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Old 02-19-2009, 03:17 PM   #1
Gideon
Wearer of Pants
Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.Gideon knows the square root of minus one.
 
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Posts: 1,050
Karma: 7634
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Norman, OK
Device: Amazon Kindle DX / iPhone
New Conversion Process

So, since I moved to the wonderful world of ebooks a year or so ago, I've spent a LOT of time converting files to make them look decent on whatever reader I'm using.

For a while this was the Sony 505. And sleek device that it was, there was little good content for me, and I spent a LOT of time converting for it. TONS.

And then I got a Kindle. And my time converting files went WAY down. Partially because the newspapers, magazines and books I wanted were already available at a reasonable cost. And partly because of MobiPocket Creator, and partly because of the email conversion service by Amazon.

ANYWAY... this still wasn't great. I use a Mac so using MobiPocket was a pain in the butt (as I had to open up Windows which is a frustrating process.) And even after converting a file there wasn't much I could do to it afterwards if the process didn't come out right. I could mess with the source a bit, but this was very time consuming.

But now... FINALLY... Calibre works on my Mac. Before this last week it crashed everytime I tried to use it. But now it works beautifully. I don't convert much inside of Calibre (except .lit files) but it sorts them out wonderfuly. But I did find a great use for it today.

After running something, say a PDF, through MobiPocket Creator and putting the new .mobi file into Calibre I convert it to .mobi AGAIN. This time I use the "remove extra lines between paragraphs" or something like that, that also creates an indent.

It converts them again, and I'm left with a MUCH more readable file.

So... in SUMMARY:
  1. Convert file to .mobi using MobiPocket Creator (I use it as I get better results than going straight to Calibre and TOC's are very easy to make)
  2. Put file in Calibre
  3. Convert using Calibre
  4. Use setting "Remove Spacing Between Paragraphs" under "Look and Feel"
  5. Presto!
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