Mobipocket output - Page 19

kovidgoyal · 01-20-2010, 11:43 PM

1) That happens when you try to set metadata in very old PRC files. You have to convert them from MOBI to MOBI to be able to set metadata in them

2) There isn't and there wasn't for LRF either

3) Why don't you just directly convert ereader files after removing the DRM?

ficbot · 01-21-2010, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

1) That happens when you try to set metadata in very old PRC files. You have to convert them from MOBI to MOBI to be able to set metadata in them

2) There isn't and there wasn't for LRF either

3) Why don't you just directly convert ereader files after removing the DRM?

1) Thank you, that should solve the problem
2) Can that feature be added then? All my LRFs never looked weird so I never needed this feature, but with mobi is seems really variable
3) Because they are usually a mess with extra line breaks and other nonsense. I like a cleaner-looking file. It just baffles me that files converted the same way will have such variable outcomes. I really wish there was an over-ride button that could just force it to be justified. Are there *any* other tips you have which will get these files working?

kovidgoyal · 01-21-2010, 12:05 AM

Feel free to open a ticket requesting a feature to force justification.

ficbot · 01-21-2010, 12:19 AM

I have opened a ticket, thanks

GRiker · 01-21-2010, 12:13 PM

nickredding:
Can you post or PM me the recipe you're using that generates MOBIs exhibiting the problem?

G

Lurchmonster · 01-23-2010, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

As far as I can tell its just used for categorization on the Kindle. The Topaz books have it too in their metadata

Hello there...just started using Calibre and love it...but the ability to set the CDETYPE to PDOC so the Kindle 2 would sort things into personal documents would make this the single best Kindle tool ever written...I see that Mobi2Mobi does it, but I was really hoping to not have to add another program, and step, especially since Calibre collects, then converts, then loads my feeds for me all by itself. It'd be a pain to have to stop in the middle, run mobi2mobi, change the tags, then go back into Calibre and have it load my feeds onto my Kindle. It'd turn a mostly automated and elegant procedure into one I have to manually control.

Is this a feature that can be added to Calibre? I see Calibre has been updated about 3 times since I started using it very recently, so apparently it's an actively updated program, but I was wondering if this was going to be an update that might be happening?

Well, wondering AND hoping...

kovidgoyal · 01-23-2010, 11:26 AM

Why would you want it set to PDOC?

ficbot · 01-24-2010, 11:53 PM

Kovid, I am still trying to figure out my conversion issues. I will try and be as specific as possible in the hopes you or someone else might be able to advise me what the issue is.

have about 200 secure eReader books which have all been 'liberated' and then saved to clean HTML using the following procedure: run the script, open the file in Firefox and select-all/copy, paste into Neo Office, save as HTML, open again in Firefox and select-all/copy, paste into Kompozer html program, run Text Wrangler and find/replace with 

This seems to produce the cleanest HTML without the weird stuff Neo Office puts in and without extraneous line breaks and other formatting glitches. I know it is a laborious process but it produces nice-looking files. I have these all in Calibre and they are all saved there both as html as originally imported, and in LRF for when I had them on the Sony. I am trying to convert them to Mobipocket for my new Kindle.

Here is what has been happening:

On about half the files, when I click convert and go to look and feel, the input format it defaults to is "zip" and the "no text justification" box is pre-checked. I un-check it, convert and everything looks great. It looks as it should in Calibre and on the Kindle. The conversion is fast and painless.

On the other half of the files, the input format comes up as LRF instead of Zip, and the boxes are all unchecked. These files have several problems when I convert them. Sometimes, they are not justified. Sometimes, there are large gaps between paragraphs or super-long indents. The conversions always take a super-long time and I get files that look terrible. I am just baffled as to what is occurring. These files were all created int he exact same way so I am not sure why there should be such differences in there behaviour.

With a few of them, I tried saving them as epub and then looking at the CSS. I am a total beginner with CSS but nothing seemed amiss there. A few times I tried converting the epub into mobi and got the same results.

There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to which files are in the 'good' group and which are not, although a greater percentage of the 'good' ones seem to be more recent. So could it have something to do with which version of Calibre first dealt with them? If I delete the 'bad' ones and re-import them, would that fix the problem? Or is something else going on?

kovidgoyal · 01-25-2010, 12:29 AM

What is chosen as the input format depends on a lot of factors. Just delete the LRF files and convert using your clean sources. Why are you converting from LRF if you have clean sources?

ficbot · 01-25-2010, 12:37 AM

I am not trying to convert from LRF. I am saying that the ones where that comes up as the default when I click on convert seem to be the ones that do not convert properly even if I switch it to zip before attempting.

kovidgoyal · 01-25-2010, 12:56 AM

The fact that they have different defaults just means that they were converted before. calibre uses previous conversion settings when re-converting a book.

ficbot · 01-25-2010, 01:25 AM

Okay, but the problem is that the ones who are defaulting to zip seem to have something about them that converts better/easier to mobi than the other ones and I am baffled as to what. To give you an example, when I try and convert one that defaults to LRF, I change it to zip and it does not have the box about justification ticked as the zip-defaulting ones do. Then it will take five minutes to convert instead of 25 seconds. And then it will have extraneous line breaks and no justification.

Something seems to be wrong with some of the files and the indicator as to whether it is a good file or a bad file seems to be what it is defaulting to when I press the convert button. I have gone through and done all the 'good' ones and still have about 175 LRF files. I would hate to have to go through each one individually and delete it, re-format it from scratch, re-import it again and put in the covers/metadata again. There has to be *something* that is different about these files and is causing the problem but I don't know what it is.

kovidgoyal · 01-25-2010, 11:01 AM

Hard to say, without looking at the files in question.

ficbot · 01-25-2010, 12:51 PM

I'll send you two of them tonight

They are sequential books in a series, so there is no reason why Book 8 should be the only bad one out of all of them.

ficbot · 01-25-2010, 07:56 PM

Okay, here they are

Book 8 is the 'bad' file and book 9 is the 'good' one

Moderator note:

Attachments deleted. You must not upload copyrighted material to MR. If you want to send files to Kovid, please do so via his site, not MR.

Thanks.

01-24-2010, 11:53 PM	#278
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	Kovid, I am still trying to figure out my conversion issues. I will try and be as specific as possible in the hopes you or someone else might be able to advise me what the issue is. have about 200 secure eReader books which have all been 'liberated' and then saved to clean HTML using the following procedure: run the script, open the file in Firefox and select-all/copy, paste into Neo Office, save as HTML, open again in Firefox and select-all/copy, paste into Kompozer html program, run Text Wrangler and find/replace <br><br><br> with <br><br> This seems to produce the cleanest HTML without the weird stuff Neo Office puts in and without extraneous line breaks and other formatting glitches. I know it is a laborious process but it produces nice-looking files. I have these all in Calibre and they are all saved there both as html as originally imported, and in LRF for when I had them on the Sony. I am trying to convert them to Mobipocket for my new Kindle. Here is what has been happening: On about half the files, when I click convert and go to look and feel, the input format it defaults to is "zip" and the "no text justification" box is pre-checked. I un-check it, convert and everything looks great. It looks as it should in Calibre and on the Kindle. The conversion is fast and painless. On the other half of the files, the input format comes up as LRF instead of Zip, and the boxes are all unchecked. These files have several problems when I convert them. Sometimes, they are not justified. Sometimes, there are large gaps between paragraphs or super-long indents. The conversions always take a super-long time and I get files that look terrible. I am just baffled as to what is occurring. These files were all created int he exact same way so I am not sure why there should be such differences in there behaviour. With a few of them, I tried saving them as epub and then looking at the CSS. I am a total beginner with CSS but nothing seemed amiss there. A few times I tried converting the epub into mobi and got the same results. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to which files are in the 'good' group and which are not, although a greater percentage of the 'good' ones seem to be more recent. So could it have something to do with which version of Calibre first dealt with them? If I delete the 'bad' ones and re-import them, would that fix the problem? Or is something else going on?

01-25-2010, 07:56 PM	#285
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	Okay, here they are Book 8 is the 'bad' file and book 9 is the 'good' one Moderator note: Attachments deleted. You must not upload copyrighted material to MR. If you want to send files to Kovid, please do so via his site, not MR. Thanks. Last edited by HarryT; 01-26-2010 at 02:43 AM.

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01-20-2010, 11:43 PM	#271
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,382 Karma: 27756918 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	1) That happens when you try to set metadata in very old PRC files. You have to convert them from MOBI to MOBI to be able to set metadata in them 2) There isn't and there wasn't for LRF either 3) Why don't you just directly convert ereader files after removing the DRM?

01-21-2010, 12:05 AM	#273
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,382 Karma: 27756918 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Feel free to open a ticket requesting a feature to force justification.

01-21-2010, 12:19 AM	#274
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	I have opened a ticket, thanks

01-21-2010, 12:13 PM	#275
GRiker Comparer of the Ephemeris Posts: 1,496 Karma: 424697 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: iPad	nickredding: Can you post or PM me the recipe you're using that generates MOBIs exhibiting the problem? G

01-23-2010, 11:26 AM	#277
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,382 Karma: 27756918 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Why would you want it set to PDOC?

01-25-2010, 12:29 AM	#279
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,382 Karma: 27756918 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	What is chosen as the input format depends on a lot of factors. Just delete the LRF files and convert using your clean sources. Why are you converting from LRF if you have clean sources?

01-25-2010, 12:37 AM	#280
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	I am not trying to convert from LRF. I am saying that the ones where that comes up as the default when I click on convert seem to be the ones that do not convert properly even if I switch it to zip before attempting.

01-25-2010, 12:56 AM	#281
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,382 Karma: 27756918 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	The fact that they have different defaults just means that they were converted before. calibre uses previous conversion settings when re-converting a book.

01-25-2010, 01:25 AM	#282
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	Okay, but the problem is that the ones who are defaulting to zip seem to have something about them that converts better/easier to mobi than the other ones and I am baffled as to what. To give you an example, when I try and convert one that defaults to LRF, I change it to zip and it does not have the box about justification ticked as the zip-defaulting ones do. Then it will take five minutes to convert instead of 25 seconds. And then it will have extraneous line breaks and no justification. Something seems to be wrong with some of the files and the indicator as to whether it is a good file or a bad file seems to be what it is defaulting to when I press the convert button. I have gone through and done all the 'good' ones and still have about 175 LRF files. I would hate to have to go through each one individually and delete it, re-format it from scratch, re-import it again and put in the covers/metadata again. There has to be something that is different about these files and is causing the problem but I don't know what it is.

01-25-2010, 11:01 AM	#283
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,382 Karma: 27756918 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Hard to say, without looking at the files in question.

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01-25-2010, 12:51 PM	#284
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	I'll send you two of them tonight They are sequential books in a series, so there is no reason why Book 8 should be the only bad one out of all of them.