The Vent and Rant Thread

[kazbates]

Thanks, my friends! I tend to get impatient when I can't figure things out. I completely understand people being busy post-Christmas and pre-New Years. My time is also limited because Ryleigh is still on vacation this week, so I have to work around her (Right now, she's chomping at the bit to spend her Christmas money at the local toy store as if Santa and all didn't bring her enough toys to fill said toy store ).

I know that I will get a plethora of responses in good time. That's one of the greatest aspects of MR, it's members are incredibly helpful. I just wish things were easy for once.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by kazbates

...(Right now, she's chomping at the bit to spend her Christmas money at the local toy store as if Santa and all didn't bring her enough toys to fill said toy store ).
...

Isn't that always the case. Still ya gotta love 'em!

[kazbates]

Kenny ~ My son is currently studying computer engineering in college. He is struggling with his classes, even though he was considered "highly gifted in math and science" throughout his elementary and secondary years. Having a degree in computer science, I couldn't understand why he was having so much trouble until I started looking through his textbooks. Things have definitely changed since I left my job as a computer analyst 20 years ago! I've gone from being a raving lunatic parent to a completely understanding and supportive one. If it takes him a couple of extra years to get through all that gobbledy gook, more power to him. I don't know if I could have done it (of course, I spent an awful lot of my time on off-campus activities that, thankfully, my son has avoided ~ I'm pretty sure the White Horse Tavern has a retired bar stool in my honor ).

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kazbates

Argggg! Why isn't anything staright forward anymore?!?! I've got this new scanner that does a great job but getting the scanned book into an exceptable ebook format is causing me to pull out my hair!!!! It would be nice if there were instructions somewhere for lay people. I've started a thread in the Workshop forum and know that I will get excellent advice from many of MR's extremely intelligent members, but right now I'm incredibly frustrated and feel like I've bitten of more than I can chew.

Which scanner?

There are several steps involved.

1) Scan the book. The result will be images, probably in TIFF format.

2) Extract the text. This requires using OCR software, that scans the image and looks for things that look like letters. It can output what it finds to another file. OCR software is usually bundled with scanners. It will be fairly low end consumer grade software, but it';s normally adequate for simple stuff. (The software I have, for example, get's mightily confused by multi-column text.)

3) Proofread and copy edit the resulting text file. No OCR software is perfect, and it will make mistakes. One of the complaints about various Kindle editions is poor production quality. This is a result of Amazon starting with a paper copy, because an electronic manuscript isn't available, and doing scan and OCR. Proofreading and copy editing aren't done. Amazon puts the results out as a Kindle file. The results come as no surprise.

4) Convert the edited text to an ebook. This might be done directly, but it's probably wiser to convert the text to HTML, then convert to ebook. There are tools available to automate this, but like scan/OCR, they aren't perfect. You need to edit the generated HTML for best results. So this might be two steps: text->HTML, HTML->ebook.

Precise instructions will depend upon what software you have, and what ebook formats you want to generate.
______
Dennis

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by kazbates

...Things have definitely changed since I left my job as a computer analyst 20 years ago! I've gone from being a raving lunatic parent to a completely understanding and supportive one. If it takes him a couple of extra years to get through all that gobbledy gook, more power to him. .... I'm pretty sure the White Horse Tavern has a retired bar stool in my honor ).

Not only that things have changed, the pace of change has accelerated or so it seems and it have become almost a daily thing, with new versions of programming languages, databases, new languages, operating system changes, etc. appearing from all directions.

Congrats on the retired bar stool!

I did all my partying in my first attempt at college (University of Oklahoma - 4 years no degree) and then dropped out for a few years before starting a more serious attempt at University of Colorado.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by kazbates

I know that I will get a plethora of responses in good time. That's one of the greatest aspects of MR, it's members are incredibly helpful. I just wish things were easy for once.

Well..........my interest is purely selfish.

I want to follow your progress so that I can learn too! Wish there was a 'pictorial' guide.......

[kazbates]

@Dennis ~ I scanned the book on a Canon DR-2510 using the OmniPage OCD software (very limited in scope) bundled with the scanner. It placed the scanned document into a .opd file but I could have saved it as a pdf or tiff (I think there was one other format) using just the scanner software. After the OCD editing process, it gave me the option of saving as a doc, rtf or txt. When saving as a doc or rtf and then opening in Word for further editing, it placed each scanned page in a textbox. Saving as txt completely strips any formating. My thought was to edit in Word and then resave as an html file per HarryT's guide. When I tried to save the textboxed version of the doc file as an html, it stripped all the formating just as if it was a txt file. I'm thinking that the problem lies with the limited version of the Omnipage app but it could very easily be "operator error".

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Well..........my interest is purely selfish.

I want to follow your progress so that I can learn too! Wish there was a 'pictorial' guide.......

If I can get this all straight, I will be happy to document my steps. If I can figure out how to post screen shots, I will definitely include them.

In my first career, I wrote user's manuals for the software developed by my division (it was pretty obvious right from the start that I had the "gift of gab" and was better suited working with the end users as opposed to sitting at my desk programming all day ).

[montsnmags]

I would fill my ears with molten lead and spear a crow-bar into my eyes if I could just get this farking ice-pick pain out of my godsforsaken head. To quote Aliens, "kill...me...".

(Please, no sympathy. I'm only venting)

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

I would fill my ears with molten lead and spear a crow-bar into my eyes if I could just get this farking ice-pick pain out of my godsforsaken head. To quote Aliens, "kill...me...".

(Please, no sympathy. I'm only venting)

Oh man! Can I feel it. I had a virus of some kind over thanksgiving (nose/throat) and it really hung in there for a couple of weeks and when I thought I was over it, it clearly had gone deeper into my sinus cavities because I had a horrible sinus headache for the last two weeks! Just now getting better. Nothing really seemed to help much. Aspirin a bit decongestant a bit but as soon as the meds wore off it was right back again!

Hope it's better soon!

[phenomshel]

Can I do an "unnamed vent"? I'm hurt, I'm ticked off, and the more I think about the situation, the more just plain angry I'm getting. I don't want to go into the whole thing, it involves some other people (no, no one at MR), but if I seem to be "off" or disappear for the next few days, y'all will know why.

[vivaldirules]

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Can I do an "unnamed vent"? I'm hurt, I'm ticked off, and the more I think about the situation, the more just plain angry I'm getting. I don't want to go into the whole thing, it involves some other people (no, no one at MR), but if I seem to be "off" or disappear for the next few days, y'all will know why.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

It will be fairly low end consumer grade software, but it';s normally adequate for simple stuff. (The software I have, for example, get's mightily confused by multi-column text.)

Google's sponsoring the open source and very powerful OCR software OCRopus. I'd expect a Windows installer in 12-18 months.

I've used it with a Live CD, and it has a drastically lower error rate, as things stand, than the Windows software I was using (trial versions of the "high end" stuff, even).

So the cost for that portion of things should fall.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

I would fill my ears with molten lead and spear a crow-bar into my eyes if I could just get this farking ice-pick pain out of my godsforsaken head. To quote Aliens, "kill...me...".

(Please, no sympathy. I'm only venting)

An ice cold towel that stays cold, and dark, quiet room for your head....and tons of drugs as well. Hope today its better.

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Can I do an "unnamed vent"? I'm hurt, I'm ticked off, and the more I think about the situation, the more just plain angry I'm getting. I don't want to go into the whole thing, it involves some other people (no, no one at MR), but if I seem to be "off" or disappear for the next few days, y'all will know why.

No problems. Just don't forget to come back when its better........