"File decode failed"

ClareK · 10-07-2012, 07:43 PM

Recently I read an article saying that you can convert a Word document, including images, for reading on an ereader by exporting it as a pdf file. I have just tried to do this with a family history I've been writing, but since my version of Word does not have that facility I opened the document in OpenOffice and exported it as a pdf from there.

When I opened the file on my ereader it seemed to have worked perfectly, until I got to the 4th or 5th page, when I got the message "file decode failed" and the document closed.

I then tried using Calibre to convert the pdf file to pdf, and also to epub. The new pdf document had very strange formatting, and when I opened the epub document on my ereader the ereader closed down.

Can anyone explain why this message may have appeared? Perhaps I was rather naive to think it could be that easy to produce an illustrated document for my ereader - although the photos came out perfectly. (Organisation charts just appeared as solid green rectangles, but the article I had read warned that these would be a problem.)

I would be very grateful for any help!

DSpider · 10-08-2012, 06:51 AM

Those charts probably use a newer version of SVG (v1.1, I think), and your e-reader's software may only support the basic v1.0 without text. Hence, the green rectangles.

PDF is a nasty thing to convert properly, in any format and not just another PDF. Unless it's a tagged PDF, you'd be better off converting the .odt into PDF. For this, use the latest version of OpenOffice, and LibreOffice (v3.4.1 and v3.6.2 right now).

Quote:

since my version of Word does not have that facility I opened the document in OpenOffice

Please don't use .docx in open-source Office suits. Support was not that great the last time I tried. For .docx, use Word 2007 or newer. Adobe Acrobat integrates fine with it and comes with a 30 day trial period.

ClareK · 10-08-2012, 06:47 PM

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to explain this to me, DSpider. I will explore LibreOffice and have another try...

DaleDe · 10-16-2012, 06:56 PM

Another way to make a PDF is to print to a fake printer that actually creates a PDF. I use docuPrinter for this task but there are several free ones as well. Generally this method will lose any intelligence in the document such as links, TOC etc which is why I use docuPrinter.

10-07-2012, 07:43 PM	#1
ClareK Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 175816 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: Laser	"File decode failed" Recently I read an article saying that you can convert a Word document, including images, for reading on an ereader by exporting it as a pdf file. I have just tried to do this with a family history I've been writing, but since my version of Word does not have that facility I opened the document in OpenOffice and exported it as a pdf from there. When I opened the file on my ereader it seemed to have worked perfectly, until I got to the 4th or 5th page, when I got the message "file decode failed" and the document closed. I then tried using Calibre to convert the pdf file to pdf, and also to epub. The new pdf document had very strange formatting, and when I opened the epub document on my ereader the ereader closed down. Can anyone explain why this message may have appeared? Perhaps I was rather naive to think it could be that easy to produce an illustrated document for my ereader - although the photos came out perfectly. (Organisation charts just appeared as solid green rectangles, but the article I had read warned that these would be a problem.) I would be very grateful for any help!

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10-08-2012, 06:47 PM	#3
ClareK Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 175816 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: Laser	Thank you very much for taking the trouble to explain this to me, DSpider. I will explore LibreOffice and have another try...

10-16-2012, 06:56 PM	#4
DaleDe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,470 Karma: 13095790 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Grass Valley, CA Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7	Another way to make a PDF is to print to a fake printer that actually creates a PDF. I use docuPrinter for this task but there are several free ones as well. Generally this method will lose any intelligence in the document such as links, TOC etc which is why I use docuPrinter.

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