BD 4 using its installation program, and the unzip the BD 5 update on top of it, overwriting the BD 4 files with the same name.

07-14-2008, 12:17 PM	#8
Jules Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts Device: Kindle	i installed book designer 4, but how do i unzip the update on top of it?

07-14-2008, 12:35 PM	#9
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Unzip the update file into whatever directory you've installed BD4 into.

07-14-2008, 12:57 PM	#10
Jules Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts Device: Kindle	I extracted the update files into the same folder that the downloads were in, but it didn't replace them. The original file is called book designer 4.0. the update is called book designer.exe. When i open this, it looks right, but do i have to use the exe file everytime i want to use book designer?

07-14-2008, 03:12 PM	#11
slayda Retired & reading more! Posts: 2,764 Karma: 1884247 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Alabama, USA Device: Kindle 1, iPad Air 2, iPhone 6S+, Kobo Aura One	If you are doing your own book, which it sounds like you are, BookDesigner (BD) will not really help you get it formated correctly any better than a product like Microsoft Word (or Open Word which is free to download). If you are familiar with MS Word then use it to properly format your book and save it as either a .DOC or an HTML file. Either of these can be opened by Mobipocket Creator. BD gives you more options for a variety of formats and once you have it working correctly is very useful but not any more useful than MS Word for creating an HTML file given an appropriate starting format.

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