Mobipocket Formatting

dwbryant2000 · 03-21-2009, 04:19 PM

When I use the creator to convert ebooks I seem to lose all formatting. Any Ideas what I am doing wrong?

Nate the great · 03-21-2009, 04:24 PM

What are you converting from (doc, html, rtf)? Would you mind posting a sample?

dwbryant2000 · 03-21-2009, 04:35 PM

Mostly I use MS word to convert from. Usually lose both the indentation and any Itallics.

Omar_Mobi · 03-23-2009, 12:26 AM

Hi guys

Not only that, but tables, pictures all are missed.

I like the idea of reading from my IPAQ but, no formatting is really hard, specially if the book is teaching you.

And the format i'm using to convert to mobi is .pdf

mtravellerh · 03-23-2009, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omar_Mobi

Hi guys

Not only that, but tables, pictures all are missed.

I like the idea of reading from my IPAQ but, no formatting is really hard, specially if the book is teaching you.

And the format i'm using to convert to mobi is .pdf

Geez, PDF is the worst format to convert from. Sorry to have to break it to you like that, but when converting directly from PDF without manual formatting you'll have to live with all formatting gone or, worse, formatting in all the wrong places. So convert from PDF to text or html, restore the formatting where it belongs, then convert to Mobi.

Omar_Mobi · 03-24-2009, 12:18 AM

mtravellerh

If what you are saying is going to solve the problem, I don't mind how you broke it.

I'll try & give you feed back once finished

Idoine · 03-26-2009, 05:06 PM

I tried some .doc conversion too, and it didn't go well.
So now I save my doc files into html, and convert the html instead !
Goes a lot better !

PS : Plus Html can be converted via Calibre too, if Mobipocket Creator doesn't do the trick.

thorn · 04-10-2009, 11:18 AM

the horrors of pdf formatting are getting really old, and i've only had my kindle for a month.

lately, calibre's doing something weird with my pdf's. i don't *think* they are 2-column pages, but calibre's somehow interweaving lines anyway. Looks fine on the surface, then turns out to be impossible to read, because each line is part one line, part another. i don't think this is calibre's problem; imagine mobipocket will do the same thing; will test tonight. i'd love to figure out the perfect formula for 'flowing' pdf columns into block text..

i am frustrated, because i have huge amounts of reading to do for school, and a day-job thingy, and am blowing significant reading time on the train with these impossible files. my hopes were a little too high that my kindle would be useful for this kind of thing, i guess. but i *don't* want to revert to reading this stuff on my ipod touch. (ow, my aching head..)

does anyone know whether this is being worked on? and - why, oh why, doesn't amazon care about meeeee ?

wallcraft · 04-10-2009, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thorn

lately, calibre's doing something weird with my pdf's. i don't *think* they are 2-column pages, but calibre's somehow interweaving lines anyway. Looks fine on the surface, then turns out to be impossible to read, because each line is part one line, part another. i don't think this is calibre's problem; imagine mobipocket will do the same thing; will test tonight. i'd love to figure out the perfect formula for 'flowing' pdf columns into block text.

I suggest posting in the Calibre forum. A recent thread that might be of interest is Regexes to improve pdf to epub conversion. These changes are not in the released version of Calibre yet, but you could ask in that thread if your PDFs will work. A public domain PDF could be posted in that thread, but for other PDFs you would be better off making a ticket at Calibre's web site and attaching it there. It is a grey area, but I typically assume that posting a document for the purposes of bug-fixing is fair use (but choose the most sharable one you have with the problem, and if you have software to extract a few pages from the PDF that is even better).

thorn · 04-10-2009, 10:24 PM

i kind of pestered the nice calibre man yesterday and the day before about something else.. but your suggestion is a very good ont.

i'd have asked kovid about this issue right off the bat, but was figuring that mobipocket creator would have the same issue. my last bad conversion was bad coming out of both calibre and mobipocket creator. but, this time the mobipocket creator conversion came out far better.

i'm beginning to predict the death of the pdf -- although i could be exaggerating. even if it should survive, the 'portable' part of that is proving to be not so portable..

in the meantime, i've got a bunch of pdf's to run through the mobipocket creator-grinder..

thanks for the excellent idea.

03-21-2009, 04:19 PM	#1
dwbryant2000 Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Arkansas, USA Device: ebookwise 1150, Gen 3, BEBOOK, ILIAD BOOK READER	Mobipocket Formatting When I use the creator to convert ebooks I seem to lose all formatting. Any Ideas what I am doing wrong?

03-26-2009, 05:06 PM	#7
Idoine Which book will be next ? Posts: 661 Karma: 2172 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: France Device: Cybook Gen3 1.5, Sony PRS 600 RC, Samsung Omnia...	I tried some .doc conversion too, and it didn't go well. So now I save my doc files into html, and convert the html instead ! Goes a lot better ! PS : Plus Html can be converted via Calibre too, if Mobipocket Creator doesn't do the trick. Last edited by Idoine; 03-26-2009 at 05:09 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
[KOBO] Strip existing formatting to apply my own default formatting to all books	digital_steve	Calibre	2	08-10-2010 06:34 PM
Calibre and FORMATTING how to stop it altering my formatting?	nerys	Calibre	37	07-23-2010 02:35 AM
Calibre and FORMATTING how to stop it altering my formatting?	nerys	Calibre	0	02-28-2010 04:51 PM
line formatting formatting question	daesdaemar	Workshop	9	02-06-2009 11:47 AM
Mobipocket Reader 4.8 and Mobipocket eNews Creator	Mobipocket	Reading and Management	1	01-29-2004 08:03 AM

03-21-2009, 04:24 PM	#2
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	What are you converting from (doc, html, rtf)? Would you mind posting a sample?

03-21-2009, 04:35 PM	#3
dwbryant2000 Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Arkansas, USA Device: ebookwise 1150, Gen 3, BEBOOK, ILIAD BOOK READER	Mostly I use MS word to convert from. Usually lose both the indentation and any Itallics.

03-23-2009, 12:26 AM	#4
Omar_Mobi Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: IPAQ	Hi guys Not only that, but tables, pictures all are missed. I like the idea of reading from my IPAQ but, no formatting is really hard, specially if the book is teaching you. And the format i'm using to convert to mobi is .pdf

03-24-2009, 12:18 AM	#6
Omar_Mobi Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: IPAQ	mtravellerh If what you are saying is going to solve the problem, I don't mind how you broke it. I'll try & give you feed back once finished

04-10-2009, 11:18 AM	#8
thorn Connoisseur Posts: 91 Karma: 7940 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: currently: ipod touch	the horrors of pdf formatting are getting really old, and i've only had my kindle for a month. lately, calibre's doing something weird with my pdf's. i don't think they are 2-column pages, but calibre's somehow interweaving lines anyway. Looks fine on the surface, then turns out to be impossible to read, because each line is part one line, part another. i don't think this is calibre's problem; imagine mobipocket will do the same thing; will test tonight. i'd love to figure out the perfect formula for 'flowing' pdf columns into block text.. i am frustrated, because i have huge amounts of reading to do for school, and a day-job thingy, and am blowing significant reading time on the train with these impossible files. my hopes were a little too high that my kindle would be useful for this kind of thing, i guess. but i don't want to revert to reading this stuff on my ipod touch. (ow, my aching head..) does anyone know whether this is being worked on? and - why, oh why, doesn't amazon care about meeeee ?

04-10-2009, 10:24 PM	#10
thorn Connoisseur Posts: 91 Karma: 7940 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: currently: ipod touch	i kind of pestered the nice calibre man yesterday and the day before about something else.. but your suggestion is a very good ont. i'd have asked kovid about this issue right off the bat, but was figuring that mobipocket creator would have the same issue. my last bad conversion was bad coming out of both calibre and mobipocket creator. but, this time the mobipocket creator conversion came out far better. i'm beginning to predict the death of the pdf -- although i could be exaggerating. even if it should survive, the 'portable' part of that is proving to be not so portable.. in the meantime, i've got a bunch of pdf's to run through the mobipocket creator-grinder.. thanks for the excellent idea.

Advert

Advert