Quote:
Originally Posted by soilwork
Just out of curiosity, how about using Dropbox or Sugarsync to synchronize files across multiple computers? If you do, managing books across computers will be very simple and there is no need to rely on Calibre.
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* One of the computers is on dialup.
* One is a work computer. Ability to install software is limited. (I could install Calibre; there's no guarantee it wouldn't be removed some weekend by an IT sweep.)
* I have no idea how to use Dropbox etc. (Having high speed internet away from work is still very erratic for me.)
* I have barely any idea how to use Calibre. I find Calibre incredibly slow. I can't edit (or don't know how to edit) the files in Calibre--specifically, the PDFs, which I often custom-make and tweak to my preferences. Sometimes the tweaking happens later.
Other than converting .lit files to .epub, I haven't found Calibre greatly useful. I don't speak CSS and haven't figured out its settings; I've tried a few things (like adding chapter breaks) and they all failed. I've no idea how to set up a table of contents. I'm aware there are tutorials, and I could learn it--it just hasn't been worth my effort. I'm decent at doc conversion to get my ebooks the way *I* want to read them, and since many of them are not sharable, it doesn't matter if they work for anyone else.
I'm perfectly content to either throw RTF files onto the reader if I'm in a hurry to read, or to take the time to make PDFs for the 6" screen if I'm not. (I kinda wonder what my 6" PDFs will look like on a 5" screen; not sure if I'll want to remake them all with smaller pages, or if the sharper resolution will make up for the smaller size.)
ETA: I completely missed the "no reason to rely on Calibre" part.
I'm not sure what the point of synching book collections across computers would be. (Also. Not sure I want to upload my content to Dropbox etc. I'm comfortable claiming fair use rights to scan & convert physical books I own; less comfortable uploading them *anywhere.*) I don't need a synchronized collection; I need an ebook reader that sorts books in ways I can find them easily. I can't put tags/collections on the Reader unless I install books through Calibre or (yech) Sony's software, so I just deal with making the titles or authors sort them into groups.