BookCreator Tool v3.0

[=X=]

Hi All,
The current version of BookCreator 3.0 now works with calibre 0.6

New Features:

• Combined eBook Creation dialog to just one.
• Added support for eReader, PDF, ePUB, LIT,
• More styles.
• Batch creation of eBooks.
• Works with Calibre .6+

Requirements

• Windows XP or later
• MS Word 2003 or later
• Calibre 0.6 or later
• eBook Technologies (www.ebooktechnologies.com) only for IMP support.

New v 3.0: See post for more detail

NOTE: WHICH BookCreator to download

The IMP enhancements have created a dependency on existence of having ePublisher installed even for users who do not plan on building IMP files. This issue will get resolved on future versions but for now there are two workarounds.
1) Install ePublisher from their site (download link)

If you do not wish to have IMP support and do not want to install ePublisher download the template that has the BookCreator_v3.0_NO-IMP.zip

BookCreator.dot
Is an eBook creator tool. This tool is an MS Word template with VBScript code, the tools is designed to optimize and simplifying the book creation process.
Since this tool is an MS Word template, one can take advantage of all of the editing rich features provided by MS Word for editing and creating an eBook. In addition the template provides a set of editing tools, formatting features, and Styles to simplify the eBook creation process.

Examples below
I've converted two books from beginning to end with this tool.
"Call of the wild", by Jack London
"Laws of Success Lession 3" by Napoleon Hill

The "Call of the Wild" took me 5min tops to create from beginning to end. That is pulling down the data from Project Gutenberg to a Final LRF. In the past this process would have taken me on an average of 1/2 hour per PG book.

The "Law of Success Lesson 3" took me 1/2 hour this includes the whole time spent. From converting it from a PDF to the final product LRF. Prior to BookCreator.dot this same file took me 4 hours to convert a PDF to LRF.


Features

• Updates BookTilte/Author properties with one button click
• Inserts a Table of Content with one button click
• Chapter detection one button click
• Smart Word Wrap fix
• Page Break one button click
• Default Styles (Title/Sub Title/Verse/etc..)
• Remove extra paragraph breaks.
• Text Editing tools
  • Fixed em-dash (converts -- to em-dash)
  • Italic converter, converts txt with underscore _My Text_ to italics
  • Smart Italic converter, converts txt in ALL CAPS to italics (only converts "_1 Text" styled fonts)
  • Removes leading white space
  • Converts ASCII carriage return and/or line feeds to Microsoft Word paragraph type. This elevates some of the edit problem that arises when editing.
• LRF: Create an LRF eBook (Requires calibre )
• ePUB: Create ePUB (Requires calibre)
• IMP: Create IMP eBooks (Requires ePublisher)
• MOBI: Create MOBI eBooks (requires calibre)
• LIT: Create LIT eBooks (requires calibre)
• PDB: Create eReader (PDB) eBooks (requires calibre)
• PDF: Create PDF eBooks (requires calibre)
  
  • Save directly to your ereader (SONY/Kindle/Pocket Pro) just add the correct path (Device must support USB mass storage)

Creating eBooks from an MSWord Document

Since BookCreator now creates (LRF/ePUB/MOBI/IMP) from the GUI the conversion section was removed and reposted see "Converting a MSWord document" for additional ways to convert BookCreator to an eBook.

LATEST VERSION
BookCreator_v3.0.zip
History
BookCreator_v2.6.1.zip (246.0 KB, 1199 views)
BookCreator_v2.5.2.zip (226.1 KB, 460 views)

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[Madam Broshkina]

I just used this tool to create an LRF version of Richard Herley's The Stone Arrow. I like the program and give it two thumbs up.

[Ortep]

It sounds great.

But can you explain how to use it? I understand you can use it for the (re)formatting of eBooks in a form that Word can read so you can create a good looking eBook from the result

I'm not really good with Word, I double clicked the file and a new document opened with buttons indicating the various functions. But as soon as I try to open a file I'd like to edit, I end up with no buttons at all. I'm sure I'm doing something stupid, but what?

[shighfield]

Ortep: Import>File. When you open the template with the tools showing, now import your book and it will work the way you expect it too. I'm not really good with word either, but that did it for me yesterday, and I must admit this template is really REALLY nice.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Ortep

It sounds great.

But can you explain how to use it? I understand you can use it for the (re)formatting of eBooks in a form that Word can read so you can create a good looking eBook from the result

Hi Ortep,
Great question, my assumption for writing the tool in Word was that everyone knows how to use Word. And you know what they say when one "assume".

Okay so getting to your question. There are two ways to get the template to work with your desired text.

Method 1: Copy and Paste:
Is the easiest, you double click on the BookCreator.dot file and a new document opens up. Then you cut and paste the text you want to edit in the document. Typically I have my web browser up to with the target book I want to edit, another word document that I am editing.
The real drawback here is if the document is huge, I'm talking about book pages that equate to several thousand pages, or lots of graphs. Then this methods will not be optimal

Method 2: Import File
shighfield solution is way better than my original method 2 so I'm updating it with his solution. (Thank you shighfield)

1)Double click on the BookCreatot.dot Template
2) Select menu option "Inset|File..."
3) Find you document and Select the <Open> button.


=X=

[=X=]

BTW to all Do not use the "_AUTHOR" and "_BOOK TITLE" style directly. Use the Toolbar buttons for this. The reason is that the buttons update the document properties as well as apply the styles.

These properties are used by most the eBook generators.

[Ortep]

Thanks for both of you

Word is so complex and has so many possibilities that there is always a lot that you don't know.

BTW, I found method 3

1) Open the file by double clicking or any other way you like,

2) Select menu option: Tools

3) Choose tab Templates

It is more or less

4) Select Add

5) In the next window you can choose the template

6) Double click it

it is more or less shighfield's method backwards

[Ortep]

I did some testing and ran in a few errors. I guess I need something 'more'

When I use: Book Title, Author, Title, Sub Title and Verse I get a:

Runtime Error '5941':

The requested member of the collection does not exist

Word wrap Fix and Remove extra paragraphs are working fine

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Ortep

I did some testing and ran in a few errors. I guess I need something 'more'

When I use: Book Title, Author, Title, Sub Title and Verse I get a:

Word wrap Fix and Remove extra paragraphs are working fine

It's the way your attaching the template (See attached image). What you have to do when you attach the template to the document is check the "Automatically Update Document Styles" (step 2 in the image) so that the styles are loaded in the documents.

The error you are getting is the code is looking for a style name (like _AUTHOR, _BOOK TITLE, etc..) since the styles where not loaded when you attached the document it reports an object not found error.

Your method 3 was originally my method 2 but I changed it because the steps seemed involved and proved to be troublesome if not attached properly.


=X=

[Ortep]

Thanks it's working now!

I can start to work with it and find other stupid ways to ruin it

[=X=]

There is a minor update to the BookCreator.dot tool. See first link for the new version BookCreator_v1.02.zip

[=X=]

Minor release fixes bug should remove the "Do you want to save template changes." message that occurs when saving the main document, even though there where no changes to the template file.

BookCreator_v1.03.zip

[Dr. Drib]

Hi =X=:

I wanted to let you know that I've used your word template tool on two books I've assembled and BookCreator Tool is absolutely incredible.

I just wanted to let you know that you've saved me hours of work in translating a text file into something that's incredibly useable prior to my loading the book into BookDesigner.

Thank you very much for your work.


Don

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Hi =X=:

I wanted to let you know that I've used your word template tool on two books I've assembled and BookCreator Tool is absolutely incredible.

I just wanted to let you know that you've saved me hours of work in translating a text file into something that's incredibly useable prior to my loading the book into BookDesigner.

Thank you very much for your work.


Don

Hi Don,
Thank you for the feedback. I'm glad you find the tool useful and even happier to know you have saved hours.

=X=

[Ortep]

The tool is absolutely fantastic. It really saves hours of work. And it is so simple that even I can work with it. I almost never userd Word before I tried to work on eBooks. I always did everything in Notepad++

Thanks!!