Reading HTML / Browsing in offline mode

Sheikspeare · 07-31-2009, 12:53 PM

As a Kindle DX user, I'm frankly a bit disappointed with its ability to read HTML or to browse a downloaded website offline.

So I'd like to ask members, How does the iRex DR rate in this regard? If possible, could you please provide images.

Mackx · 08-02-2009, 05:45 AM

The 'native' support of the DR for html is not very good. However extra programs can be installed like FBReader, which has a rather good support for html.
Sorry no photos.

Sheikspeare · 08-02-2009, 07:15 AM

Thanks for sharing this helpful info.

lastgasp · 08-02-2009, 05:30 PM

for offline webpages I was just saving from my browser and reading directly on the irex DR. then I got a little smarter and took a series of pages saved from my browser and create one *.prc file using mobipocket creator. recently I was turned on to http://web2fb2.net/
which I like a lot for quick saves to the DR. It requires FBreader on the DR to open the fb2 file.

I have found the need to save this http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill.../contents.html on the DR. I used HTTrack Website Copier from http://www.httrack.com/ to mirror the site on my hardrive but when the native DR and FBreader both could'nt open it I imported the folder with the mirrored site into a chm creator program and used FBreader to read to open the chm file.

another thing I do when mirroring a site is impractical is use adobe acrobat pro as a web browser appending links that I want ignoring the rest. I then run the resulting pdf through mobipocket creator.

I don't like using my reading glasses. that's why I avoid using pdf's the letters are too small. if you don't have my eyesight problems you could just use acrobat pro as a browser and append any weblinks. then save the pdf to the DR.

with my limited knowledge I have tried to find the quickest way from point A to point B. I just wish for a mobi/epub/fb2 creator application that had a built in browser with an append links feature.

Sheikspeare · 08-02-2009, 07:14 PM

Hi lastgasp

Thanks for this. Some of this is of course useful for other eReaders.

BTW, I recently used a trial version of ABC Amber Text Merger which does a great job of merging a large number of linked HTML files into one HTML doc as well as maintaining internal hyperlinks.

lastgasp · 08-05-2009, 04:09 AM

Thanks! ABC Amber Text Merger is just what I needed. I did tests for hours and came back with some results.

The two output formats to use for the DR1000 are CHM or HTML. I was able to merge many ebook files into one ebook. The native Irex software will not open the CHM. It will open the HTML but links won't work for me.

FBreader will open both CHM and HTML that are exported. Both formats have working links. The HTML must be in a zip file so that the irex software is bypassed in favor of FBreader. For the first time I was glad that the irex software can't access zip files! When loading the HTML FBreader shows working links in a list format at the top of the page. I tested this using a folder (with subfolders) on my hardrive which contained 96 individual stories in HTML format. These were written by Robert E. Howard and are freely available from the gutenberg.org australia website. Looking at the resulting HTML on the DR1000 using FBreader's pagebar it says that the HTML file is over 2000 "pages" long.

For the CHM with FBreader I use the TOC icon to access a collapsible "topics" list containing all 96 stories. ABC Amber Text Merger creates CHM's which by default groups 5 stories into CHM "topics" each one labeled "part1" "part2" etc. So right now the TOC shows 20 "topics" . Each topic can be expanded to show the five stories within. I like CHM better than the HTML in a case like this because when I start reading a story the page number at the bottom relates only to that particular story. So for "tower of the elephant" the pagebar at the bottom of FBreader say 28 pages not 2000+.

I did a lot more tests using other input formats besides html's. RTF , TXT and DOC for example. some files worked some didn't.

I know that all this has been slightly off-topic from Reading HTML / Browsing in offline mode. But not so much since I used HTML for most of my test. Also attention could be focused on ABC Amber ScrapBook Converter. ScrapBook is a Firefox extension describe on it's homepage like this:

"ScrapBook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and manage the collection. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support. Major features are:
Save Web page
Save snippet of Web page
Save Web site (In-depth Capture)
Organize the collection in the same way as Bookmarks
Highlighter, Eraser and various page editing features
Full text search and quick filtering search
Text edit feature resembling Opera's Notes"

I formerly used Firefox and ScrapBook. That was long ago before I switched to the Opera browser. ScrapBook's "Highlighter, Eraser and various page editing features" were great back when I used them. If "ScrapBook Converter" can correctly convert Scrapbook data into CHM that are as good as those exported by "Text Merger" than Hallalujah. I want to save HTML's for later and those editing features are perfect for trimming out the junk.

It's easy to be skeptical though because I tested some other stuff by ABC Amber and got bad/weird results. For example using ABC Amber Text Converter to batch create CHM's resulted in CHM ebooks in which every page was a "topic" and going to the next pages can only be done using the FBreader TOC icon. I then tried ABC Amber Text Merger on the same file and it worked fine.

Finally I would like to inform anyone with an EZreader that I tested the HTML's exported by Text Merger on that device and it worked wonderfully.

Sheikspeare · 08-05-2009, 06:57 PM

Hi lastgap

It's great to read about your results. Any ideas on how to get an HTML website into mobipocket? I've tried mobipocket creator and got mangled results.

lastgasp · 08-07-2009, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheikspeare

Hi lastgap

It's great to read about your results. Any ideas on how to get an HTML website into mobipocket? I've tried mobipocket creator and got mangled results.

I'm not sure what you mean by "into mobipocket". Assuming you mean convert to *.mobi/*prc format then yeah mobipocket creator does mess up sometimes. Calibre does a good of converting saved HTML to *.mobi. Unless I screw up there should be an attachment to this comment with a rar file containing 4 conversion of this link http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600921h.html

The Fb2 and epub files are made using http://web2fb2.net/ which is now my prefered way of quickly collecting websites for offline viewing on my DR1000. I think it safe to say that it's basically a case of garbage in/garbage out.

I haven't yet tested ABC Amber ScrapBook Converter. I will try it though because I don't want to just rely on web2fb2.net.

lastgasp · 08-07-2009, 05:34 AM

After trying to make ABC Amber ScrapBook Converter work without success I discovered this http://mybyways.net/Documents/scrapindexer.htm . ScrapIndexer 1.0.0 combined with the Firefox extension called Scrapbook http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/?lang=en is so far the easiest way I can find of reading offline webpages on the DR1000 and EZ reader.

Except for ScrapIndexer all this works also for Mac and linux users. I test the pages exported by the the scrapbook extention without creating a CHM on the DR1000 and they worked fine.

ExtraSF · 08-25-2009, 01:57 PM

Hi everybody, i'm a new user from Portugal who just got a DR1000.

I've got only the basic software on the Digital Reader and I've been
triying to use ScrapIndexer to comfortably read Web Pages on the Irex(saved using Scrapbook) -> sadly, whenever i open the Main Index page created by ScrapIndexer, instead of the web page what i get is the "Web Page" source code

(using the PC there is no problem).

Are there any settings on ScrapIndexer that could solve the problem - HTML is
not really fully supported by the reader.Right?

Is there any other software ( even commercial ) that gives good results for
offline reading of saved web pages?

Any help would be welcome.Thank You.

pthwaite · 08-25-2009, 02:09 PM

I think the FBReader supports html. Install that and try. Or use Calibre to manage and convert to Mobi.

There haven't been any browsers ported to the DR yet, though I'm sure irex will do so as they were, at one time, developing a wireless version. There are a few others in the forum thinking of trying to port a browser too.

Dennisvjames · 10-20-2009, 12:01 AM

I am lookingfor a software program that automatically gathers blogs and inserts the info in an epub. Anything like that out there?

07-31-2009, 12:53 PM	#1
Sheikspeare Groupie Posts: 181 Karma: 290 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: PR-505 / Kindle DX	Reading HTML / Browsing in offline mode As a Kindle DX user, I'm frankly a bit disappointed with its ability to read HTML or to browse a downloaded website offline. So I'd like to ask members, How does the iRex DR rate in this regard? If possible, could you please provide images.

08-25-2009, 01:57 PM	#10
ExtraSF ExtraSolar Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Portugal(Lisbon) Device: Kobo Glo	Scrapbook/ScrapIndexer/DR1000 Hi everybody, i'm a new user from Portugal who just got a DR1000. I've got only the basic software on the Digital Reader and I've been triying to use ScrapIndexer to comfortably read Web Pages on the Irex(saved using Scrapbook) -> sadly, whenever i open the Main Index page created by ScrapIndexer, instead of the web page what i get is the "Web Page" source code (using the PC there is no problem). Are there any settings on ScrapIndexer that could solve the problem - HTML is not really fully supported by the reader.Right? Is there any other software ( even commercial ) that gives good results for offline reading of saved web pages? Any help would be welcome.Thank You.

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08-02-2009, 05:45 AM	#2
Mackx Guru Posts: 999 Karma: 19985 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Netherlands Device: iRex DR1000S	The 'native' support of the DR for html is not very good. However extra programs can be installed like FBReader, which has a rather good support for html. Sorry no photos.

08-02-2009, 07:15 AM	#3
Sheikspeare Groupie Posts: 181 Karma: 290 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: PR-505 / Kindle DX	Thanks for sharing this helpful info.

08-02-2009, 05:30 PM	#4
lastgasp Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: iRex DR1000 Hanvon N516 Bebook NEO	for offline webpages I was just saving from my browser and reading directly on the irex DR. then I got a little smarter and took a series of pages saved from my browser and create one *.prc file using mobipocket creator. recently I was turned on to http://web2fb2.net/ which I like a lot for quick saves to the DR. It requires FBreader on the DR to open the fb2 file. I have found the need to save this http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill.../contents.html on the DR. I used HTTrack Website Copier from http://www.httrack.com/ to mirror the site on my hardrive but when the native DR and FBreader both could'nt open it I imported the folder with the mirrored site into a chm creator program and used FBreader to read to open the chm file. another thing I do when mirroring a site is impractical is use adobe acrobat pro as a web browser appending links that I want ignoring the rest. I then run the resulting pdf through mobipocket creator. I don't like using my reading glasses. that's why I avoid using pdf's the letters are too small. if you don't have my eyesight problems you could just use acrobat pro as a browser and append any weblinks. then save the pdf to the DR. with my limited knowledge I have tried to find the quickest way from point A to point B. I just wish for a mobi/epub/fb2 creator application that had a built in browser with an append links feature.

08-02-2009, 07:14 PM	#5
Sheikspeare Groupie Posts: 181 Karma: 290 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: PR-505 / Kindle DX	Hi lastgasp Thanks for this. Some of this is of course useful for other eReaders. BTW, I recently used a trial version of ABC Amber Text Merger which does a great job of merging a large number of linked HTML files into one HTML doc as well as maintaining internal hyperlinks.

08-05-2009, 04:09 AM	#6
lastgasp Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: iRex DR1000 Hanvon N516 Bebook NEO	Thanks! ABC Amber Text Merger is just what I needed. I did tests for hours and came back with some results. The two output formats to use for the DR1000 are CHM or HTML. I was able to merge many ebook files into one ebook. The native Irex software will not open the CHM. It will open the HTML but links won't work for me. FBreader will open both CHM and HTML that are exported. Both formats have working links. The HTML must be in a zip file so that the irex software is bypassed in favor of FBreader. For the first time I was glad that the irex software can't access zip files! When loading the HTML FBreader shows working links in a list format at the top of the page. I tested this using a folder (with subfolders) on my hardrive which contained 96 individual stories in HTML format. These were written by Robert E. Howard and are freely available from the gutenberg.org australia website. Looking at the resulting HTML on the DR1000 using FBreader's pagebar it says that the HTML file is over 2000 "pages" long. For the CHM with FBreader I use the TOC icon to access a collapsible "topics" list containing all 96 stories. ABC Amber Text Merger creates CHM's which by default groups 5 stories into CHM "topics" each one labeled "part1" "part2" etc. So right now the TOC shows 20 "topics" . Each topic can be expanded to show the five stories within. I like CHM better than the HTML in a case like this because when I start reading a story the page number at the bottom relates only to that particular story. So for "tower of the elephant" the pagebar at the bottom of FBreader say 28 pages not 2000+. I did a lot more tests using other input formats besides html's. RTF , TXT and DOC for example. some files worked some didn't. I know that all this has been slightly off-topic from Reading HTML / Browsing in offline mode. But not so much since I used HTML for most of my test. Also attention could be focused on ABC Amber ScrapBook Converter. ScrapBook is a Firefox extension describe on it's homepage like this: "ScrapBook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and manage the collection. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support. Major features are: Save Web page Save snippet of Web page Save Web site (In-depth Capture) Organize the collection in the same way as Bookmarks Highlighter, Eraser and various page editing features Full text search and quick filtering search Text edit feature resembling Opera's Notes" I formerly used Firefox and ScrapBook. That was long ago before I switched to the Opera browser. ScrapBook's "Highlighter, Eraser and various page editing features" were great back when I used them. If "ScrapBook Converter" can correctly convert Scrapbook data into CHM that are as good as those exported by "Text Merger" than Hallalujah. I want to save HTML's for later and those editing features are perfect for trimming out the junk. It's easy to be skeptical though because I tested some other stuff by ABC Amber and got bad/weird results. For example using ABC Amber Text Converter to batch create CHM's resulted in CHM ebooks in which every page was a "topic" and going to the next pages can only be done using the FBreader TOC icon. I then tried ABC Amber Text Merger on the same file and it worked fine. Finally I would like to inform anyone with an EZreader that I tested the HTML's exported by Text Merger on that device and it worked wonderfully.

08-05-2009, 06:57 PM	#7
Sheikspeare Groupie Posts: 181 Karma: 290 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: PR-505 / Kindle DX	Hi lastgap It's great to read about your results. Any ideas on how to get an HTML website into mobipocket? I've tried mobipocket creator and got mangled results.

08-07-2009, 05:34 AM	#9
lastgasp Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: iRex DR1000 Hanvon N516 Bebook NEO	After trying to make ABC Amber ScrapBook Converter work without success I discovered this http://mybyways.net/Documents/scrapindexer.htm . ScrapIndexer 1.0.0 combined with the Firefox extension called Scrapbook http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/?lang=en is so far the easiest way I can find of reading offline webpages on the DR1000 and EZ reader. Except for ScrapIndexer all this works also for Mac and linux users. I test the pages exported by the the scrapbook extention without creating a CHM on the DR1000 and they worked fine.

08-25-2009, 02:09 PM	#11
pthwaite Fanatic Posts: 597 Karma: 430 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Ellesmere Port, UK Device: DR1000S Sony PRS505 iPad iPhone	I think the FBReader supports html. Install that and try. Or use Calibre to manage and convert to Mobi. There haven't been any browsers ported to the DR yet, though I'm sure irex will do so as they were, at one time, developing a wireless version. There are a few others in the forum thinking of trying to port a browser too.

10-20-2009, 12:01 AM	#12
Dennisvjames Enthusiast Posts: 40 Karma: 42 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: Jetbook	I am lookingfor a software program that automatically gathers blogs and inserts the info in an epub. Anything like that out there?

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