BookCreator Tool v3.5

[=X=]

Thank you Patricia/Bob

I've started a WIKI page for BookCreator, it's located here
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/BookCreator

I've not updated external links to point to BC yet until I get the page looking nicer. I'm not a control freak so if others wish to update the WIKI page please feel free to do so.

=X=

[Patricia]

That's very nice so far, =X=.

Incidentally, I've been experimenting. One doesn't necessarily need Calibre for the conversions to LRF or mobi (though this is likely to be very efficient). After running the macros, one can also put the resulting text into Book Designer if one so wishes.

[Ortep]

Nice Wiki.

Everybody seems to work in a different way. I tried BookDesigner as Patricia said. I couldn't even start it. It was impossible for me to install on several different systems.

So I use BookCreator and after I'm finished I save it as striped HTML (It would be nice if there was a button for this) This HTML file I feed to Mobipocket Creator. That gives me the advantage that all books are in some kind of database on my PC. The resulting mobifile goes to my Cybook. I keep the HTML file also as a backup and a way to recreate when needed.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Patricia

That's very nice so far, =X=.

It's a WIP, there still some previous posts and other items I'd like to add

Originally Posted by Patricia

Incidentally, I've been experimenting. One doesn't necessarily need Calibre

No you are correct, you can cut-n-paste the text or save the MSWord document as a HTML file then import it to BD.

But for now calibre is required to create an LRF withing BookCreator. ( I really like the fact that clicking a button creates an LRF and copies it to my PRS-505.)

I suppose with some effort BookCreator could use the same LRF parser BD uses to create an LRF. I guess the question is do you prefer using BD for crating an LRF or do you prefer the LRF created by BD?

Originally Posted by Ortep

Nice Wiki.

So I use BookCreator and after I'm finished I save it as striped HTML (It would be nice if there was a button for this)

That is why MSWord is such a great tool. It is very easy to add this feature yourself.
Or you can do a file "Save As..." and save it as an HTML.

I'm trying to keep my buttons down, but if I can get a 'Second' vote I'll add it to the next release.

=X=

[Roberts324]

Originally Posted by =X=

Thank you Patricia/Bob

I've started a WIKI page for BookCreator, it's located here
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/BookCreator
=X=

Nice, however it does not solve my problem, which is that no book is created. I just tested anew a few minutes ago. Here goes:

I have Word 2007 installed, that I use for translatiing American novels to French. Here is what I do:

I double click the Bookcreator.dot, which opens word on an empty file

I import a text file, which has a title and author's name at the top.

Then I click "IMP". A window opens, where I eventually correct author name and title, file name, Publisher and Category. I mouse to the directory where I want the imp file to reside.

Then I set the Path to Impbuild.exe (latest version of Impserve available, v 0.8) by mousing to its actual position in c:\program files\ebookutils\impbuild.exe. I validate the EB1150 radio button.

Finally I click the "Create" button.

When I look for the file where the imp file should have been created, it is not there.

Am I doing anything wrong? Could someone check this is not broken?

Thanks in advance!

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by =X=

Or you can do a file "Save As..." and save it as an HTML.

I'm trying to keep my buttons down, but if I can get a 'Second' vote I'll add it to the next release.

=X=

Yep..that is what I do "Save As". No button is no problem. If you add a button for every request you'll probably end up with 567 different buttons

[=X=]

@Roberts324
It looks like your doing everything correct. Can you validate "impbuild.exe" is working properly. Imbuild has a dependency on ePublisher.

Try this command from the command line. The only part you might have to fix is the location of "impbuild.exe"

"c:\program files\ebookutils\impbuild.exe" --out-dir="." --name="TrueNames.imp" --title="True Names" --author="Cory Doctorow" --1150  "Cory_TrueNames.html"

With the attached file (unzip the HTML file)

[wallcraft]

I have just come across Publish eBook, a word macro for creating eReader ebooks. It has been mentioned on MobileRead several times, for example Using Publish eBook to Create PalmDoc Books. I wonder if this simplifies adding eReader as an output option to BookCreator.

[Roberts324]

Originally Posted by =X=

Try this command from the command line. The only part you might have to fix is the location of "impbuild.exe"

"c:\program files\ebookutils\impbuild.exe" --out-dir="." --name="TrueNames.imp" --title="True Names" --author="Cory Doctorow" --1150  "Cory_TrueNames.html"

With the attached file (unzip the HTML file)

Thank you, X. I filed the html into the ebookutils directory and ran the above command line in it. It did not work, and I got the following results:

Microsoft Windows XP [version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Program Files\ebookutils>"c:\program files\ebookutils\impbuild.exe" --out-dir
="." --name="TrueNames.imp" --title="True Names" --author="Cory Doctorow" --1150
"Cory_TrueNames.html"

Execution failed at src/impbuild.c:234 while attempting to execute
dhPutValue(impProject, L".ConvertToJPEG = %b", TO_BOOL(image_conv))

Member: .ConvertToJPEG = %b
Function: PutValue
Error In: InvokeArray
Error: Object doesn't support this property or method: 'ConvertToJPEG'
Code: 80020006
Source: IDispatch Interface

C:\Program Files\ebookutils>

Impbuild is version 0.8

[=X=]

@Roberts324
It looks like impbuild was not properly installed. impbuild (eBookutils) requires ePublisher (link) to work. I'd recommend heading over to the eBookutils (link) if installing ePublisher does not work.

@wallcraft
Thank you for the link. If the developers of calibre/mobiperl/eBookUtils where not so active in supporting and enhancing their tools. I would look into building these files myself. However by just calling these tools I can focus on making BC a better tool and not worry about the headaches of having to convert Word files to each book type.

Again thanks for the link. If support for eBookUtils ever drops I have fall back solution.

EDIT: I thought more about my post and realized that "Publish eBook" did fit in the mold I defined above, (instead of me calling an external executable like (html2lrf), I would just call internal macro's to create the eBook). Well unfortunately the author has the macros password protected. I looks like I won't be able to integrate the tool.

=X=

[mjh215]

After a week of fooling around with BC I have to say it really works great. I do have to problems I've been having trying to build an IMP file though.

• There is a '> tag being left directly before the page break preceeding a chapter title
• Em-dashes are showing as ?'s in the completed IMP. I tried searching and don't know if this is an issue with IMP or just a glitch in the conversion.

I haven't tackled curly quotes yet, I wanted to get basic formatting down first. Every other formatting issue I've solved either using BC's tools, Notepad++ or Word's own Search and Replace.

-MJ

PS I also tried an LRF and that came through beautifully...

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by mjh215

Em-dashes are showing as ?'s in the completed IMP. I tried searching and don't know if this is an issue with IMP or just a glitch in the conversion.

this may be a weakness of the imp format ; it does not have very good charset support and many special characters do not display correctly (although it seems to me it can display dashes... so that might be a conversion issue). you can check this thread for more info about imps and special characters.

also, for reference, here and here are a couple of useful books about the imp format.

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by mjh215

After a week of fooling around with BC I have to say it really works great. I do have to problems I've been having trying to build an IMP file though.

• There is a '> tag being left directly before the page break preceeding a chapter title
• Em-dashes are showing as ?'s in the completed IMP. I tried searching and don't know if this is an issue with IMP or just a glitch in the conversion.

I haven't tackled curly quotes yet, I wanted to get basic formatting down first. Every other formatting issue I've solved either using BC's tools, Notepad++ or Word's own Search and Replace.

-MJ

PS I also tried an LRF and that came through beautifully...

Any character that shows up with a '?' in the resulting .imp can usually be "fixed" if converted to a HTML code like &emdash; for — . While there are legal HTML codes that don't have a corresponding .imp character, most do or can be represented by similar existing characters. For example; ½ ("& frac12;") is 'one-half', but can easily be represented by <small>1/2</small>. Now all this needs your resulting conversion to be in .html form which may or may not be a problem for BC.

pssst: If all else fails, try replacing an emdash with hex code 0xD1 (or decimal 209) and see if that works in the .imp ebook! You heard it here first!

[Sonist]

I may be overlooking something really obvious, but how do you get rid of all the page breaks in a document?

I thought I could do it before in MS Mac Office with Replace, but I can't find anything like that in the new Word, and I don't see a macro for it in BookCreator.

I have a PDF which I exported to Word, tweaked the formatting a bit with BookCreator, but it has some code which creates vast empty spaces on a bunch of pages - it seems like forced page-breaks to me. Is there an easy way to reflow this, without losing my spacing before chapters and paragraphs?

[Roberts324]

Originally Posted by =X=

@Roberts324
It looks like impbuild was not properly installed. impbuild (eBookutils) requires ePublisher (link) to work. I'd recommend heading over to the eBookutils (link) if installing ePublisher does not work.
=X=

Many thanks, X, but it worked. But tell me: how many times did I have to reinstall this f(ine) software?

Now I have to test drive BC. I'll let you know.

@Nick: nice to see you again!