Page turns, and readabilty

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by simple dave

On an unrelated matter, I'm now passing up my time converting all my files to rtf, in prepration for the reader... got to pass the time untill tracking information is available...

One perhaps useful tip, Dave - you'll probably find that you need to bump up the font size from what you'd normally use. General consensus is that 14pt-18pt is about right for the Reader. I use 16pt myself.

If I have an RTF file with standard 12pt text, what I do in "Word" to format for the Reader is:

1. Do "Edit/Select All" to select all the text.
2. Do "Ctrl+Shift+>" twice to bump up all the font sizes by 4pt.
3. Do "File/Properties" and fill in the "Author" and "Title" fields (these are what Reader uses to catalogue books in its file system).
4. Re-Save the file.

You now have a book nicely formatted for the Reader.

Hope that's of some assistance to you!

[dhbailey]

As another soon-to-be new owner (have to save the money up!) I have a question regarding the use of text files (such as from Project Gutenberg) and RTF files:

Which is better, given the same book, or are they both the same? The PG books all come with lots of extra hard-returns, but I have found a nifty utility which will strip all of them (as well as the PG material, should I choose), leaving a text file with only hard-returns between paragraphs, but with flowing text within paragraphs.

What can RTF offer for such files which the plain text files can't offer?

And does anybody have any opinion on the BlackMask DVD (through silkpagoda), where the Reader files are all in PDF format? Are they as easily read as the available RTF files or plain text files?

Thanks for any insights anybody can offer!

[HarryT]

I would recommend converting PG text files into RTF. There's a nifty Word macro you'll find in the conference Wiki which processes a PG text file into a nice RTF format for the Reader. The advantages of RTF over plain text are many. Eg:

1. You can set the font size to whatever you wish (Reader's font size for text file is very small!).

2. You can set the title and author fields so it catalogs nicely on the Reader.

3. It's easy to apply extra formatting for titles, etc.

[dhbailey]

Thank you for that advice -- unfortunately I don't have Word, being a WordPerfect user from way back, so the macro won't help me.

Could someone outline what the macro does so that I could look into coming up with a WordPerfect macro to do the same thing?

Thanks!

[HarryT]

It basically just gets rid of hard line breaks, except at the end of paragraphs, and sets the font to something readable.

Presumable WP has some mechanism for setting the file and author properties of an RTF file - that's what the Reader uses to catalog the file.

[dhbailey]

Again, thank you, HarryT, for your prompt and clear answers to my newbie questions.

Yes, it will be quite possible to do the same thing in WordPerfect. I'll begin working on that now, testing it on the Connect software (which I've already installed on my computer) and then when I get the Reader itself and I can be certain that it has worked properly, I'll post it.

Thanks!

[HarryT]

That's an excellent idea. You can, of course, test the cataloging stuff by loading the book into the Connect "Library", and the "Preview" facility gives you a fair idea of what it'll look like on the Reader.

[Dave Berk]

Thanks for the info, harry, really appreciate it. Just a quick question. What size should I set my page to, and what margins?

Thanks again.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by simple dave

Thanks for the info, harry, really appreciate it. Just a quick question. What size should I set my page to, and what margins?

Thanks again.

What you set the page margins and size to is irrelevent, because the Reader simply "re-flows" the text to fit its page. RTF isn't a page-based format like PDF. Make sure the paragraph indents are set to zero (which should be the default, anyway).

The Reader's page size is 90x120mm but, as I say, that only matters for page-based formats like PDF. You really don't have to worry about it for RTF.

[NatCh]

Another option, is to get the same PG texts via Manybooks.net -- they have them already in RTF, and they also offer a "Sony" format, which is an unsecured LRF file, for those who prefer that.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Another option, is to get the same PG texts via Manybooks.net -- they have them already in RTF, and they also offer a "Sony" format, which is an unsecured LRF file, for those who prefer that.

Excellent suggestion, Nat! I tend not to use the "Manybooks" LRF files, because I find their font size to be a little too small for me, but it's a good place to get the RTFs.

[NatCh]

Yeah, I pretty much stick with RTFs myself, but "to each his own," right?

[Plowman]

I have read about 25 books on the reader since I got it at Christmas. They have all been RTF files pushed through Word (first thing that popped into my head to set the file properties - title, author,etc). I usually set the font at a 12 point Times Roman or Tahoma.

I just finished "Something From The Nightside" by Simon Green. I read the book with the size set to Medium (12 point Times Roman). At that size I can easily read the text from 4 feet away in good lighting conditions. With those settings the reader has the book at 181 pages. I have no idea how long the paperback of the dead tree version would be.

Hopefully that gives you a slightly better idea about how the reader presents the material.

Enjoy

[henkvdg]

Originally Posted by Plowman

I have read about 25 books on the reader since I got it at Christmas. They have all been RTF files pushed through Word (first thing that popped into my head to set the file properties - title, author,etc). I usually set the font at a 12 point Times Roman or Tahoma.

I just finished "Something From The Nightside" by Simon Green. I read the book with the size set to Medium (12 point Times Roman). At that size I can easily read the text from 4 feet away in good lighting conditions. With those settings the reader has the book at 181 pages. I have no idea how long the paperback of the dead tree version would be.

Hopefully that gives you a slightly better idea about how the reader presents the material.

Enjoy

http://www.amazon.com/Something-Nigh.../dp/0441010652

says: 240 pages

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Plowman

I usually set the font at a 12 point Times Roman or Tahoma.

You've obviously got much better eyesight than me if you can comfortably read 12pt text on the Reader .

One minor point - there's little point in choosing a font like "Tahoma" because the Reader only has three fonts: "Times Roman", "Swiss", and "Courier". Any font gets mapped to one of these three, so even if you have "Tahoma" in the document, you'll get "Swiss" on the Reader.