Formatting looks off on txt and rtf files

Crono · 10-03-2006, 10:12 AM

Hi All,

I'm playing around with the Reader and so far it's working great. I'm still playing with the pdf's (they come out small) but the txt and rtf files come out nice and legible.

There's one thing I noticed though that doesn't bother me but I'm just curious about. I'll take a book scan in text format. The formatting looks fine (all the paragraphs and spaces are in the right place) in Word. When I load it onto the Reader the formatting comes out different. This is extremely hard for me to describe so I'll try to demonstate.

Here is a paragrapgh I took from Wikipedia describing Starship Troopers:

The first-person narrative is about a young Filipino soldier named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit equipped with powered armor. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an insectoid species known as "the Bugs." Through Rico's eyes, Heinlein examines moral and philosophical aspects of suffrage, civic virtue, necessity of war, capital punishment, and juvenile delinquency.

If I load it on the Reader it comes out like this:

The first-person narrative is about a young Filipino
soldier named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit equipped with powered armor.
Rico's military career progresses from recruit to
non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between
mankind and an insectoid species known as "the Bugs." Through Rico's eyes, Heinlein examines moral and philosophical aspects of
suffrage, civic virtue, necessity of war, capital punishment, and juvenile delinquency.

See how the sentence gets cut off and goes to the next line all of a sudden? I hope I explained this clear enough. I'm horrible at this.

This happens in rtf format as well. Do I have to play around with the Page Layout settings? I know where that is in Word but would anyone know where I can find this in OpenOffice?

Thanks for your time all.

-C

Slava · 10-03-2006, 10:30 AM

Try these settings

Margins: 0.25" for all
Page size: Custom 5.24" x 6.69"
Font size: 12-16 (Depends on font)

Here is how it looks in Word (and it looks beautiful in Reader)

CCDMan · 10-03-2006, 10:31 AM

Do you see the same thing with rtf files made for ebooks (such as the BAEN books in rtf)? Do they have to be processed in Word?

I expect my reader (and dock!) today - I will be curious to see this as many of my books will be BAEN rtf.....

Slava · 10-03-2006, 10:37 AM

I have not tried any BAEN books yet. Can do that tonight, but by that time you'll probably will get your reader and try it yourself

Crono · 10-03-2006, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slava

Try these settings

Margins: 0.25" for all
Page size: Custom 5.24" x 6.69"
Font size: 12-16 (Depends on font)

Here is how it looks in Words (and it looks beautiful in Reader)

Thanks Slava! I'll try it when I get home tonight.

slayda · 10-03-2006, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crono

This happens in rtf format as well.

-C

Crono,
Does this happen with rtf files you create by typing the text yourself. Sometimes copied text contains "soft returns" at the end of the original lines when you copy text. I know this happens when copying email messages.

Crono · 10-03-2006, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slayda

Crono,
Does this happen with rtf files you create by typing the text yourself. Sometimes copied text contains "soft returns" at the end of the original lines when you copy text. I know this happens when copying email messages.

To be honest I have never tried that. I was trying to do all of this this morning before work so I'd have something to read at lunch.

I can test this when I get home. Good suggestion!

-C

Mohit25 · 10-03-2006, 07:57 PM

The formatting is still off for me - I changed the margins on MS Word and saved it as an RTF but the text in the reader still reads thus:

AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD EEEE FFFF GGGG EEEE AAAA
AAAA BBBB
AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD EEEE FFFF GGGG EEEE AAAA

Any ideas ?

Crono · 10-03-2006, 10:02 PM

Mohit,

It's the same deal with me as well. Right now it's still readable but I would like to fix this.

I'll continue to play around with the settings and be sure to post once I find a solution.

Mohit25 · 10-03-2006, 10:37 PM

Thanks, Crono. You're right - it's not as bad as it seems on the LCD screen where it would be unreadable but it would be nice to get a fix eventually !

gbdesai · 10-03-2006, 10:52 PM

With a lot of my RTF files I am getting an immediate error from my reader that shows a triangle with exclamation mark inside and the text "Invalid Page!" below it. At that point all the books on the 1GB SD card no longer show up on the reader until I pop the card and put it back. TXT files seem to work fine. Ideas?

Crono · 10-03-2006, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gbdesai

With a lot of my RTF files I am getting an immediate error from my reader that shows a triangle with exclamation mark inside and the text "Invalid Page!" below it. At that point all the books on the 1GB SD card no longer show up on the reader until I pop the card and put it back. TXT files seem to work fine. Ideas?

Create a new rtf file from scratch and transfer it to the Reader. Does it open? If so, there's a problem with those files. I had a similar occurrence with an RTF file that had some type of funky formatting on the table of contents page. It would totally lock up the Reader. I had to reset the device in order to use it again. I went back and deleted that page and the rtf worked.

Basically, try to look for any wierd formatting issues. Try changing the file to text and try that as well.

-C

gbdesai · 10-03-2006, 11:44 PM

Thanks for the ideas, trying now...

Curry Udon · 10-04-2006, 12:49 AM

I don't really have anything new to add, just wanted to state that I also am having a lot of formatting issues.

I currently have a bunch of ebooks in .rtf and .txt but a lot of them display all wacky on the Sony.

-Hard return paragraph spacing is not correct or does not exist at all
-Justification is off in some areas
-Word wrap is not working correctly or appearing when it should not
-Page breaks are not occuring in the correct places
-Some text is garbled and or corrupted

Doing manual editing of margins and font sizes somewhats alieviates the problem. Although, the dream of just dragging and dropping my existing ebooks onto this device is not a reality. Sigh.. Oh well.

Crono · 10-04-2006, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curry Udon

I don't really have anything new to add, just wanted to state that I also am having a lot of formatting issues.

I currently have a bunch of ebooks in .rtf and .txt but a lot of them display all wacky on the Sony.

-Hard return paragraph spacing is not correct or does not exist at all
-Justification is off in some areas
-Word wrap is not working correctly or appearing when it should not
-Page breaks are not occuring in the correct places
-Some text is garbled and or corrupted

Doing manual editing of margins and font sizes somewhats alieviates the problem. Although, the dream of just dragging and dropping my existing ebooks onto this device is not a reality. Sigh.. Oh well.

Those are the exact words I was looking for when I tried to describe my problem. I knew I was bad at this.

The funny thing is Curry that I have a couple of rtf's that format fine. It's even more confusing because the rtf's that I have been playing with are straight conversions from *.lit files. I thoguht that by starting off on the same ground I could see exactly where the problem was coming from. No dice.

I'm at a loss right now but I'll continue to work at it. The text right now is perfectly readable. I'm amazed at how much faster I can get through a book compared to a standard paperback. Setting this up so the text is formatted correctly every time would be icing on the cake.

10-03-2006, 10:12 AM	#1
Crono Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006	Formatting looks off on txt and rtf files Hi All, I'm playing around with the Reader and so far it's working great. I'm still playing with the pdf's (they come out small) but the txt and rtf files come out nice and legible. There's one thing I noticed though that doesn't bother me but I'm just curious about. I'll take a book scan in text format. The formatting looks fine (all the paragraphs and spaces are in the right place) in Word. When I load it onto the Reader the formatting comes out different. This is extremely hard for me to describe so I'll try to demonstate. Here is a paragrapgh I took from Wikipedia describing Starship Troopers: The first-person narrative is about a young Filipino soldier named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit equipped with powered armor. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an insectoid species known as "the Bugs." Through Rico's eyes, Heinlein examines moral and philosophical aspects of suffrage, civic virtue, necessity of war, capital punishment, and juvenile delinquency. If I load it on the Reader it comes out like this: The first-person narrative is about a young Filipino soldier named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit equipped with powered armor. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an insectoid species known as "the Bugs." Through Rico's eyes, Heinlein examines moral and philosophical aspects of suffrage, civic virtue, necessity of war, capital punishment, and juvenile delinquency. See how the sentence gets cut off and goes to the next line all of a sudden? I hope I explained this clear enough. I'm horrible at this. This happens in rtf format as well. Do I have to play around with the Page Layout settings? I know where that is in Word but would anyone know where I can find this in OpenOffice? Thanks for your time all. -C

10-03-2006, 10:30 AM	#2
Slava Addict Posts: 285 Karma: 129 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New England Device: PRS-500 · iPad · K3	Try these settings Margins: 0.25" for all Page size: Custom 5.24" x 6.69" Font size: 12-16 (Depends on font) Here is how it looks in Word (and it looks beautiful in Reader) Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Slava; 10-03-2006 at 10:58 AM.

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10-03-2006, 10:31 AM	#3
CCDMan *** Posts: 335 Karma: 5759 Join Date: Mar 2006 Device: ***	Do you see the same thing with rtf files made for ebooks (such as the BAEN books in rtf)? Do they have to be processed in Word? I expect my reader (and dock!) today - I will be curious to see this as many of my books will be BAEN rtf.....

10-03-2006, 10:37 AM	#4
Slava Addict Posts: 285 Karma: 129 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New England Device: PRS-500 · iPad · K3	I have not tried any BAEN books yet. Can do that tonight, but by that time you'll probably will get your reader and try it yourself

10-03-2006, 07:57 PM	#8
Mohit25 Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: Sony Reader	The formatting is still off for me - I changed the margins on MS Word and saved it as an RTF but the text in the reader still reads thus: AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD EEEE FFFF GGGG EEEE AAAA AAAA BBBB AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD EEEE FFFF GGGG EEEE AAAA Any ideas ?

10-03-2006, 10:02 PM	#9
Crono Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006	Mohit, It's the same deal with me as well. Right now it's still readable but I would like to fix this. I'll continue to play around with the settings and be sure to post once I find a solution.

10-03-2006, 10:37 PM	#10
Mohit25 Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: Sony Reader	Thanks, Crono. You're right - it's not as bad as it seems on the LCD screen where it would be unreadable but it would be nice to get a fix eventually !

10-03-2006, 10:52 PM	#11
gbdesai Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006 Device: Sony PRS-500	With a lot of my RTF files I am getting an immediate error from my reader that shows a triangle with exclamation mark inside and the text "Invalid Page!" below it. At that point all the books on the 1GB SD card no longer show up on the reader until I pop the card and put it back. TXT files seem to work fine. Ideas?

10-03-2006, 11:44 PM	#13
gbdesai Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006 Device: Sony PRS-500	Thanks for the ideas, trying now...

10-04-2006, 12:49 AM	#14
Curry Udon Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 26 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: S.F., CA. Device: PRS-500	I don't really have anything new to add, just wanted to state that I also am having a lot of formatting issues. I currently have a bunch of ebooks in .rtf and .txt but a lot of them display all wacky on the Sony. -Hard return paragraph spacing is not correct or does not exist at all -Justification is off in some areas -Word wrap is not working correctly or appearing when it should not -Page breaks are not occuring in the correct places -Some text is garbled and or corrupted Doing manual editing of margins and font sizes somewhats alieviates the problem. Although, the dream of just dragging and dropping my existing ebooks onto this device is not a reality. Sigh.. Oh well.

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