Is there a program that will merge prc files and...

GatorDeb · 09-24-2008, 03:27 AM

I have fallen in love with RSS Feeds and MobiPocket reader. It takes the whole article and formats it perfectly and transfers it to my Kindle. I have hundreds and hundreds of feeds, and should reach 1000+ feeds by the weekend. The complete New York Times, Time, Newsweek, CNN, tons of blogs, USA Today, Vegas newspapers and TV station, The Miami Herald for nostalgia's sake, etc.

The problem is that a single newspaper, blog, or site might have tons of feeds... 80-something feeds, even over a hundred feeds. So I have hundreds of files in the Kindle to go through. Here's what I want.

Let's say I have:

Time News.prc
Time Opinion.prc
Time Health.prc
Time Business.prc

(Each prc file has perfectly linked TOCs that lead to the whole article).

Is there a program that will merge those files into Time.prc, with a TOC that has

Time News
Time Opinion
Time Health
Time Business

and then when you clicked on any of those you then get taken to their own respective TOCs.

That would make it a dream come true. I've cut down my Kindle subscriptions because most of it I now get for free (and easily).

Thanks!

nekokami · 10-14-2008, 02:24 PM

I have a friend with a Kindle who has the same question, so if anyone knows, and would post here, I'd appreciate it.

Bob Butler · 10-14-2008, 03:26 PM

Try this: Use Mobi2Mobi and change the title of all Times prc's to "The New York Times" and change the author to whatever the title used to be.

The Kindle will group them in a "folder" the way it does with Amazon magazine subscriptions and when you select the folder you'll just get a list of feeds for the NYT.

Not quite what you are looking for, but it works pretty well to de-clutter the home page.

It's relatively easy to write a .bat/.cmd file to do it automatically. You do need to manually sync them rather than using the Mobi auto-sync feature. There are lots of ways to do that automatically too.

BTW, the NYT does have consolidated feeds: The "Business Feed" consists of articles from five of the smaller feeds for example.

Edit: Here's an example:

mobi2mobi "c:\mobi\feeds\NYT__Week_in_Review_AAB6555B.pr c" --title "The New York Times" --author "NYT Week in Review" --outfile "k:\documents\NYT__Week_in_Review_AAB6555B.prc "

Assuming k: is your kindle drive, that will write it directly to the kindle

Leep · 10-14-2008, 04:43 PM

Since these are ongoing "like" documents, I would think that you could do this by creating a template in mobipocket creator and then running the feeds against the template. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with Creator to know how one would do that. Maybe someone else it.

GatorDeb · 10-15-2008, 12:29 AM

I ask, no replies, someone else asks, two replies

I haven't tried it for feeds yet but I used it for books, setting the title as Fictionwise and then the author as the Title -- Author. That way I can create folder!! Thanks for that information, it is awesome.

I also created my first batch file - I love it! It does make things quicker.

I tried setting the title as the same and then the author as the book name, and now I just have a bunch of books with the same title... it's not putting them in "Folders" ... is there an extra step?

Bob Butler · 10-15-2008, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I tried setting the title as the same and then the author as the book name, and now I just have a bunch of books with the same title... it's not putting them in "Folders" ... is there an extra step?

I had never tried it with anything other than feeds. I just tried it with a couple of books from Fictionwise and see the same thing you do.

Feeds through Mobireader are booktype "News" instead of "Book", maybe it only works on certain types. That would make sense, it's possible for two different books to have the same title and you wouldn't necessarily want them grouped. News or Magazines on the other hand, it makes sense to group.

Bob

GatorDeb · 10-15-2008, 04:55 AM

I loaded a few Amazon periodicals through mobi2mobi to see if I could figure out how to flag the books as periodicals (I always have Show All, so I don't need the types separate). Does anyone know how to change the type from book to periodical? That way I can set all books as periodicals... that would be so awesome, to have just 4 or 5 entries on the home screen instead of hundreds of books!

tompe · 10-20-2008, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I loaded a few Amazon periodicals through mobi2mobi to see if I could figure out how to flag the books as periodicals (I always have Show All, so I don't need the types separate). Does anyone know how to change the type from book to periodical? That way I can set all books as periodicals... that would be so awesome, to have just 4 or 5 entries on the home screen instead of hundreds of books!

There was a thread somewhere about this but I do not think anybody succeeded in figuring out how to do it. If I am wrong I hope somebody correct me...

GatorDeb · 10-22-2008, 05:15 AM

I emailed Amazon asking how to set the metadata to differentiate between periodical and book, and they told me that's proprietary information and they do not divulge it.

GatorDeb · 10-22-2008, 06:22 AM

Just thought of a question... is there a way to take all files in a directory and change an attribute using mobi2mobi? I can create a batch file but I would have to copy and paste all the names in different lines.....

Thanks!

pilotbob · 10-22-2008, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I emailed Amazon asking how to set the metadata to differentiate between periodical and book, and they told me that's proprietary information and they do not divulge it.

I think Hadrien and some others here figured that out. Did you search the forums to find this. I know hard to know what to search on.

BOb

slayda · 10-22-2008, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I loaded a few Amazon periodicals through mobi2mobi to see if I could figure out how to flag the books as periodicals (I always have Show All, so I don't need the types separate). Does anyone know how to change the type from book to periodical? That way I can set all books as periodicals... that would be so awesome, to have just 4 or 5 entries on the home screen instead of hundreds of books!

If you have the "Publisher's Edition of Mobipocket Creator" and are creating the Mobipocket yourself, you can make this change there. Don't know if this helps. You could probably use mobi2html with your originals and make the Mobipocket from the result.

GatorDeb · 10-22-2008, 03:46 PM

I found it here!! Searching for Periodicals on this forum. The command is

mobi2mobi filename.prc --booktype "257" --outfile filename.prc

Works LIKE A CHARM.

Thanks whoever figured THAT one out!

Now I have about 600 books on my Kindle... anyone know how to set the booktype of all of them at the same time?

I wonder if changing the booktype makes the Kindle re-search them. It's been about 4 days since it had 500 files to go and it's at 100 files, so it's about 100 files a day that it can get through. Almost done!

bwaldron · 10-22-2008, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I found it here!! Searching for Periodicals on this forum. The command is

mobi2mobi filename.prc --booktype "257" --outfile filename.prc

Works LIKE A CHARM.

Thanks whoever figured THAT one out!

Now I have about 600 books on my Kindle... anyone know how to set the booktype of all of them at the same time?

My Windows command line skills are rusty...but something like:

for %%a in (*.prc) do mobi2mobi "%%a" --booktype "257" --outfile "%%a"

run in a batch (cmd) file placed somewhere in your path, should work to change the booktype on all files in a single folder.

If my syntax is a bit rusty, this should at least point you in the right direction.

GatorDeb · 10-22-2008, 05:22 PM

for %%a in (*.mobi) do mobi2mobi.exe "%%a" --booktype "257" --title "Free" --author "%%a" --outfile "%%a"

!!!

It edited them, now to test the Kindle.

09-24-2008, 03:27 AM	#1
GatorDeb Evangelist Posts: 447 Karma: 5365 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sin City Device: PW2 + HDX 8.9	Is there a program that will merge prc files and... I have fallen in love with RSS Feeds and MobiPocket reader. It takes the whole article and formats it perfectly and transfers it to my Kindle. I have hundreds and hundreds of feeds, and should reach 1000+ feeds by the weekend. The complete New York Times, Time, Newsweek, CNN, tons of blogs, USA Today, Vegas newspapers and TV station, The Miami Herald for nostalgia's sake, etc. The problem is that a single newspaper, blog, or site might have tons of feeds... 80-something feeds, even over a hundred feeds. So I have hundreds of files in the Kindle to go through. Here's what I want. Let's say I have: Time News.prc Time Opinion.prc Time Health.prc Time Business.prc (Each prc file has perfectly linked TOCs that lead to the whole article). Is there a program that will merge those files into Time.prc, with a TOC that has Time News Time Opinion Time Health Time Business and then when you clicked on any of those you then get taken to their own respective TOCs. That would make it a dream come true. I've cut down my Kindle subscriptions because most of it I now get for free (and easily). Thanks! Last edited by GatorDeb; 09-24-2008 at 05:11 AM.

10-14-2008, 03:26 PM	#3
Bob Butler Connoisseur Posts: 85 Karma: 11090 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle, iPhone	Try this: Use Mobi2Mobi and change the title of all Times prc's to "The New York Times" and change the author to whatever the title used to be. The Kindle will group them in a "folder" the way it does with Amazon magazine subscriptions and when you select the folder you'll just get a list of feeds for the NYT. Not quite what you are looking for, but it works pretty well to de-clutter the home page. It's relatively easy to write a .bat/.cmd file to do it automatically. You do need to manually sync them rather than using the Mobi auto-sync feature. There are lots of ways to do that automatically too. BTW, the NYT does have consolidated feeds: The "Business Feed" consists of articles from five of the smaller feeds for example. Edit: Here's an example: mobi2mobi "c:\mobi\feeds\NYT__Week_in_Review_AAB6555B.pr c" --title "The New York Times" --author "NYT Week in Review" --outfile "k:\documents\NYT__Week_in_Review_AAB6555B.prc " Assuming k: is your kindle drive, that will write it directly to the kindle Last edited by Bob Butler; 10-14-2008 at 03:32 PM.

10-15-2008, 12:29 AM	#5
GatorDeb Evangelist Posts: 447 Karma: 5365 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sin City Device: PW2 + HDX 8.9	I ask, no replies, someone else asks, two replies I haven't tried it for feeds yet but I used it for books, setting the title as Fictionwise and then the author as the Title -- Author. That way I can create folder!! Thanks for that information, it is awesome. I also created my first batch file - I love it! It does make things quicker. I tried setting the title as the same and then the author as the book name, and now I just have a bunch of books with the same title... it's not putting them in "Folders" ... is there an extra step? Last edited by GatorDeb; 10-15-2008 at 12:32 AM.

10-22-2008, 05:22 PM	#15
GatorDeb Evangelist Posts: 447 Karma: 5365 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sin City Device: PW2 + HDX 8.9	for %%a in (.mobi) do mobi2mobi.exe "%%a" --booktype "257" --title "Free" --author "%%a" --outfile "%%a" !!! It edited them, now to test the Kindle. Last edited by GatorDeb; 10-22-2008 at 05:43 PM.*

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10-14-2008, 02:24 PM	#2
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I have a friend with a Kindle who has the same question, so if anyone knows, and would post here, I'd appreciate it.

10-14-2008, 04:43 PM	#4
Leep Guru Posts: 739 Karma: 1018859 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Near Seattle Device: kindle1, K3, K3G (thanks MR), iTouch, Kindle Touch	Since these are ongoing "like" documents, I would think that you could do this by creating a template in mobipocket creator and then running the feeds against the template. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with Creator to know how one would do that. Maybe someone else it.

10-15-2008, 04:55 AM	#7
GatorDeb Evangelist Posts: 447 Karma: 5365 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sin City Device: PW2 + HDX 8.9	I loaded a few Amazon periodicals through mobi2mobi to see if I could figure out how to flag the books as periodicals (I always have Show All, so I don't need the types separate). Does anyone know how to change the type from book to periodical? That way I can set all books as periodicals... that would be so awesome, to have just 4 or 5 entries on the home screen instead of hundreds of books!

10-22-2008, 05:15 AM	#9
GatorDeb Evangelist Posts: 447 Karma: 5365 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sin City Device: PW2 + HDX 8.9	I emailed Amazon asking how to set the metadata to differentiate between periodical and book, and they told me that's proprietary information and they do not divulge it.

10-22-2008, 06:22 AM	#10
GatorDeb Evangelist Posts: 447 Karma: 5365 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sin City Device: PW2 + HDX 8.9	Just thought of a question... is there a way to take all files in a directory and change an attribute using mobi2mobi? I can create a batch file but I would have to copy and paste all the names in different lines..... Thanks!

10-22-2008, 03:46 PM	#13
GatorDeb Evangelist Posts: 447 Karma: 5365 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sin City Device: PW2 + HDX 8.9	I found it here!! Searching for Periodicals on this forum. The command is mobi2mobi filename.prc --booktype "257" --outfile filename.prc Works LIKE A CHARM. Thanks whoever figured THAT one out! Now I have about 600 books on my Kindle... anyone know how to set the booktype of all of them at the same time? I wonder if changing the booktype makes the Kindle re-search them. It's been about 4 days since it had 500 files to go and it's at 100 files, so it's about 100 files a day that it can get through. Almost done!