BookCreator Tool v3.5

[=X=]

Originally Posted by mjh215

After a week of fooling around with BC I have to say it really works great.

Great! I'm glad you find the tool useful.

Originally Posted by mjh215

PS I also tried an LRF and that came through beautifully...

Thanks I can't take credit or blame for the output. BookCreator rests on the hard work of kovidgoyal, tompe, and Azhkulz.

Originally Posted by Sonist

I may be overlooking something really obvious, but how do you get rid of all the page breaks in a document?

Change your view to "Normal" via the menu "View|Normal". If you see dotted lines across your documents their page breaks.

To remove page breaks
1) Ctrl + H
2) In the Find field type "^m" w/o quotes.
3) In replace leave blank
4) Depress the <Replace All> button.

I suspect you just have a lot of paragraphs, which is common when converting PDF to Text(word).
To remove extra paragraphs, use BookCreator menu option "Tools|Remove Extra Paragraphs". That should remove all that extra white space

Originally Posted by Roberts324

Many thanks, X, but it worked. But tell me: how many times did I have to reinstall this f(ine) software?

Your not alone. I had a difficult time getting most of my IMP building tools to work as well. The problem is most IMP building tools require ePublisher to work, were most of the other format shifting tools are stand alone. Being new to IMP it is easy to overlook dependencies. Also be careful installing the GEB Libary tool breaks ePublisher as it reinstalls older version of ePublisher's DLLS.

=X=

[PieOPah]

Hi, I am sorry if this has already been mentioned, but 10 pages is a lot to read through at 8 in the morning...

When I run the 'WrdWrap fix', this removes all the text formating. This means that anything in bold or italic returns to normal. Is there a way that I can retain this formating?

Many thanks,

[=X=]

Originally Posted by PieOPah

Hi, I am sorry if this has already been mentioned, but 10 pages is a lot to read through at 8 in the morning...

When I run the 'WrdWrap fix', this removes all the text formating. This means that anything in bold or italic returns to normal. Is there a way that I can retain this formating?

Many thanks,

Hi PieOpah, yes it has been noted before, but no worries it's always easier to ask.

This feature is by design, on the next release --Planned release is over the Christmas break. BookCreator will add another menu option that will keep the existing format but word wrap fix the text.

CURRENT WORKAROUND
Right now a way around this feature is to first run the menu option "Tools|Tag Italics" before running the "Word Wrap Fix". This will convert all the text in italics to _italics_ (note the underscore before/after the text). Then after you run the word wrap fix, run "Tools|Italicize the Text" and it will convert the _italics_ to italics.

=X=

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by =X=

...
I suspect you just have a lot of paragraphs, which is common when converting PDF to Text(word).
To remove extra paragraphs, use BookCreator menu option "Tools|Remove Extra Paragraphs". That should remove all that extra white space... =X=

Thanks, =X=. I did use Remove Extra Paragraphs, but I still get white space. I can't see what the command is, even when I show formatting.

However, when I show formatting, I see a "dot" in front of each beginning paragraph after a gap, similar to those in "chapter titles." A "bullet?"

If I delete the single space at the end of the paragraph preceding the gap, the gap disappears and the beginning of the next paragraph is brought up (in the same line as the end of the previous, so I need to press Return to get it right.) If I press Delete in the beginning of the paragraph after the gap, it starts deleting the first letters of that paragraph, instead of deleting the gap.

I can do it manually, but I'll be gray by the time I finish. Any ideas what this might be?

[PieOPah]

Originally Posted by =X=

CURRENT WORKAROUND
Right now a way around this feature is to first run the menu option "Tools|Tag Italics" before running the "Word Wrap Fix". This will convert all the text in italics to _italics_ (note the underscore before/after the text). Then after you run the word wrap fix, run "Tools|Italicize the Text" and it will convert the _italics_ to italics.

=X=

Thank you for this

[=X=]

@Sonist
Hmm I come around something like this every once in a while. Usually when dealing with HTML or already formatted word docs. What it sounds like is a problem with line feed (LF/11) and carriage returns (CR/13). Both create new lines but word does not really use LF they use CR to mark the end of a paragraph.


What you need to do is get rid of the LF and turn them into CR. Then run the remove extra paragraphs to get rid of the extra space.

1) Run "Tools|ASCII LF -> Word Paragraph"
2) Run "Tools|Remove Extra Paragraphs"

=X=

[mjh215]

If BookCreator isn't outputting a file;

Without making any changes, run it a second time directly afterwards (Just verifying the paths are correct, etc). I'm not sure when or why or if it was from the first book on but when I output IMP it never builds an IMP file on the first pass. The first few times I might have not caught it and had went thru the motions a second time and came up with a file. After noticing and alot of trial and error I have just been doing it this way. It does build a IMP file on the second pass every time.

I noticed a few others in this thread mentioning similar failures with building IMP and LRF files, and each mentioned being on Vista with Office 2007. Perhaps something in Office 2007 is causing a problem. Regardless, give it a try and let me know if it isn't just me.

(I tried it in LRF to make sure, on one I already built for IMP it saves, but on a new book it requires two passes)

-MJ

[=X=]

@mjh215
I've tried this and had no problems. Can you verify this behavior with a small Word File. One page should do.

With large files some books take a long time to build. I've seen this with IMP and especially ePUB. Because the books take so long to make, it looks like the books where never made but in reality the process is still running in the background.
Chances are by the time you decided to run the tool a second time the first book was getting completed. The 2nd instance does no harm it just overwrites the first book.

With a small book the process is fast enough that you will not experience this.

=X=

[mjh215]

Nah, that was the first thing I figured... Since I didn't know how long they took to build I left it sit for quite awhile while I was trying out different things (ie. while I had dinner, or overnight)... I even checked for hung processes... Though since I never did a very small test file I just ran a one-pager... Same thing, and I went to take a, err, relieve my bladder to give it some time...

A couple of symptoms I didn't mention that I should -because I was tired- was that when selecting a directory for any of the macros configuration GUI's the last level of the directory selected is ignored. For instance, if browsing to F:\Misc\EB1150 Temp\Text it will only display F:\Misc\EB1150 Temp back in the menu. Like for 'Save to' or 'Path to impbuild.exe'. You have to type the last level in. Under 'Save to' it will show the default the first time, which I switch to 'F:\Impout'. During the second pass this is already inserted. (I know I can just edit the macro for my own defaults, I just haven't bothered yet)

-MJ

[Freygea]

Can you use this tool to create your own book? I have microsoft word. Can Ii write my book in word and then "create" my book to place in my Sony PRS 505?


The link does not work in the first post. I best do some reading.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Freygea

The link does not work in the first post.

I was able to download BookCreator_v2.52.zip from the "attached files" in the 1st post, and all the other links seem to work. Note that the bold BookCreator_v2.52.zip isn't a link, just the filename of the latest version.

This is for creating ebooks, although the default assumption is that there is an existing document (Word or something to import into Word) rather than a new writing project.

[Freygea]

Thank you very much. I found the zip. I converted a old story I had written and it worked great. This is motivating to write another story.

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

This is for creating ebooks, although the default assumption is that there is an existing document (Word or something to import into Word) rather than a new writing project.

though i would imagine writers finding this too rather useful for all the macros if they felt like using them while writing.

this is a nice tool. but i still like book designer.

[UncleIvor]

On an entirely different issue -

if you have saved a .doc file with the fonts embedded, is it possible for BookCreator to embed them in the .lrf file?

[=X=]

Originally Posted by UncleIvor

On an entirely different issue -

if you have saved a .doc file with the fonts embedded, is it possible for BookCreator to embed them in the .lrf file?

You can force embedded fonts by passing command line directives to calibre's hstml2lrf tool. To do this navigate to the "Misc" tab in "Create LRF..." dialog box.

This is the help taken from calibre's html2lrf tool. I've emphasized the command in bold.

  FONT FAMILIES:
    Specify trutype font families for serif, sans-serif and monospace
    fonts. These fonts will be embedded in the LRF file. Note that custom
    fonts lead to slower page turns. 
         For example:
                    --serif-family "Times New Roman"

    --serif-family=SERIF_FAMILY
                        The serif family of fonts to embed

    --sans-family=SANS_FAMILY
                        The sans-serif family of fonts to embed

    --mono-family=MONO_FAMILY
                        The monospace family of fonts to embed