New Reader-User looking for some tips/advice

[veshman]

Hi, I just bought the PRS-505 last week and it seems to be a really great device. But I am pretty new to the Reader world and have been reading about all the different eReaders out there. It seems like this Sony will probably be best for my needs, although the iRex seems very interesting too.

However, I was wondering if you guys could help me with the best way utlize the reader for my purposes.

1. I primarily use a Mac, although I could use VMWare Fusion if I have to (but I prefer staying in the OS X environment).

2. I read a lot of full page PDFs. Is the best way to read these in landscape mode? Or is there a way to convert them that is a little more friendly to the Reader?

3. A lot of the stuff I want to read is derived from the web, for example, maybe some articles from The Atlantic.com or other sources. What would be the best way to get them into a format that would be good for the 505 Reader (PDF, PDF with custom paper size, HTML, cut and paste into a text file, something else?).

4. Managing the books: This is probably the most challenging thing to do on the Sony, since it doesn't seem to recognize folder structure....so I'm not sure what the best way is to keep the different texts organized? Is this something I can do on the Mac, or do I need to use the Sony software? If I have lot of articles about a certain topic, I'd like to keep them together so I can find them easily on the Reader. Would the iRex be a better choice in this regard (it also has the benefit of marking up the documents which would be very useful, but not sure that it's worth an additional $400!).

5. A lot of PDFs have titles and names in the metadata that are not meaningful on the Sony reader. What's the best way to handle this since it doesn't seem to work off the filename?

I know that some of these questions have been answered in different parts of the forum, but I can't tell what "best practice" is for each of the above.

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm excited to be part of the eReader community!

Best regards,

Bhavesh

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by veshman

1. I primarily use a Mac, although I could use VMWare Fusion if I have to (but I prefer staying in the OS X environment).

If you do not need or want to use Collections, then you are good to go as the 505 shows up as a mass storage device and you can put your content on that way. But you will need a TRUE windows system to do any fuirmware upgrades. An emulated Windows on a MAC can bork the reader.

2. I read a lot of full page PDFs. Is the best way to read these in landscape mode? Or is there a way to convert them that is a little more friendly to the Reader?

You can use pdflrf. I think there's a Linux version and the Windows version. Don't think there is an OS X version at present.

3. A lot of the stuff I want to read is derived from the web, for example, maybe some articles from The Atlantic.com or other sources. What would be the best way to get them into a format that would be good for the 505 Reader (PDF, PDF with custom paper size, HTML, cut and paste into a text file, something else?).

What will work on a MAC with OS X (and very well too) is libprs500. It will do html2lrf and your content will them be in LRF which the reader will handle fine.

4. Managing the books: This is probably the most challenging thing to do on the Sony, since it doesn't seem to recognize folder structure....so I'm not sure what the best way is to keep the different texts organized? Is this something I can do on the Mac, or do I need to use the Sony software? If I have lot of articles about a certain topic, I'd like to keep them together so I can find them easily on the Reader. Would the iRex be a better choice in this regard (it also has the benefit of marking up the documents which would be very useful, but not sure that it's worth an additional $400!).

The 505 has what is called Collections. There are like directories off of the root with no subdirectories. The way to manage them is to use Ebook Reader. Not sure if Libprs500 is handling Collections on OS X at the moment.

5. A lot of PDFs have titles and names in the metadata that are not meaningful on the Sony reader. What's the best way to handle this since it doesn't seem to work off the filename?

There are programs out there to edit the metadata of PDF. You'll have to either search Google or the forum (one was mention not too long ago here). The metadata is not correct and what you are seeing to that problem.

I know that some of these questions have been answered in different parts of the forum, but I can't tell what "best practice" is for each of the above.

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm excited to be part of the Reader community!

Best regards,

Bhavesh

Glad to have you aboard. One thing those... please don't use the term eReader unless you are referring to eReader books or the eReader software. eReader is a format not available on any eink devices. All it can do is confuse things.

[veshman]

Jon,

Thanks for your reply! It was extremely helpful. And also thanks for pointing out the nomenclature as well.

It sounds like the best thing to do on the Mac, for me, for now, is to use Fusion to run the Sony software until Libprs500 is working for the 505. The same goes for pdflrf.

I think the last question I have is when I'm on my work computer, a PC, should I use iibprs500 to save html webpages to lrf format, or is there something better?

Thanks again,

Bhavesh

[kovidgoyal]

collections support for the 505 will be in the next release of libprs500.

[Taureg]

I have a Mac and use Parallels/Windows XP to get to Connect/Sony bookstore. I don't know whether they have corrected the problem, or whether it exists in Parallels 3.0, but there was a conflict between the OSX version I had and Parallels 2.x. The fix is on the treads on the Parallels.com site, which is excellent.

I found instructions on one of the Mobileread threads re:how to format content for the eReader. It is VERY simple to pull things off the Web, from Word, etc. - which is good, because I find Sony's book selection to be very limited (and I'm not into classics or SF). It takes about 3 minutes to re-do something:

Page Set Up: Custom
Page size: 3.54” X 4.72” (90 mm X 120 mm)
Margins: 0.07” (2 mm)
Save as “eReader” so you can use it in the future
Ignore the fact that only a small amount of text shows up via Print Preview

Other (Edit/Select All)
16 pt font minimum (not sure how much this really matters)
Format – Paragraph
Line Spacing: Single
6pt after paragraph
Left justify (may not matter)
Save as Rich Text Format

When done
Save to eReader folder/desktop
Drag to Library and then eReader

I tells friends who travel with stacks of documents to buy an eReader and use it so they don't need to schlep all that paper. I think this is a use that should get more attention.

Enjoy!

[veshman]

taureg, that's great...thanks for posting those parameters.

And, Of Couse, Kovid, thank you SO much for writing the libprs500.....looking forward to the update!!