Converting Dictionaries

Jaws · 01-01-2025, 06:16 PM

Specifically, converting published dictionaries from .mobi to .epub.

This has long been a problem, but now it reallyreallyreally is time to convert my multilingual dictionaries to a more-flexible-and-device-independent format, like epub. The last time I tried was about four years ago, and the conversion process caused the computer to hang and never finished; the general conclusion was "dictionaries are hard."

Any changes/hints since? I'd really rather not crash the computer again...

kovidgoyal · 01-01-2025, 09:50 PM

calibre still doesnt support conversion of dictionaries you can run the conversion and it will work provided you give it enough time on reasonably powerful computer but the result wont really be useable as an actual dictionary.

Jaws · 01-09-2025, 07:17 PM

This time, it actually kept working for the whole six and a half hours it took to get the conversion done... resulting in nearly 700 .htm files in the epub, with transitions between letters (from D to E) buried in the middle of various files. This was on the same machine as failed the last time around, so Calibre's guts have gotten more efficient.

But it worked, and exporting the .htm to where my editor with all the cleanup macros are cut final editing time down to about six more hours...

...and I have a useable .epub dictionary. Although it's so ugly that maybe it's really .epug.

01-01-2025, 06:16 PM	#1
Jaws JCL Punch-Card Collector Posts: 75 Karma: 34468 Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Antarctica Device: Aggressively Device Independent	Converting Dictionaries Specifically, converting published dictionaries from .mobi to .epub. This has long been a problem, but now it reallyreallyreally is time to convert my multilingual dictionaries to a more-flexible-and-device-independent format, like epub. The last time I tried was about four years ago, and the conversion process caused the computer to hang and never finished; the general conclusion was "dictionaries are hard." Any changes/hints since? I'd really rather not crash the computer again...

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01-01-2025, 09:50 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,347 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre still doesnt support conversion of dictionaries you can run the conversion and it will work provided you give it enough time on reasonably powerful computer but the result wont really be useable as an actual dictionary.

01-09-2025, 07:17 PM	#3
Jaws JCL Punch-Card Collector Posts: 75 Karma: 34468 Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Antarctica Device: Aggressively Device Independent	This time, it actually kept working for the whole six and a half hours it took to get the conversion done... resulting in nearly 700 .htm files in the epub, with transitions between letters (from D to E) buried in the middle of various files. This was on the same machine as failed the last time around, so Calibre's guts have gotten more efficient. But it worked, and exporting the .htm to where my editor with all the cleanup macros are cut final editing time down to about six more hours... ...and I have a useable .epub dictionary. Although it's so ugly that maybe it's really .epug.

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