Conversion creates unreadable RTF

[Wyndham]

I often convert downloaded ePubs to RTF so I can edit the book in MS Word and recently came across a book that neither MS Word (2010) nor LibreOffice (3.5) could open.

I then converted the ePub using another program (AVS Document Converter) and this created an RTF document which both Word and LibreOffice can open.

The ePub is attached, but the two RTF versions are too large to arrach to the post, so they have been uploaded to SkyDrive.

Generated by Calibre

and

Generated by AVS

[theducks]

Why do you need to go to RTF to edit.
Try Sigil and work on the EPUB directly

[JSWolf]

WOW! That is one very poorly formatted eBook. The author should be ashamed.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Wyndham

I often convert downloaded ePubs to RTF so I can edit the book in MS Word and recently came across a book that neither MS Word (2010) nor LibreOffice (3.5) could open.

I then converted the ePub using another program (AVS Document Converter) and this created an RTF document which both Word and LibreOffice can open.

The ePub is attached, but the two RTF versions are too large to arrach to the post, so they have been uploaded to SkyDrive.

Generated by Calibre

and

Generated by AVS

Originally Posted by theducks

Why do you need to go to RTF to edit.
Try Sigil and work on the EPUB directly

Use Calibre to convert EPUB to EPUB then either try Sigil as theducks said (my first choice) or see if then you can convert successfully to RTF (my second choice).

Good luck!

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Wyndham

I often convert downloaded ePubs to RTF so I can edit the book in MS Word and recently came across a book that neither MS Word (2010) nor LibreOffice (3.5) could open...

I don't read RTF code so I can't provide any clarity on what went wrong with the calibre RTF, but apparently either there is a bug in calibre (it should create a valid RTF or produce an error message and no file) or it created something vary odd but legal that MS Word, OpenOffice, & LibreOffice all fail to accept (not likely).

It is interesting that Windows' WordPad opened the calibre RTF without complaint, and when resaved from WordPad, the resulting RTF opened fine in OpenOffice.

[mrmikel]

It may be that Wordpad is only taking a subset of the RTF and displaying it and saving a subset of it, ignoring the damaged part.

[speakingtohe]

I had no trouble converting it to rtf and reading it in wordpad. Seems ok although bizarre chapter headings. Perhaps convert it to txt.

Helen

[dwig]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

It may be that Wordpad is only taking a subset of the RTF and displaying it and saving a subset of it, ignoring the damaged part.

Based on the error presented when I tried opening it in OpenOffice, which provided a line number, and viewing the code in Notepad++, the problem seem to involve something wrong at the very end of the file.

I could be, though, a mistake early on that didn't become a mistake until a matching end tag failed to occur, a type of error that generally gets assigned to the end of the file where the omission is assumed to be even when the actual error is the beginning tag earlier on.

[JSWolf]

Speaking of RTF errors, is the error where the section spacing is lost in the conversion from ePub to RTF fixed or now that I've mentioned it, is it going to be fixed?

[Wyndham]

Originally Posted by theducks

Why do you need to go to RTF to edit.
Try Sigil and work on the EPUB directly

Thanks for the suggestion, but using Sigil only allows tweaking really, and doesn't meet my needs.

In case anyone is interested, this is the process I follow with FanFiction and new writing obtained from the internet (from html pages and not complete eBooks).

This can be quite a long process, made more difficult by the fact that I try not to actually read the story while doing the copy editing, as I want to save the reading until converted by Calibre and copied to my iPhone.

Although I can sometimes spend a few days on a story, I am happy to do so and the end result is a much more enjoyable read than it would be otherwise. One day I hope to find a way to share my results if I can do so without offending the original authors…

The process:

• Manually, tediously, slowly, (etc), copy and paste the story chapters one by one into MS Word
  
  • Recently discovered FanFictionDownloader, so this can be used on sites that are supported
    
  • The FanFictionDownloader download is automatically converted from the html source to an ePub
    
  • Convert, using Calibre, to rtf
  • Open the rtf file in MS Word and convert to docx

• Run the (doc or docx) story through a batch process to correct common spelling mistakes, and convert from American to British English
  • I usually do several stories at a time
  • If anyone is interested I’m happy to share the details of how I do this

• Tidy up the story in MS Word
  • Apply consistent formatting to text, set headings, scene change breaks, etc. Have macros to assist with this, but much of this is manual

• Copy edit (some call it proofreading) the story in MS Word
  • Basically just Grammar and Spell Check, although also use of Search and Replace as appropriate

• Open in LibreOffice and Save As html (because Word creates rubbish html)

• Open in Notepad++ and clean up
  • Insert coding in the header to control the formatting, add in Comments text which will later be used by Calibre for the Summary, remove unnecessary formatting coding (e.g. not necessary to have formatting coding for each paragraph individually as this is now managed in the header)
  • This can significantly reduce the size of the eBook when converted by Calibre.
  • One of the reasons I use Notepad++ is that I can easily apply a Search & Replace to multiple files simultaneously without having to open them

• Open in LibreOffice to check that nothing odd happened during the Notepad++ exercise, and then run Grammar and Spell Check
  • Surprising how different MS Word and LibreOffice are in this regard

• Copy html story back into Calibre and convert to ePub

As I mentioned earlier, this does take some work, but the resulting eBook is a much more pleasurable read.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by Wyndham

Thanks for the suggestion, but using Sigil only allows tweaking really, and doesn't meet my needs.

In case anyone is interested, this is the process I follow with FanFiction and new writing obtained from the internet (from html pages and not complete eBooks).

This can be quite a long process, made more difficult by the fact that I try not to actually read the story while doing the copy editing, as I want to save the reading until converted by Calibre and copied to my iPhone.

Although I can sometimes spend a few days on a story, I am happy to do so and the end result is a much more enjoyable read than it would be otherwise. One day I hope to find a way to share my results if I can do so without offending the original authors…

The process:

• Manually, tediously, slowly, (etc), copy and paste the story chapters one by one into MS Word
  
  • Recently discovered FanFictionDownloader, so this can be used on sites that are supported
    
  • The FanFictionDownloader download is automatically converted from the html source to an ePub
    
  • Convert, using Calibre, to rtf
  • Open the rtf file in MS Word and convert to docx

• Run the (doc or docx) story through a batch process to correct common spelling mistakes, and convert from American to British English
  • I usually do several stories at a time
  • If anyone is interested I’m happy to share the details of how I do this

• Tidy up the story in MS Word
  • Apply consistent formatting to text, set headings, scene change breaks, etc. Have macros to assist with this, but much of this is manual

• Copy edit (some call it proofreading) the story in MS Word
  • Basically just Grammar and Spell Check, although also use of Search and Replace as appropriate

• Open in LibreOffice and Save As html (because Word creates rubbish html)

• Open in Notepad++ and clean up
  • Insert coding in the header to control the formatting, add in Comments text which will later be used by Calibre for the Summary, remove unnecessary formatting coding (e.g. not necessary to have formatting coding for each paragraph individually as this is now managed in the header)
  • This can significantly reduce the size of the eBook when converted by Calibre.
  • One of the reasons I use Notepad++ is that I can easily apply a Search & Replace to multiple files simultaneously without having to open them

• Open in LibreOffice to check that nothing odd happened during the Notepad++ exercise, and then run Grammar and Spell Check
  • Surprising how different MS Word and LibreOffice are in this regard

• Copy html story back into Calibre and convert to ePub

As I mentioned earlier, this does take some work, but the resulting eBook is a much more pleasurable read.

Instead of Rtf I would recommend using text with textile and using notepad++ for editing textile formatting is very easy to edit. And once you convert to epub html code etc is a lot cleaner

[Wyndham]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

Instead of Rtf I would recommend using text with textile and using notepad++ for editing textile formatting is very easy to edit. And once you convert to epub html code etc is a lot cleaner

Thank you for responding.

As I am not familiar with "textile", what process do you suggest? For a start, what is the Calibre output option?

Having had a quick look on the internet about it, it doesn't look like an attractive proposition at all, but I am willing to be persuaded