Conversion Problem

tonyt · 06-13-2009, 06:48 AM

Hi all
I have a real problem. I have a book in RTF which has a carriage return at the end of EVERY line! It is also formatted to 60 characters per line!!
I have tried all sorts of ways of getting it into Calibre in some useable form. All attempts a disaster!!!
Can anyone out there offer a crumb of comfort?
Thanks

PS What is the longest Calibre has spent SUCCESSFULLY converting a book for you?

Jellby · 06-13-2009, 07:21 AM

Does it have anything to mark paragraphs (indent, blank line...)? You could probably use some kind of regexp to remove the hard breaks.

tonyt · 06-13-2009, 07:30 AM

Many thanks for a swift reply!
No paragraph markers or spaces - just one long piece of text! What is a regexp?

Jellby · 06-13-2009, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonyt

Many thanks for a swift reply!
No paragraph markers or spaces - just one long piece of text!

Then I don't think you could do much... unless you manually read the whole text and insert paragraph breaks where they are needed

Quote:

What is a regexp?

Regular expressions. It's a kind of advanced search & replace. With regexps you can find, for instance, "any line ending with any number of spaces and not followed by an empty line".

slantybard · 06-13-2009, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonyt

Hi all
I have a real problem. I have a book in RTF which has a carriage return at the end of EVERY line! It is also formatted to 60 characters per line!!
I have tried all sorts of ways of getting it into Calibre in some useable form. All attempts a disaster!!!
Can anyone out there offer a crumb of comfort?
Thanks

PS What is the longest Calibre has spent SUCCESSFULLY converting a book for you?

In the past with very roughly formatted txt or rtf files, I have found that opening up the file in MS Word (or similar word processors with good search and replace) and then using the find and replace to remove the hard returns. In MS Word for example, the line breaks are searchable using "^l" (without the quotes). However, just doing this will remove all the carriage returns and you will not have any paragraphs left.

In this case, the paragraphs may be saved if there are 2 or more carriage returns at the end of the paragraph. If so, then find and replace "^l^l" with "^p^p", then use "^l" with " " (a blank space), and finally "^p^p" with "^p"

This will replace all the paragraph ends and save them temporarily, then change out all the carriage returns, and finally fix the paragraph ends properly.

Let me know if that works for you.

chorpler · 06-13-2009, 05:04 PM

There are sometimes a few tricks you can try with files like that. If you send me a copy, I'll try to see if I can get it into a better format, or tell you what kind of things might work with it.

06-13-2009, 06:48 AM	#1
tonyt Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: none	Conversion Problem Hi all I have a real problem. I have a book in RTF which has a carriage return at the end of EVERY line! It is also formatted to 60 characters per line!! I have tried all sorts of ways of getting it into Calibre in some useable form. All attempts a disaster!!! Can anyone out there offer a crumb of comfort? Thanks PS What is the longest Calibre has spent SUCCESSFULLY converting a book for you?

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06-13-2009, 07:21 AM	#2
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,516 Karma: 18512745 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	Does it have anything to mark paragraphs (indent, blank line...)? You could probably use some kind of regexp to remove the hard breaks.

06-13-2009, 07:30 AM	#3
tonyt Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: none	Many thanks for a swift reply! No paragraph markers or spaces - just one long piece of text! What is a regexp?

06-13-2009, 05:04 PM	#6
chorpler Zealot Posts: 128 Karma: 278 Join Date: Jun 2008 Device: Kindle; PRS-500; MobiPocket on Windows Mobile	There are sometimes a few tricks you can try with files like that. If you send me a copy, I'll try to see if I can get it into a better format, or tell you what kind of things might work with it.

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