How to find BD 5?

Patricia · 05-16-2007, 02:09 PM

I've managed to find BD4 (via the wiki) but cannot seem to find BD 5 anywhere. Could anyone charitably point me in the right direction?

I expect that I'm missing something very obvious. But please be patient with me. I've only had my sony reader for 6 days and am very new to this. And I'm looking forward to turning my PG downloads into more elegant books.

jimmyzou · 05-16-2007, 02:16 PM

Try this
http://www.the-ebook.org/e107/download.php?view.9

Patricia · 05-16-2007, 03:30 PM

Thank you, Jimmyzou. That's the page I found. It says that it is for BD 4. I downloaded the program and now have three pretty icons for Book Designer 4.0 on my desktop. Yet people on this forum are talking about BD 5, so I would like the most up to date version.

Strether · 05-16-2007, 04:02 PM

The icon on my desktop also identifies it as BD 4, but if you run BD and click on "Help" and select updates, a pop-up will come up that identifies that you really have BD 5 (if you do.)

Jim

Patricia · 05-16-2007, 07:10 PM

Thank you, Jim. I've got it all working properly now.
It was a bit bewildering to find that the icon names didn't match the contents, but you have helped enormously.

This is a very useful forum and I am deeply impressed by the generosity that people show to beginners like me.

Roy White · 05-16-2007, 08:43 PM

Ok.. I too am downloading this version... Does this version need an update? And if so... where is it?

Strether · 05-16-2007, 10:25 PM

Version 5 of BD is dated 3/14/07. There is a reference to a newer version dated 4/12/07 in the BD thread, but when Harry T asked what the features of the newer version were, if he got an answer, it's not in that thread, so I don't know if he downloaded it and is using it for the books he's producing or not. Perhaps he'll answer and we'll both know. I can only say that version 5 works OK for my purposes.

Jim

Bob Russell · 05-16-2007, 11:06 PM

I couldn't resist giving it a go. It works, and it was trivial.

Here's a simple 1-2-3 of what I did...

1) [Assuming you have not already installed the base version of BookDesigner already]
Download the base install program from here:
http://www.the-ebook.org/e107/e107_f...Designer40.zip
(following https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...94&postcount=1)
Unzip the installer program and run it.

2) To update the program, download and unzip into a folder...
http://www.the-ebook.org/e107/download.php?view.9
(following the link from https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...70&postcount=2)

Then copy it into the folder that was created on the original install, and on top of existing files. For me that folder was:
"C:\Program Files\Book Designer 4.0"

It will replace the old files with new versions (so choose to replace all when there are warnings in the copy process).

3) Follow Harry's instructions from
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...55&postcount=1

It's a Word document to download, and it has full instructions on using BookDesigner to create Sony Reader files from PG HTML sources. But I just took the meat and potato pieces and used defaults and it was amazingly fast and easy! I'll learn the fancy formatting, clean up, illustrations and TOC stuff later.

Caution: I'm a newbie to using BookDesigner myself, so this is only what seems to have worked for me, written out by memory as best I could. Hopefully it helps someone, but it don't make any guarantees!

Conclusion:
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!

Nothing but kudos for VVV for an absolutely amazing program. And to Harry for the amazing quick start guide that makes it trivial to get started. Together with my instructions here on the install (until a newer version comes out, at least), maybe it will be accessible to everyone. I wish I hadn't waited so long!

Honestly, having done nothing and basically not having to learn anything, I've created a nice Sony Reader .lrf file. Almost all with default settings and no trouble. It's like a miracle.

For programmers out there who remember structured programming, have you ever written a program by basically decomposing it until there was nothing really left to do, and by the time you finished you wondered how it could possibly be finished because you don't really feel like you did any work? That's what this felt like - everything was set up just right, and of course the hard stuff is all hidden in the program.

I'm ashamed to say that I'm only discovering this for myself (obviously I suspected something special based on all the other accolades), but I'm blown away. What an amazing job, vvv!!!!!

Warning:

Okay, one more point before I quit -- if you only follow the instructions from this post,
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...94&postcount=1
you won't get the Sony Reader option. Apparently that info is a bit outdated.

Unfortunately, I tried that first, and that false step was basically where all my time went. If I had these instructions I probably could have installed the program and created the book in about 15 mins start to finish.

Hope this helps. BD experts, please correct me where I may have got something wrong.

JSWolf · 05-16-2007, 11:51 PM

Bob, great post! You got the info just right for the newbie BD user!

NatCh · 05-17-2007, 12:00 AM

At this stage I'm starting to think a wiki page page might be in order, to hold the base program, and the most recent (maybe a complete history) update could be kept handy, along with the basic install instructions, and of course a link to HarryT's tutorial. Perhaps I'll see about setting something up once I get back from this trip (unless somebody beats me to it in the meantime).

HarryT · 05-17-2007, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strether

Version 5 of BD is dated 3/14/07. There is a reference to a newer version dated 4/12/07 in the BD thread, but when Harry T asked what the features of the newer version were, if he got an answer, it's not in that thread, so I don't know if he downloaded it and is using it for the books he's producing or not. Perhaps he'll answer and we'll both know. I can only say that version 5 works OK for my purposes.

Jim

Yes, I'm using the 12th April version. It seems to have fixed a few things - eg an "&" now displays correctly in a book.

Elltrain · 05-17-2007, 04:24 AM

The only thing I didnt particularly agree with in the word document is the way he changed the italics.

Wouldnt it be a lot easier to do a find/replace with a regex?

Something like finding all instances of _.*_, italicizing, then running through and deleting all of the underscores?

My regexp knowledge is very rusty, and in fact was never too bright to begin with, but it seems to me that automating tedious processes such as this is the whole reason we work with computers!

HarryT · 05-17-2007, 04:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elltrain

The only thing I didnt particularly agree with in the word document is the way he changed the italics.

Wouldnt it be a lot easier to do a find/replace with a regex?

Something like finding all instances of _.*_, italicizing, then running through and deleting all of the underscores?

My regexp knowledge is very rusty, and in fact was never too bright to begin with, but it seems to me that automating tedious processes such as this is the whole reason we work with computers!

Can you elaborate on how this can be done, please? I couldn't find a way, hence the manual method I describe in the tutorial. I'd love to be able to automate the process!

Elltrain · 05-17-2007, 05:24 AM

I am headed to bed right now, but if you could link me to a text I will give it a go tomorrow.

Worst case, I imagine you could export to RTF and run a word macro through it, but since BD supports regexps, I would assume it could be done this way too.

HarryT · 05-17-2007, 05:28 AM

The text I use as an example in the tutorial (there's a hyperlink in the Word doc) would be a good one to use.

05-16-2007, 02:09 PM	#1
Patricia Reader Posts: 11,504 Karma: 8720163 Join Date: May 2007 Location: South Wales, UK Device: Sony PRS-500, PRS-505, Asus EEEpc 4G	How to find BD 5? I've managed to find BD4 (via the wiki) but cannot seem to find BD 5 anywhere. Could anyone charitably point me in the right direction? I expect that I'm missing something very obvious. But please be patient with me. I've only had my sony reader for 6 days and am very new to this. And I'm looking forward to turning my PG downloads into more elegant books.

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05-16-2007, 02:16 PM	#2
jimmyzou Connoisseur Posts: 96 Karma: 11 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Montreal Device: Sony Reader; Kobo; Nook color	Try this http://www.the-ebook.org/e107/download.php?view.9

05-16-2007, 03:30 PM	#3
Patricia Reader Posts: 11,504 Karma: 8720163 Join Date: May 2007 Location: South Wales, UK Device: Sony PRS-500, PRS-505, Asus EEEpc 4G	Thank you, Jimmyzou. That's the page I found. It says that it is for BD 4. I downloaded the program and now have three pretty icons for Book Designer 4.0 on my desktop. Yet people on this forum are talking about BD 5, so I would like the most up to date version.

05-16-2007, 04:02 PM	#4
Strether Guru Posts: 744 Karma: 2825929 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fresno Device: Kindle 1; iPad Air; iPhone 7; Kobo Libra; Kindle Oasis 3	The icon on my desktop also identifies it as BD 4, but if you run BD and click on "Help" and select updates, a pop-up will come up that identifies that you really have BD 5 (if you do.) Jim

05-16-2007, 07:10 PM	#5
Patricia Reader Posts: 11,504 Karma: 8720163 Join Date: May 2007 Location: South Wales, UK Device: Sony PRS-500, PRS-505, Asus EEEpc 4G	Thank you, Jim. I've got it all working properly now. It was a bit bewildering to find that the icon names didn't match the contents, but you have helped enormously. This is a very useful forum and I am deeply impressed by the generosity that people show to beginners like me.

05-16-2007, 08:43 PM	#6
Roy White Evangelist Posts: 482 Karma: 7696 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Turner, Oregon Device: Sony Reader	Ok.. I too am downloading this version... Does this version need an update? And if so... where is it?

05-16-2007, 10:25 PM	#7
Strether Guru Posts: 744 Karma: 2825929 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fresno Device: Kindle 1; iPad Air; iPhone 7; Kobo Libra; Kindle Oasis 3	Version 5 of BD is dated 3/14/07. There is a reference to a newer version dated 4/12/07 in the BD thread, but when Harry T asked what the features of the newer version were, if he got an answer, it's not in that thread, so I don't know if he downloaded it and is using it for the books he's producing or not. Perhaps he'll answer and we'll both know. I can only say that version 5 works OK for my purposes. Jim

05-16-2007, 11:06 PM	#8
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I couldn't resist giving it a go. It works, and it was trivial. Here's a simple 1-2-3 of what I did... 1) [Assuming you have not already installed the base version of BookDesigner already] Download the base install program from here: http://www.the-ebook.org/e107/e107_f...Designer40.zip (following https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...94&postcount=1) Unzip the installer program and run it. 2) To update the program, download and unzip into a folder... http://www.the-ebook.org/e107/download.php?view.9 (following the link from https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...70&postcount=2) Then copy it into the folder that was created on the original install, and on top of existing files. For me that folder was: "C:\Program Files\Book Designer 4.0" It will replace the old files with new versions (so choose to replace all when there are warnings in the copy process). 3) Follow Harry's instructions from https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...55&postcount=1 It's a Word document to download, and it has full instructions on using BookDesigner to create Sony Reader files from PG HTML sources. But I just took the meat and potato pieces and used defaults and it was amazingly fast and easy! I'll learn the fancy formatting, clean up, illustrations and TOC stuff later. Caution: I'm a newbie to using BookDesigner myself, so this is only what seems to have worked for me, written out by memory as best I could. Hopefully it helps someone, but it don't make any guarantees! Conclusion: WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! Nothing but kudos for VVV for an absolutely amazing program. And to Harry for the amazing quick start guide that makes it trivial to get started. Together with my instructions here on the install (until a newer version comes out, at least), maybe it will be accessible to everyone. I wish I hadn't waited so long! Honestly, having done nothing and basically not having to learn anything, I've created a nice Sony Reader .lrf file. Almost all with default settings and no trouble. It's like a miracle. For programmers out there who remember structured programming, have you ever written a program by basically decomposing it until there was nothing really left to do, and by the time you finished you wondered how it could possibly be finished because you don't really feel like you did any work? That's what this felt like - everything was set up just right, and of course the hard stuff is all hidden in the program. I'm ashamed to say that I'm only discovering this for myself (obviously I suspected something special based on all the other accolades), but I'm blown away. What an amazing job, vvv!!!!! Warning: Okay, one more point before I quit -- if you only follow the instructions from this post, https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...94&postcount=1 you won't get the Sony Reader option. Apparently that info is a bit outdated. Unfortunately, I tried that first, and that false step was basically where all my time went. If I had these instructions I probably could have installed the program and created the book in about 15 mins start to finish. Hope this helps. BD experts, please correct me where I may have got something wrong.

05-16-2007, 11:51 PM	#9
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,877 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Bob, great post! You got the info just right for the newbie BD user!

05-17-2007, 12:00 AM	#10
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	At this stage I'm starting to think a wiki page page might be in order, to hold the base program, and the most recent (maybe a complete history) update could be kept handy, along with the basic install instructions, and of course a link to HarryT's tutorial. Perhaps I'll see about setting something up once I get back from this trip (unless somebody beats me to it in the meantime).

05-17-2007, 04:24 AM	#12
Elltrain Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2007	The only thing I didnt particularly agree with in the word document is the way he changed the italics. Wouldnt it be a lot easier to do a find/replace with a regex? Something like finding all instances of _.*_, italicizing, then running through and deleting all of the underscores? My regexp knowledge is very rusty, and in fact was never too bright to begin with, but it seems to me that automating tedious processes such as this is the whole reason we work with computers!

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05-17-2007, 05:24 AM	#14
Elltrain Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2007	I am headed to bed right now, but if you could link me to a text I will give it a go tomorrow. Worst case, I imagine you could export to RTF and run a word macro through it, but since BD supports regexps, I would assume it could be done this way too.

05-17-2007, 05:28 AM	#15
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	The text I use as an example in the tutorial (there's a hyperlink in the Word doc) would be a good one to use.