Converting EPUB to AZW3/MOBI

[cybmole]

I do the former as I still prefer sigil editor. Calibre may well be a better tool but it's the learning curve that puts me off. sigil does all that I want

[pdurrant]

I'd edit the ePub and then convert. Consider the ePub as your source and the AZW3 as your compiled ebook.

[cybmole]

just be aware, that if you are alo using the original_epub recovery option in calibre , your AZW will be made from that and NOT from your carefully edited EPUB.
Apparently that design decision bugs no one but me & Kovid is adamant it will not ever change; so you have to delete any original_epub format before making your AZW

[eschwartz]

While I wouldn't have made the design decision myself, I quite see Kovid's point.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

While I wouldn't have made the design decision myself, I quite see Kovid's point.

OK. care to explain why allowing the user to choose what format to convert from would be SOOOO BAD ?

[eschwartz]

Now why on earth do you even have ORIGINAL_FMT formats anyway?
It can be assumed that any such artifacts are the original source. Converting from a non-original source is what we call "lossy", except when we call it "bad".
Also, my text editor doesn't try to be helpful and offer to open the backup file instead. Similar idea, going the other way.

I am fairly certain this has been explained before...

[cybmole]

it has, as have my counter points.

Ideally, I could have, for any title
1. original_epub = the version I placed in the library, which is where I want to keep it.
2. epub = a personal reading copy of 1, which I have tweaked and tidied
3. azw: I'd like it to be a conversion of 2. to see how 2. looks in different reader/device

but to get to 3 I have to throw out 1 from the library i.e. I can't easily have all formats of all books in one place which is what I think a library should allow.

nothing new here,except that as calibre has at least 784 user preference options already, some of which are doubtless silly, where's the harm in having one more

taking your text editor analogy: word is quite happy to open a backup file, if one exists & if I tell it to, it is equally happy to let me re-edit the latest version, it does not purport to tell me what my workflow should be. It doesn't say that I cant access the backup unless first I delete any currrent version in the same folder...

now if the response had been: from a tech/design prespective what you want is a huge hassle & no one else wants it so go to back of queue - fine.
if the response is : you are asking for user choice and calibre is NOT about providing options, well... that would seem very strange.
So when the actual response is not going to happen, my way or the highway, it does not seem to gell well ...

but I am (mostly ) resigned to :
compose a short sentence from the following words:

hose, dead, a, flogging, are, you

[JSWolf]

The reason to have the original format is in case you've done something to the original that ended up in a conversion or a polish that needs to be redone using the original source or the plugin Modify ePub did something you didn't want done.

It's trivial to delete the original source once you are sure your new working copy is the way you want.

[theducks]

There are tweaks to prevent 'original_*' from being made

You can use the Tag Browser: formats to locate the books.
Multiselect those: right-click: (Delete)Remove specific format

[cybmole]

both of those last 2 posts' points have been made before, so has my counter that yes, it's trivial to delete, but it's not so trivial to put humpty dumpty back together again; and it looks trivial from the outside to add a user choice on what file is used as source.

but for my previous perverse reasons , I don't want to delete orig epub.


in the sequence of
1. add original epub 2. convert -> epub ( looks ok ) 3. -> delete orig .
4 convert -> azw, or some other new format ( maybe weeks/ months after step 3 )

its arguable that only in the final step do you realize that you made something that looked ok at 2, but looks odd in that final conversion. so you want to go back to step 2 & start over., rather than be forced back to step 1.

Well that's my disallowed scenario. I can accept that to others it seems perverse, pointless, stupid, whatever. I can accept that its low priority, and probably will never happen..

What galls is being told that it's so stupid that I have to be protected from my own stupidity by not being allowed to do it. or that adding the option will somehow cause lots of others to follow me, lemming like, off the same cliff, and the programmers will then get the blame ???




but the dead horse is asking not to be flogged any more today

off topic, but one of my old bosses had a sign on his wall saying

" the floggings will continue until morale improves "

I think that is where we are at

morale is saying let's go read a book instead.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The reason to have the original format is in case you've done something to the original that ended up in a conversion or a polish that needs to be redone using the original source or the plugin Modify ePub did something you didn't want done.

IMO, the confusion is with the name - would better if it had been LASTGOOD_xxxx.

BR

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by cybmole

nothing new here,except that as calibre has at least 784 user preference options already, some of which are doubtless silly, where's the harm in having one more

taking your text editor analogy: word is quite happy to open a backup file, if one exists & if I tell it to, it is equally happy to let me re-edit the latest version, it does not purport to tell me what my workflow should be. It doesn't say that I cant access the backup unless first I delete any currrent version in the same folder...

You mean, if you manually save another .docx?

I mean to say, that if I have a "somefile~" and I try to open "somefile", it doesn't try to get me to use the backup... because it assumes the newer version is better. I assume Word does the same i.e. .asd files are used only when corruption occurs.

Naturally, if I go outside the box and load the backup file specifically, I can do so. Feel free to use ebook-convert to convert ORIGINAL_FMT files.

now if the response had been: from a tech/design prespective what you want is a huge hassle & no one else wants it so go to back of queue - fine.
if the response is : you are asking for user choice and calibre is NOT about providing options, well... that would seem very strange.
So when the actual response is not going to happen, my way or the highway, it does not seem to gell well ...

I am pretty sure the aforementioned previous discussion involved you being told "your misuse of the ORIGINAL_FMT feature is not valid grounds to shoehorn random settings in just to fit your workflow" -- when no one else in calibre's multimillion-person userbase is doing as you are doing. That is because, again, you are misusing and abusing the feature. It works for you? Fine -- but that is not a guarantee of anything. You will not get any support for doing so.
You want calibre to version-control your ebooks and allow you to convert from different snapshots? File a feature request. (request == something currently not done.) Don't complain when abusing a totally different feature gets you halfway and then walks off on you.

calibre is all about options -- assuming the Dictator-in-Chief decides that that particular option is a good thing.

[cybmole]

quote
I am pretty sure the aforementioned previous discussion involved you being told "your misuse of the ORIGINAL_FMT feature is not valid grounds....

yep - but wanting to not have to delete an original-FTM copy in my one & only library was pretty blatant misuse .
Sheesh- if calibre is so violently opposed to keeping original_FMT exept as a temporary conversion aid, why doesn't it go the whole way and auto purge them all once a month

file a feature request? - been there done that, dead horse flogged.

quote :calibre is all about options -- assuming the Dictator-in-Chief decides that that particular option is a good thing.

true that.

no sense prolonging this. I know I can do workarounds which break calibre integrity on other ways, like DOS command bulk renames of all orig_FMT extensions. It's a shame to have to break an otherwise well designed database , just to be able to convert from the latest epub but there you go
it would be something like this; flipping the rename line around would reverse the process:
I think it would work on all sub-folders as-is.
run
cmd
cd My Documents/Calibre Library
rename *.original_epub *.mysource

if not, then the process given here will
http://www.windows-commandline.com/r...tensions-bulk/

[eschwartz]

Auto-purges are unfriendly. Let the user delete it if needed, with the assumption that it only matters once the new.FMT is manually edited -- in which case the user can make an informed decision.
If not, how should calibre know that you are ready to sign off on the new.FMT?

Conversions are by nature lossy -- so unless the user confirms a new canonical copy, why convert from the intermediate format?

[cybmole]

i was not serious about auto-purge just making a point.
so why convert from latest version ( which you call intermediate) - well -

to spell it out one more time. After using epub for years I bought a new Kindle Fire HDX & I wanted to see how my epubs would look on that, in the native app , in AZW.
not my "as published" epubs but the " painstakingly tweaked to use my preferred fonts, margins etc" versions that I'd created. but I am NOT ALLOWED to do that , unless I first remove all the original_epubs.
That is not version control, it is not something i need support for, it is IMHO a reasonable request for a genuine scenario
but hey ho, the Wizard of OZ disagrees, strongly.

PS, before all of this I'd spent a long time re-adding books & ensuring that I had original_Epubs, after previous rash bulk conversions had left me with tweaked versions that were no longer ideal . they had been done for epub device A, but I'd switched to epub device B & wanted to start over.
so I have strong reasons for not wanting to remove them.