Suggested best formats for JBL?

[asterion]

All the formats JBL can handle seem to work well for me, but epub has those extra spacings between lines I don't like and if you want title/author line to be represented correctly better stick to plain text: it's the only way you'll the job done. In case you have a text with pictures mobi is a very good format to choose.

Enjoy your JBL.

[asterion]

For format conversion I would recommend you abc amber text converter. It has batch conversion and can convert a wide array of formats and very fast

[scarab1]

Originally Posted by steven522

I second the plain text. I have converted the books I read to TXT and threw a few simple line spacings in to allow chapter to break to a new page. I have been tracking down some older books I would like to re-read, and converting the RTF and HTML to straight text using simple word processors like ConText and note/wordpad for direct search and replace of formatting strings. If needed, then Word itself can clear end-of-line breaks that occur in the middle of sentences.

Steven,

Can you tell me more about what you do with inserting line breaks to force page breaks at chapters? I have some TXT files that do this and others that don't, and I haven't been able to figure out what the magic difference is.


Thanks,

Steve

[jblitereader]

Originally Posted by scarab1

Steven,

Can you tell me more about what you do with inserting line breaks to force page breaks at chapters? I have some TXT files that do this and others that don't, and I haven't been able to figure out what the magic difference is.


Thanks,

Steve

If you throw in 4 empty lines between the chapters the next chapter will show up in a new page.

[steven522]

Originally Posted by scarab1

what you do with inserting line breaks to force page breaks at chapters?

Use an editor that places CRLF at the end of each line.
Place 4 empty (Return/Enter only no spaces, etc) lines before the title or chapter.
Place a single empty line after the title or chapter.

Example (~ represents Empty line):
~
~
~
~
The Time Machine
H.G.Wells
~
~
~
~
Chapter 1
~
The Time Traveller

The above will center and bold the title and author and then skip to the next page. The chapter title will be center and bold with the first chapter normal.
If you forget to put the empty line after the chapter, the rest following will be centered and bold.

[steven522]

Originally Posted by dougf4

does "Open Office" do a better job or is just the preferred word processor of some?

Well this is what I am doing right now as I tend to keep a USB flash drive in my pocket at all times:

I have an 8GB flash drive with all "raw" books on it, most of them are html encoded off of different web sites, etc., held in an "ebook" folder.

On the root of the drive I have placed the free "NotePad2" editor which does not need an install and runs off of the portable flash drive on any Windows based OS.

I launch the NotePad2 program and navigate to the ebook folder and open the raw html file.

Within NotePad2, you can search and replace the newline characters "\r\n" with the "transform backslashes" option checked. I usually do this first and replace the newline characters with a single space. This will make sure that you do not end up with two words jammedtogether.

Then search and replace all </p> ( and/or <p> depending on the html encoder used ) and replace with "\r\n" (with transform backslashes checked) to get all paragraphs locked to a single line.

After that, I do search and replace for various bold, underline, emphasis, etc., commands to clear the html formatting. If the chapter headers have obvious <H1> html header blocks around them, you can search and replace with a string of 5 "\r\n" to make sure you have 4 empty lines before each.

I continue on after the mass changes with a quick scroll up/down to look for any odd looking lines that might need to be manually cleaned up.

Once done, I save the file to a name like "Author_Last, First # [Series_Number -] Book Name.txt". This will allow proper naming and sorting in the jetbook's book list display.

I keep all books on an SD card with the folders named "!Sci-Fi" and "!Horror" so that the SD card folders appear first on the book list. Within those categories I put sub folders to further divide what I have ("Classics", "aliens", "werewolf" or by author names).

[TJD]

Originally Posted by steven522

I launch the NotePad2 program and navigate to the ebook folder and open the raw html file..

Greetings:

This is my first post here and I hope you won't mind a suggestion from a newbie...

Take a look at NoteTab. IMHO this is the best software there is for easy mass manipulation of text. There are a couple of free versions. I've used it extensively for massaging Gutenberg downloads and web pages and the like before putting them into my Aluratek. The whole process can be macro-ized very quickly. One click and the job is done. It uses regular expressions as well and has excellent support. Probably the best single piece of shareware I've ever bought.

Let me add: this is a great forum! I've learned more in the few days I've been here than in the several months I've had my Aluratek.

So, thanks everyone!

Best,

Tim

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by treetotree

Where can I purchase popular fiction. I have been told only at Ereader.com and Fictionwise. They do not seem to have much of a selection. Lots of romance and erotica. I am looking for NY Times best sellers. B&N says no, Kobo says no Ebook mall says no. My JBL is on the way, I am thinking of returning it. I found out about the lack of my type of available content after I bought it.

A year back these books were available but it seems the big publishers are conducting a war with Amazon and Apple so they have vanished or marked out of stock.

Also, are you prepared to pay $12 for a book available as a $7.99 pb or more than the cover price for an hc ?

It makes no difference to me because these expensive DRM/ encrypted eBooks are also restricted to US & Canada purchasers and I am in the UK.

[jlg432]

Treetotree, I assume you are look for popular fiction that you can purchase for the JBL DRM format. I own a JB with no DRM support prior to FW .35a.

That didn't stop me. One DRM format that is used at quite a few online sellers is the Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) ePub/PDF DRM format. This format is fairly easy to remove making your purchase readable on any e-reader even if it doesn't support ePub or PDF because once the DRM is gone you can convert the format as well.

If you install Overdrive this may give you access to your Local Public Library for access to ADE epub/PDF e-books.

[jlg432]

The best format is the one that allows you to use most of the features that are built into your reader.

PDF - Supports active TOC but does not support "Dictionary" or "Find"
The new JB firmware .35a supports Text Flow on/off - which is a big enhancement when reading PDF documents on a small screen.

ePub before JB FW .35a supported "Dictionary" and "Find" functions

ePub after JB bFW .35a loses "Dictionary" and "Find" function but gains active TOC and doucment supplied fonts just like PDF docs.

All other formats support "Dictionary" and "Find" functions.

Basic functions across the board are "Jump To", Bookmark handling, Recently Read list, Page rotation

Some of the other features are not supported under PDF and the new ADE ePub reader under JB FW .35a Font sizing, justification and selection.

John

[dougf4]

Calibre Question - For those of you who are using Calibre:

Are you customizing any settings for the JBL or simply selecting the Jetbook ad leaving everything else as default?

I am getting mixed results when using Calibre to convert to EPub and .Txt.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Doug

[CraneTseng]

Originally Posted by dougf4

Are you customizing any settings for the JBL or simply selecting the Jetbook ad leaving everything else as default?

I do use Calbre. Either the GUI (mixed experience) or the command line conversion. The thing I always set is the turning off of the cover picture.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by dougf4

Calibre Question - For those of you who are using Calibre:

Are you customizing any settings for the JBL or simply selecting the Jetbook ad leaving everything else as default?

I am getting mixed results when using Calibre to convert to EPub and .Txt.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Doug

Generally, my results with Calibre have been consistent for each source.
For most of the sources just setting the "Jetbook 5-inch" output profile does
a fairly good job. There are some odd files from time to time that may require
some additional attention to get them to display right. I am not very picky
though, I am mostly just interested in the story or the point of the book.

Maybe if you describe what results you find disappointing, we can come up
with settings or other fixes, to get the kind of results you are looking for.
(You might want to try describing what you want at the Calibre forum as well.)

Luck;
Ken

[dougf4]

I've given up on Caliber for "final" .txt formatting. Whenever I convert to a .txt file, I just open it up in MSWord and polish it up to display properly on my JBL.

I found a .txt file that displayed great on my JBL and have cloned the settings as a template.

Margins: Top & Bottom @ 1" Sides @ 1.04"
Paper Size: @ 8.5 X 11
Font: - doesn't seem to really make a difference what I select for font or size as once it gets into JBL it all looks the same - which is fine and very readable.

[dougf4]

Regarding PDF Files.

I have some pretty ugly looking PDF files on the JBL, fonts way too small or if you try to change screen size the text will run past the margins.

I'd like to try some formatting changes especially with margins and fonts.

Other than the paid Acrobat are there any free products that will allow these types of edits and saves?

I've tried NitroPDF but do not see where you can edit and then re-save a PDF with it. I can only see where you can do pretty much a "one-click" conversion from PDF to another format.

Maybe it's best just to try to convert these PDFs to another format?? If so, any advice/tips in what format and settings to use?

Again, much thanks for all the help for this newbie - it is much appreciated.

Doug