02-10-2009, 04:12 PM | #1 |
Wizard
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Mobipocket Creator - strangest thing happened.
It will load and convert HTML, PDF, etc. But suddenly, on my machine, it refuses to even load .opf files. Hmmm... I guess I better snag it again and re-install...
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02-10-2009, 08:33 PM | #2 |
You kids get off my lawn!
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Just an off-the-cuff suggestion...have you installed anything recently that "hijacked" the file association? When I installed Mobipocket Creator, I already had the ETI ebook software installed, and MC hijacked my OPF associations aware from the ETI program.
I was able to fix the association, but the file icon still looks like it's tied to MC, not ETI. Anyway, not the same problem, but something similar might be overriding your settings... |
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02-11-2009, 04:00 PM | #3 |
GuteBook/Mobi2IMP Creator
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More Mobipocket Creator weirdness...
I recently upgraded Mobipocket Creator Publisher Edition to v4.2 build 41 from build 40.
I also upgraded my Mobipocket Reader to Version : 6.2 Build 608 from an older build. Now, some html codes for curly quotes and apostrophes are "gone" i.e. so little boxes! I was upgrading my Webster's Dictionary 1913 (ver 2.1) and noticed that the same html code renders differently (see below images) from the ver 2.0 Dictionary I posted earlier. The ver 2.0 ebook appears find in the updated Mobipocket Reader. Here's the Html code (I put a space between the &# and digits so that you can see them) for the "Frequent" dictionary entry: Code:
<idx:entry><p><big><a name="MBP_TOC_E494"><b><idx:orth>Fre&# 180;quent</idx:orth></b></big> , <i>a.</i> [L. <i>frequens</i>, <i>-entis</i>, crowded, frequent, akin to <i>farcire</i> to stuff: cf. F. <i>frequent</i>. Cf. <a href="#MBP_TOC_D014">Farce</a>, <i>n.</i>] <b>1.</b> Often to be met with; happening at short intervals; often repeated or occurring; as <i>frequent</i> visits. &# 180;<i>Frequent</i> feudal towers.&# 180; <i>Byron.</i> <b>2.</b> Addicted to any course of conduct; inclined to indulge in any practice; habitual; persistent. &# 8220;He has been loud and <i>frequent</i> in declaring himself hearty for the government.&# 8221; <i>Swift.</i> <b>3.</b> Full; crowded; thronged. [Obs.] &# 8220;&# 8217;T is Caesar&# 8217;s will to have a <i>frequent</i> senate.&# 8221; <i>B. Jonson.</i> <b>4.</b> Often or commonly reported. [Obs.] &# 8220;&# 8217;T is <i>frequent</i> in the city he hath subdued<br>The Catti and the Daci.” <i>Massinger.</i></p></idx:entry> And, yes, I have installed the ETI software as well, but can deal with that .opf file association problem. Last edited by nrapallo; 02-11-2009 at 05:47 PM. |
02-11-2009, 04:06 PM | #4 | |
book creator
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02-11-2009, 04:24 PM | #5 | |
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Quote:
Mobipocket Creator language setting may have changed from 'en-us' to 'none', but I think Creator must be at fault. Here's a .prc I created from the above HTML code for "Frequent". Can you see if it renders properly on your system (and upload it here/state which build)? Thanks, Georges! |
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02-11-2009, 05:34 PM | #6 |
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Yep, Mobipocket Creator v4.2 build 41 IS the culprit. I found my build 40 installer and now I'm able to properly generate the .prc ebook.
Attached please find both builds 41 (Boo) and 40 (Yeah) created from the above HTML code for "Frequent". Do not install the latest Mobipocket Creator Publisher Edition v4.2 build 41 if you use curly quotes and apostrophes and WANT to see them! |
02-11-2009, 07:32 PM | #7 |
You kids get off my lawn!
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Ah, sounds like I'll keep my "older" versions of Mobipocket, then!
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02-11-2009, 07:51 PM | #8 |
Wizard
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From those HTML entity entries, maybe Mobipocket Creator was set to use UTF-8 instead of Windows-1252 (the usual default)? I have build 41, and haven't had any problems converting from Word, HTML, etc.
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02-11-2009, 08:30 PM | #9 | |
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Quote:
Their solution appears to be a proper use of UTF-8 vs Windows-1252, whatever that is. There was no notice/notifcation of the change in support for curly quotes and such, from build 40 (I was using) to build 41 (current release). Oh, well, a bit more research is now required to see if I can make build 41 behave properly. |
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02-12-2009, 10:53 AM | #10 | |
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Code:
<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> </head> Anyone know what build 41's benefits are? EDIT: I just found the Revision History entry on the About screen. Here's what's new (to April 2008!): Code:
04/02/2008 build 41 Bug Fix: fixed nested ordered list numbering in structured tags. Change: complex unicode ligatures are now always converted. NCX table of contents in IDPF2.0 epub files are now converted. 03/04/2008 build 40 Bug Fix: Creator crashed when margin-left was specified in the CSS but not text-indent. 02/07/2008 build 39 Bug Fix: text was left aligned if margin-left was set to 0em in the CSS. 01/25/2007 build 38 Bug Fix: some files were embedded in the book although not used. Change: removed -jpeg option and added opposite option -gif. Change: mobigen exit code is now standard: 0 for OK, 1 for warning, 2 for error. Change: added text guide item type. 04/05/2007 build 37 Bug fix: missing images files do not create a random image in the ebook anymore. Change: improved PDF conversion. Change: JPEG images are cleaned before building the ebook file. 02/08/2007 build 36 Change: added support for ordered lists. Change: the biggest of the MS image cover guide items is taken as the cover if the embedded cover is not specified. Change: MS image cover guide items are detected and removed. 12/19/2006 build 35 Change: added support for new content output type: application/x-mobipocket-subscription-feed and application/x-mobipocket-subscription-magazine. Bug fix: when importing a Word document, there would sometimes be pieces of text with a wrong font family. Bug fix: when a cover was embedded in the book, the alignments of the cover image records was not enforced. This could cause the Mobipocket Reader to crash on some eBooks on Windows Mobile. Change: source HTML files that are in UTF-8 are now checked. Invalid UTF-8 is refused and not built. Change: reorganized book settings page. Change: in the metadata page, fields that are mandatory to deploy the book are marked with a red star. Change: in the metadata page, added explanations about the subject category and the cover. Change: added tip in the Cover Image page to explain what the cover image is used for. Change: a subject category is now mandatory to deploy a book. 12/07/2006 build 34 Bug fix: <STYLE> tag in an HTML file was not always parsed correctly. Bug fix: messages were not reported anymore during the process of importing a file. Bug fix: messages were not reported anymore during the process of deploying an eBook. Change: added support for JPEG images in the flow of the eBook (this is a setting for now). Change: cover images are now embedded as metadata and not in the flow of the eBook anymore. Covers are converted to JPEG if needed. Change: cover image is now an x-metadata tag instead of a guide item. Change: in the metadata page, the Description and Review field now allow only a subset of HTML. The rest is filtered and transformed when pasting, dropping text, switching edit modes or submitting the metadata. Change: in the metadata page, added explanations for a number of fields plus the expected formatting. Change: in the metadata page, the title length limit is enforced, the date format is enforced, the demo file is checked for size and encryption. Change: in the metadata page, removed the Imprint field which was confusing and mostly useless. Change: in the metadata page, added the Adult checkbox, which is independent from the category. Change: in the deploy page, the demo file is checked for size and encryption. Change: in the deploy page, in case of error, the user is automatically redirected to the correct page (build or metadata). Change: in the deploy page, after deploy is successful, the user is proposed to login to distributor system to activate the book. Change: when deploying a publication, the cover is automatically resized if too big. Change: when a javascript error is detected, the information dialog box also shows the Creator version and Internet Explorer version. All the information can be copied and the "OK" button redirects to the Creator forum. 09/28/2006 build 33 Bug fix: the image conversion would sometimes produce images slightly too big for the maximum record size. This would show a warning about a record being too big for Palm devices. Bug fix: fixed a javascript error at the end of the build when building with DRM encryption 08/31/2006 build 32 Change: removed license mechanism, Creator is free Change: removed eNews creation Change: Creator Home Edition and Creator Publisher Edition are the same software; the edition is selected during install Change: in build page, removed "Send to device" option Change: added a "book type" property in the book settings Bug fix: the link "click here to add a file" in the publication files list when empty would not work Bug fix: clicking on the "Build" button would not kill the emulator so that the building would fail because of a locked file 05/31/2006 build 31 Bug fix: Creator would not run properly on Windows 98 and Windows Me Change: added an image in questions in the Quiz template 05/26/2006 build 30 Bug fix: XSL stylesheet attribute was not properly XML encoded / decoded Bug fix: table of contents plugin would not work when a title contained a ampersand (&) character The title of the table of contents can now be changed in the Table of Contents wizard Added an *.xml filter for supported file types in the manifest Changing the xsl-stylesheet property of an item sets the plugin to "apply-xsl" 05/19/2006 build 29 Bug fix: when building from an HTML file, the first frame of the first frameset was dropped from the publication Metadata now added into Extra Header Data and not to first text record (with some space left for additional metadata) Changed Japanese ordering of small and large versions of hiragana and katakana (they are now ordered as distinct characters) fixed ordering bug in UNICODE index Bug fix in phonetizer (would crash on long words) Better reporting of warnings Added flag in book header to turn off language detection hacks when lang="" attributes are used in the HTML Added new UNICODE ranges to make more characters recognized as non-order-significant punctuation or symbols in indexes General Punctuation Unicode Range has been cut into 2 ranges (General Punctuation - Windows 1252 and General Punctuation - other than Windows 1252) to fine tune the font signature computing The character analyzer does not take into account some spaces and control codes anymore Added missing encoding when adding anchor. It was avoiding internal href links to match correctly sometimes 04/13/2006 build 28 Added *.xhtml in the possible extensions for all types of HTML imports / additions Added Unicode character usage and a font signature in the Mobipocket files Indexes now support non Windows-1252 characters Bug fix: in books that are not dictionaries but that do have a language, the language of indexes was set to neutral. It is now set to the language of the book. When building an eBook, animated GIFs are converted to non-animated GIFs 06/15/2005 build 26 Books in UTF-8 that contain indexes only for internal use (frames, forms, images...) are not built in FFV7 anymore. Added book settings page to edit the encoding, database name, dictionary related settings and ASP advanced settings of the current publication Fixed broken background images with some versions of Internet Explorer Fixed problem with "deploy" toolbar icon with some versions of Internet Explorer When an XML file is selected in the files list, display an "Edit with XML editor" link in the top left corner Language metadata is not case sensitive (the combo selects the right language even if the language metadata in the OPF is not lower case) Added two new standard guide types: "start" and "find" Guide types is now an editable combo After building an eBook, also propose to open the folder of the eBook In metadata, no subject is selected by default so that it can be left empty 05/10/2005 build 25 Bug fix: automatic table of contents creation plugin would cause a build error with file paths containing special characters (spaces for instance) Bug fix: item size would sometimes be wrong for template items containing files Bug fix: updating the cover would not return to the list view page Bug fix: relative paths using ..\ in the item properties page would copy the file in the publication directory if the copy setting was enabled Improved drag and drop and keyboard behavior in the list view page Creator can now handle read-only publications and build them Bug fix with PDF import: some paths would cause the import to fail Improved PDF import: landscape mode is supported, better image support Enforce that a login and password are provided before deploying Enforce that eBook was built using DRM encryption before deploying Added information in the guide page about guide items After building a DRM encrypted ebook, propose to deploy instead of proposing to preview the eBook Recent publications are saved in the XML settings rather than the Windows registry 03/29/2005 build 24 Bug fix: all UTF-8 publications would be built in version FFV7 (requiring Reader 5) Finalized PDF import feature Added import from HTML file 03/15/2005 build 23 Bug fix: all publications with pictures would be built in version FFV5 (requiring Reader 4.8) Added UTF-8 indexes Added deploy feature 12/14/2004 build 22 Bug fix: build would fail if a file appeared multiple times in the spine 11/25/2004 build 21 Bug fix: shielded filter related javascript to avoid javascript errors on some platforms 11/23/2004 build 20 Bug fix: wines template was broken because of encoding (grapes combo was incomplete) 10/11/2004 build 19 Bug fix: repeatable groups would not be restored in the edit view (tables would remain empty) 09/30/2004 build 18 Values and attributes in settings and OPFs file are now properly XML encoded and decoded Bug fix in guide edition, guide items could be saved multiple times Bug fix with eNews Creator registration number verification. Creator registration numbers would not register the eNews Creator properly "Open file" in the Creator now lets users select eNews script files Bug fix for javascript error with Internet Explorer 5.5: Line: 1087, Character: 7, Code: 0, Message: The system cannot locate the resource specified Bug fix for javascript error: Line: 24, Character: 3, Code: 0, Message: 'window.top.main.document' is null or not an object The Creator edition is saved in the registry during self registration Added review, cover and demo PRC as well as distributor IDs in metadata screen The deploy page show all metadata as read only values 09/23/2004 build 17 The back button now has a well defined behavior in all pages All newly created OPF publications now have <package unique-identifier="uid"> and <dc:Identifier id="uid">Random value</dc:Identifier> to be OEB compliant When setting the encoding, a new <output> node could be created in the x-metadata node, so that the encoding setting would not be taken into account The "Check for Product Update" link in the about page now points to a dynamic page that tests the version, edition and build Passwords are now saved in the settings file (in an encrypted form) Subject categories now come from an external XML file. Basic codes are saved in the dc:Subject tag of the OPF Added tool menu to update the subject categories XML file, plus a tool to update the wholesale distributors XML file eBooks built with encryption (content encryption or password encryption) would not work in the Reader When the content in the top left corner of the toolbar was too big (for instance with a long book title) the toolbar would be broken. Now icons always stay in place New icons for common file types 09/17/2004 build 16 Bug fix: output encoding was not retrieved properly and therefore ignored All URLs are properly URL decoded when read and URL encoded when set. URLs in HTML are also HTML decoded / encoded properly when needed Properly parse and convert font-size CSS style (pt px % or em) Removed erroneous "Properties" link in toolbar in template item edition view When a javascript error occurs, display a custom message and continue executing scripts Bug fix: top left corner icon would sometimes be broken with foreign language publication directories The "Table of Contents" submenu in the "View" menu is now disabled for publications based on a template The settings page now changes the toolbar title, subtitle and icon Changed default "Table of Contents" XSL template Added button to edit images in template items 09/14/2004 build 15 Bug fix: file operations would crash on Windows 98 / Me (New document from template would crash; build would also crash) 09/10/2004 build 14 Menus are now enabled or disabled (grayed out) depending on the current context Implemented keyboard shortcuts for build menu items Implemented insert menus and edit -> properties menu Removed menus for non home edition features Resize of images is now bilinear instead of nearest pixel Added help files, Help menus are now functional Added "Online support" and "Online FAQ" in Help menu Removed link to "Find more templates inline" which is not functional Progress bar and progress messages in the build page and the import page do not stall anymore when too many messages are sent Added PDF import Publications based on templates now appear as eDocs in the Mobipocket Reader 09/03/2004 build 12 Integration with eNews Creator: one can launch the eNews Creator from the Creator ASP and XML files cannot be edited with the Creator Home edition (remove editor setting and edit link in the list view page Added Metadata edition page Added Guide edition page 08/27/2004 build 11 If the default directory for publications did not exist, creation of a new publication would fail Default folder for publications in the settings is now My Documents\My Publications Publication names with foreign language characters could cause javascript errors When a publication based on a template was created with a title that used non western characters, these charaters would be transformed in question marks When screen size is too small, Creator window would initially appear partially hidden by the Windows taskbar When creating a new publication, if a publication with the same name already exists, the user is asked to confirm the overwriting of the former OPF file Item fields in templates can now have a default value Bug fix: HTML files modified by the Table of Contents plugin were sometimes converted to UTF16 instead of remaining in their original encoding, which would cause this file to not be parsable anymore Items in repeatable groups can now be reordered (e.g. ingredients in Cocktail Recipe Database template) Added minimal support for CSS pseudo classes. A:link used to be applied to <A name="..."> tags, but it is now only applied to <A href="..."> tags 08/12/2004 build 10 Templates were not listed on the main page under Windows 98 / Windows Me Parsing of HTML for table of contents would create a lot of warnings during build Bug fix: cover page was added as extra content to the first HTML file so that links to this file would point to the cover image instead When loading and saving back an OPF file, the encoding of the file and the initial XML comment are now preserved Templates can now have javascript that works without a registered Pro Reader Drag and drop of files in the publication files view now creates a separate thread and displays a dialog box with a cancel button The Creator now detects an adapted default encoding in the settings for the default language Bug fix: An empty item you be added to repeatable group of items after clicking "Update" in the XOPF item edition page Encryption password is not saved in settings file anymore Launching the emulator after building an eBook would sometimes fail to open the right eBook 07/30/2004 build 9 The generated table of contents has a title A reference is created in the guide for the generated table of contents (A table of contents item appears in the right menu of the Reader) The Creator application has a new icon Size of template items in kilobytes now takes into account files that are linked to the item (images for instance) Bug fix: the preview of a table of contents would sometimes not work properly Bug fix: the preview of an item when the OPF file has never been saved (new publication) would not work properly Word import would create an item in the publication with an absolute path to the converted HTML instead of using a relative path Support for role="date" in templates to fill a field with the date of the file that was dropped (in the photo album, dropping an image in the publication creates an item for which the date is set to the last modification date of the image) Added text import 07/22/2004 build 8 The publication language is set to the default language if it is missing in the metadata All actions to add an file or image in a publication or a template item can now cause the file to be copied to the publication folder and converted if needed By default, all [browse...] buttons open a file dialog either in the publication directory (if a publication is open) or in the OPF default directory (if no publication is open) The CSS attribute "font-family" is now applied 07/21/2004 build 7 Preview of dynamic items works (XML / XSL pair or TOCs) In Table of Contents edition page, the preview link now works Bug fix in template item edition page: a javascript error would occur when restoring the content of repeatable items (tables) Browse button in Word import page now filters *.doc files only Compiled in EBOOK_UNICODE Images can now be put directly in the manifest and spine and appear in the main flow Metadata are properly converted in the publication encoding (accents appear correctly in the final publication title that appears in the left menu in the Reader) Added a "publication files" icon in the publication toolbar One cannot add files of an unrecognized type in a publication One can also use the Mobipocket Reader for PC to preview a built publication When the content is encrypted, one cannot use the emulator to preview The current view setting (list view / thumbnail view) is now saved and restored 07/16/2004 build 6 Bug fix: images would not appear correctly in eBook in certain case Buf fix in installer: start menu links would not be created properly 07/13/2004 build 5 Dramatically improved the speed of images conversion during build Images that are added to the publication and copied (not linked) are converted immediately (instead of being converted during build) 07/09/2004 build 4 Entities are decoded for TOC intermediary XML files (TOC work on HTML with entities) Added setting to copy file to publication directory when adding them Added detection of files already in local publication directory Added detection of files in temporary folders 07/07/2004 build 3 Keyboard shortcuts always work (they used to work only if the main window had the focus) Creator takes the file from the command line (double clicking on an OPF opens it) Word import quits Word application properly Word import can be canceled Removal of items in the list has to be confirmed by user Changed layout of cover image view Changed layout of settings page 07/06/2004 build 2 Word import is in a separate thread (progress bar is updated) Table of Content is shown as an item in the publication files view Table of Contents page changed 07/05/2004 build 1 Initial post OK Last edited by nrapallo; 02-12-2009 at 02:21 PM. Reason: added Revision History blurb for Build 41 and prior... |
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02-25-2009, 11:39 AM | #11 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Quote:
Dale |
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02-25-2009, 12:38 PM | #12 | |
GuteBook/Mobi2IMP Creator
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Quote:
It was found to be exactly the lines that identifiy to browsers which character set is being used stated in the wiki. It's just I didn't know that, until I experimented further with this issue. Thanks, Dale, I've used your Special characters reference listings many, many times. Last edited by nrapallo; 02-25-2009 at 12:40 PM. |
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08-20-2009, 05:43 PM | #13 |
GuteBook/Mobi2IMP Creator
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Mobipocket Creator Publisher Edition v4.2 build 42 - If and When?
With Mobipocket Creator Publisher Edition v4.2 build 41 being the latest Build and it being issued almost one and a half years ago (approx 17 months or exactly 506 days), what are the hopes for a new build 42?
See the attached .pdf for a detailed breakdown of the frequency of builds for this otherwise great software. Sure it has issues, but what software is perfect? However, are we at the end of it's life-cycle? is the Mobipocket format/support becoming stagnant? Why doesn't Amazon.com care? |
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