ACII in/MOBI out ereaders

[Proofreader]

Hi Everyone --
I'm new to this forum, but I hope you can/will help. I've been using a
basic Kindle for years to do my proofreading work and now need to buy a new
ereader. I've been told that any new ereader needs to be able to import ASCII files and export in the mobipocket format -- which is completely Greek to me.
Can anyone list possible brands/models of ereaders which would fall into this
category? Thanks in advance for any and all help.

[BookCat]

Do you mean that you want the ereader itself to convert the format? If so, I don't know the answer. But if you're asking what readers can read text well, I can say that I'm really impressed by the way my Paperwhite2 handles text documents. They look much better than they did on my old Sony, and keep all the formatting i.e. paragraph indenting.

[susan_cassidy]

Ereaders don't normally convert formats. You normally have to do that yourself. And ASCII is old-hat. UTF-8 is the new preferred character set. Most ereaders other than Kindle use ePub format, not mobi format.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Proofreader

I've been told that any new ereader needs to be able to import ASCII files and export in the mobipocket format -- which is completely Greek to me.

You can read the same file types that you've read so far on your old Kindle also on your new Kindle. I.e. .txt, .mobi and .pdf files.

If you want to proofread text files on your Kindle, you can either copy them to the Kindle's \documents folder via USB or use Calibre. You can also convert ASCII text files to .mobi files with Calibre.

[BookCat]

Welcome to MobileRead!

[EowynCarter]

You can either take a kindle, and convert to mobi, or take a kobo / nook / whatever and convert to ePub.

As said above, calibre will help you there.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Proofreader

I've been told that any new ereader needs to be able to import ASCII files and export in the mobipocket format -- which is completely Greek to me.

Either the person who's giving you advice doesn't know what they're talking about, or you've misunderstood their advice.

If you're receiving plain text file and want to proof-read them on your Kindle, I expect that the Kindle will read them happily without any conversion, although you could, of course, use calibre to convert them to mobi format first if that does turn out to help.

It seems more likely that you're now being asked to proof-read ePub ebooks, in which case you'll need an ereader than can read ePubs. (e.g. a nook or a kobo).

[eschwartz]

In what way is your current Kindle insufficient for your needs?

If it has stopped working, any new Kindle can do anything the old one could do.

Really, you can use any ereader on the market whatsoever, whether app or e-ink device. No matter what format it is in, the ereader will either be able to read it, or else calibre can convert it into a suitable format.

(You may want to own every single device on the market and check the finished product on all of them, for various other reasons. Just ask Hitch. )

[Proofreader]

Hi Everyone --
Let me clarify the problem a little. I'm a court reporter who likes to
do my proofreading of deposition transcripts on my Kindle (original basic version of Kindle) which has worked well over the past few years, but now the screen has been damaged so I need to purchase something new. The problem that I'm encountering is any highlighting I do on something other than the original Kindle doesn't transfer back to my court reporting software so that I can make the necessary corrections. When I talked with technical support at my court reporting software company, they advised me that the new reader has to be able to import an ASCII and when it's converted coming back to my CR software it has to be output in a MOBI format so the highlighting transfers with it. I'd love to buy something a little more sophisticated, but it looks like I'm stuck with the bare-bones Kindle unless someone has any suggestions.
Thanks Again!

[susan_cassidy]

There is no way that would ever have worked. The highlights are particular to one specific file, and so would not transfer from the original file to a new file that you create with corrections, etc.

The highlights should be in "My Clippings.txt", which will also have the location of the entry. It does not have the full text of the book with it. You can, if the original file does not have DRM, and it doesn't sound like it does, you can convert it to Word or HTML or whatever, edit it, and send the revised copy to your Kindle, either via USB, or via the Amazon email service. But the highlights will not appear in the revised file, since it is a new file, as far as the Kindle is concerned.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Proofreader

When I talked with technical support at my court reporting software company, they advised me that the new reader has to be able to import an ASCII and when it's converted coming back to my CR software it has to be output in a MOBI format so the highlighting transfers with it.

I'm afraid that either they're talking nonsense, or you may perhaps have misunderstood what they're telling you. There is no reading device which will convert from ASCII to Mobi format. It's as simple as that.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Proofreader

Hi Everyone --
Let me clarify the problem a little. I'm a court reporter who likes to
do my proofreading of deposition transcripts on my Kindle (original basic version of Kindle) which has worked well over the past few years, but now the screen has been damaged so I need to purchase something new. The problem that I'm encountering is any highlighting I do on something other than the original Kindle doesn't transfer back to my court reporting software so that I can make the necessary corrections. When I talked with technical support at my court reporting software company, they advised me that the new reader has to be able to import an ASCII and when it's converted coming back to my CR software it has to be output in a MOBI format so the highlighting transfers with it. I'd love to buy something a little more sophisticated, but it looks like I'm stuck with the bare-bones Kindle unless someone has any suggestions.
Thanks Again!

I think from the description that the court reporting software must pick up the highlighting from the Kindle, and won't work with any other brand of ebook reader.

Whether more recent kindles store highlighting in a different way to earlier models, I couldn't say.

Which model have you tried that doesn't work? How did you transfer the ASCII to to the device?

[Proofreader]

I transfer using USB cable. Apparently the new Kindles, (Paperwhite, Fire, etc.) and virtually all other ereaders store the highlights differently and won't transfer notes or highlighting. I'm just going to buy another basic Kindle for work and get something with more bells and whistles just for my own reading.
Thanks again everyone.

[BookCat]

I'm not sure about this and maybe other peeps know the answer, but Calibre 'might' do the text to mobi conversion keeping your proof marks. But I'm unsure of this.