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Old 07-15-2009, 07:10 AM   #1
Metathron
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A couple of questions

Hi guys,

I have just bought this little gadget yesterday and I have a couple of questions.

1. What's the best text format to be used on it, in your opinion?

Pdf looks really stretched, and having to continuously scroll left-right and up-down on the same page is really tiresome, there's no way I'm going to read like that. Or, if it's not stretched, the letters are tiny and you have to look really close which is very strenuous.

I tried converting pdf to txt or htm but in a lot of cases there's at least something wrong, like lots of spaces inbetween words or paragraphs (that are not there in the original) or not enough spaces so everything is lumped together (e.g. the copyright page, the preface, ...) or strange symbol. So conversion doesn't seem to help, except in some rare cases.

Ebooks that are originally in txt or htm format seem to be the best option and I've downloaded a free Mobipocket book and that looks really neat too.

EDIT: I've downloaded a pdf book from the mybebook.com site and that one looks good (no need for scrolling left-right, big letters), so it seems that some pdf files are optimized for ebook readers whereas others are not?

2. The trash can button on the left hand side doesn't work (in version 1.0, I've found out). I found a 1.2 update/patch on Bookeen's home page, but the instructions said I had to copy the file to an SD device or some such, but I don't have that. Why can't I just copy it to the reader itself???

I was really excited to finally purchase an ebook reader, something I've been planning to do for quite some time, but at the end of the day, I was left feeling a bit disappointed. Maybe you guys can give me some advice that'll put me in a more chipper mood.

Thanks in advance for all/any input.

Last edited by Metathron; 07-15-2009 at 07:26 AM.
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Old 07-15-2009, 07:29 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Metathron View Post
Hi guys,

I have just bought this little gadget yesterday and I have a couple of questions.

1. What's the best text format to be used on it, in your opinion?
Mobipocket, beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Quote:
2. The trash can button on the left hand side doesn't work (in version 1.0, I've found out). I found a 1.2 update/patch on Bookeen's home page, but the instructions said I had to copy the file to an SD device or some such, but I don't have that. Why can't I just copy it to the reader itself???
That's just the way it is. Don't sweat it.
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Old 07-15-2009, 07:55 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by Metathron View Post
I found a 1.2 update/patch on Bookeen's home page, but the instructions said I had to copy the file to an SD device or some such, but I don't have that. Why can't I just copy it to the reader itself???
Just buy an SD card. They are very cheap. The reason to update from the SD card is probably that it is more robust than updating from an internal partition.

But if you bought the Cybook recently you should have the latest firmware and should not update
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Old 07-15-2009, 08:55 AM   #4
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What's the best text format to be used on it, in your opinion?
HarryT's right. At the moment, Mobipocket, no question. Get the free Mobipocket Converter if you're on Windows. Otherwise Calibre does a decent job.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Metathron View Post
The trash can button on the left hand side doesn't work (in version 1.0, I've found out). I found a 1.2 update/patch on Bookeen's home page, but the instructions said I had to copy the file to an SD device or some such, but I don't have that. Why can't I just copy it to the reader itself???
The 1.2 build 796 doesn't have the delete button working either. We're told that the next firmware update (due 'real soon now') will fix this.

Do experiment with fonts - just put in the fonts folder. I'm fond of Fontin (free!). http://www.josbuivenga.demon.nl/fontin.html You want the PC (TTF) version.

The next firmware version will (we're told) come in two versions - one supporting Mobipocket and one supporting ePUB. But don't hold your breath for it.

Get an SD Card - any SD Card up to 2GB should work fine. And they're dirt cheap now.
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Old 07-15-2009, 09:07 AM   #5
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The next firmware version will (we're told) come in two versions - one supporting Mobipocket and one supporting ePUB. But don't hold your breath for it.
Yes, there WILL be two firmware version. the one with mobi is prettty much done, we're running it. The one with epub is almost done too (Weltbilt version, and it's running on the opus too).

The opus will also have two version.

It's just a matter of time.
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Old 07-15-2009, 10:40 AM   #6
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Thank you so much for your answers, especially re: the free Mobipocket Creator software (I reckon that's the one you meant?) which seems to be doing a good job of converting some of my pdfs into html. Others look like a disaster, though. But I guess that's how it goes - works with some files and doesn't with others?

Last edited by Metathron; 07-15-2009 at 10:45 AM.
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Old 07-15-2009, 10:41 AM   #7
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Yeah, mobi procket creator is the best pdf-to-someting-else-converter i've seen.
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Old 07-15-2009, 01:51 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Metathron View Post
Thank you so much for your answers, especially re: the free Mobipocket Creator software (I reckon that's the one you meant?) which seems to be doing a good job of converting some of my pdfs into html. Others look like a disaster, though. But I guess that's how it goes - works with some files and doesn't with others?
The *BEST* way to convert from PDF to mobi is to get a copy of Adobe Acrobat Professional. With AcrobatPro, you can export from PDF to HTML, DOC, RTF, XML and TXT, among others.

I find that exporting to HTML (3.x w/o CSS), opening the file in Kompozer (a freeware WYSIWYG HTML editor, selecting all text and copy/pasting into Atlantis ($35 RTF/DOC WYSIWYG editor), doing any text editing that may need to be done (some PDF files save 'f' and 'i' or 'f' and 'l' as 'fi' and 'fl' (single characters) or when exported embed page headers and page numbers in the text file-which must be removed), and then save as a DOC file which can be converted to mobi using either BookDesigner or Mobipocket Creator, works best for me.

Derek
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Old 07-15-2009, 02:02 PM   #9
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Yes, Mobipocket Creator is the one I meant. Thought "Creator" and typed "Converter". Sigh.

PDF is a good end format for print. It's a terrible source format. So converting from PDF to Mobipocket (or anything else) is always a bit hit-and-miss.

You can edit the HTML that Mobipocket Creator generates from the PDFs, which with suitable global search&replace can make the result a lot better.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Metathron View Post
Thank you so much for your answers, especially re: the free Mobipocket Creator software (I reckon that's the one you meant?) which seems to be doing a good job of converting some of my pdfs into html. Others look like a disaster, though. But I guess that's how it goes - works with some files and doesn't with others?
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Old 07-20-2009, 05:41 AM   #10
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You just bought a Cybook and it's loaded with the 1.0 version ? I hope
you didn't bought a branded new one, because it's really a old one...
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Old 07-24-2009, 06:20 AM   #11
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Yes, it's a brand new one. I don't know which version it's loaded with, I assumed it was 1.0 because the recycle bin button wasn't working, but obviously that's not it.
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Old 07-24-2009, 06:26 AM   #12
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a pthread?? where? where?
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To know the version you have, you have to go open the Menu, selected "Advanced" (the last item) and select "About" (the last item too)

You will get a dialog that will say the BooReader version with something like "1.4 (build 923)"
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Old 07-31-2009, 07:05 AM   #13
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Cybook version ARM920T (400 MHz)
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