Using Word docs - Kindle 3 or Sony 650?

[evwool]

I want to be able to load Word docs with 2-column tables onto an ereader (Italian in one column, the English translation, side by side in the second column). I'm happy to convert the tables into tabbed text but would either of these be able to load onto a Kindle 3 or a Sony 650 (still undecided which one to get)? Would the conversion (if possible) result in something I can annotate?

When I put a Word doc with a Table of Contents onto my old Palm VX (using Sunrise XP to convert the file to Plucker format), the TOC becomes a hyperlink on the Palm which I can tap on with my stylus to take me to that place in the document. Is there anything like that possible with docs converted for the Kindle or the Sony?

[Dulin's Books]

neither reads Doc files natively. choose a reader that does.

[evwool]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

neither reads Doc files natively. choose a reader that does.

I'm guessing you're referring to the Onyx Boox but I'm afraid that's way out of my league pricewise. The Sony Reader is really pushing the boat out but any more than that is out of the question.

[Dulin's Books]

The Aztak EZ REader series also supports word directly http://www.theezreader.com/

As do the the Onyx devices and PocketBook Pro series of devices that I retail. PocketBook Pro 602 and the 6" EZ Reader are both $199. the PB 360 Plus is $149.99

If you live where the Boox A61s(no wifi or stylus) is available to you then it is a relatively cheaper alternative as well.
OF course you can get these Boox and Aztak readers under the Bebook brand as well . The Bebook Club is only 179 and the Bebook One is 199.

Much better alternatives than any reader with no native support.

[polly]

You should be aware, though, that the Astak readers don't handle Word documents well. It will read them, but they tend to have problems with freezing and rendering. Have you considered converting your Word documents into something like ePub?

I found that the Astak and PocketPro 5" models displayed FB2 best, followed by ePub, and I never bothered trying to make them play lit, html, txt, rtf, or Word. Just because a player will display a format doesn't mean it will display it well.

[JSWolf]

Sony handles RTF. But it does not handle graphics or links in RTF.

[Dulin's Books]

good point. i havent actually played with an Aztak for about a year. i ddint realize the choked on word documents. The simple ones I tried worked fined.

The Bebook club is an excellent choice then. 179 for an excellent device with very good word support that does support toc and hyper links within the document.

[evwool]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

The Bebook club is an excellent choice then. 179 for an excellent device with very good word support that does support toc and hyper links within the document.

Thanks for the tips. What about screen glare on the bebook? One of the things I do like about the Kindle is the lack of it.

And what about the document conversion service for Kindle? How useful is it?

[polly]

The only readers that ever had glare problems were the Sony 600 and 900. Sony chose to put a touch layer on top of the screen and that affected screen clarity for those models. They fixed that with the PRS 350, 650 and 950, so that the Sonys and Kindle 3s have the same screen clarity. The key point now is if the reader has a Pearl screen. It greatly improved contrast over the earlier Visoplex screen. The Kindles and Sonys have a Pearl screen, as do some of the new readers from PocketBook.

There's a free program called Calibre that was designed to be a library manager. In addition to letting you fix metadata and set tags, it will also convert from and to most formats and will sideload books on to your reader using your preferred settings. There's an active forum here for Calibre, with some very helpful members who can help you as needed. I've never seen the need to send a document off for someone else to convert when I can do it on my own computer.

[evwool]

Thanks for the helpful advice Polly.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by evwool

I want to be able to load Word docs with 2-column tables onto an ereader (Italian in one column, the English translation, side by side in the second column).

As you have already found, support for Word Docs on portable devices is spotty at best.

I would look at converting your DOC files to appropriately formated two column PDFs.

Unlike EPUB (and most other portable reader document formats) PDF's are designed to rigidly maintain page formatting (like the 2 column pages you require for example.)

EPUB is a great format for fiction, and other material with fairly simple formatting, because EPUB is specifically designed to allow text to be rescaled on the fly in a reflowable format.

Unfortunately, EPUB is not as suitable for documents which require very accurate page formatting.

On the other hand, PDFs that are specifically formatted for viewing on an eInk Reader's smaller screen will look great, and will maintain their page layout perfectly when displayed as PDFs at their default size.

PDF will allow all kinds of sophisticated formatting, like multi column layout and navigation hyper-links, while maintaining accurate and consistent page rendering on your reader.

There are literally a dozen different commercial solutions for converting MS Word DOCs to PDF format, but one of my favorite methods is to simply load the document into the free OpenOffice Writer (now LibreOffice Writer) and then export it in PDF format.

Once you get used to a few minor differences in the User Interface, LibreOffice is at least as easy to use as MSWord, and it's PDF export works quite well.

LibreOffice's PDF export does a good job of maintaining 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get' page formatting, and also includes support for PDF TOC (Table Of Contents) and internal and external document navigation hyper-links.

Using LibreOffice, I have created PDF files with professional quality TOC and navagation hyper-links which work perfectly on my PRS-650 Sony reader.

The Sony PRS-x50 series readers include support for PDF annotations, but the export is fairly limited. You can export text annotations, but not as a fully marked up PDF document. Also on the Sony, when you have several hundred annotations, things get slow and twitchy.

If you need to do a lot of annotations, and share your marked up PDF docs, I would consider the B&N Nook STR or Nook Color. The built in PDF viewer on the Nooks is no hot shakes, but because these readers are Android based, you can choose from several alternative commercial PDF reader Apps that are MUCH MUCH MUCH BETTER, and which will let you seamlessly re-export your annotated PDF's in standard PDF format (readable on any PC, Mac, or Linux box).

Hope this helps...

[evwool]

Thanks Delphin. I've got Serif Page Plus which will let me convert to PDFs. That's a great idea!

[pwjone1]

Originally Posted by evwool

Thanks Delphin. I've got Serif Page Plus which will let me convert to PDFs. That's a great idea!

I've found that the various OpenOffice/LibreOffice/Symphony variations, while priced right (i.e. free), don't always format the Microsoft Office documents quite as well as the real thing (which at current levels, has direct PDF support). They are fine if the document was created in them, but not so fine if it was created in Microsoft Office. And that PDF support on the 6" class of readers is maybe not all that practical, OK in a pinch, but I personally think you're better off with a tablet (iPad2 or Honeycomb) or at least a Kindle DX, due to their bigger screens.

[alexandree.spier]

Evwool,

I would definitely go for sony, no hesitation.

[evwool]

Thanks for all your advice everyone. Weighing everything up, especially Amazon customer service vs Sony's, I went for the Kindle (birthday gift from hubby). It was worth sacrificing my side-by-side translations (just put the English version under the Italian in a Notepad doc). As it turned out, I needed customer service since the charge cable sat loosely in its socket. All I had to do was email Amazon. They told me not to bother to return the cable but simply added a gift voucher to my account which was enough to let me 'buy' a replacement cable from them and the problem was solved with the replacement cable. No asking for receipts, no horrible website form. Contrast this with trying to get service for my Samsung mp3 player - the website form doesn't contain MP3 players and you can't send a message without selecting the correct product!