AZW3 to Word

[Raymond Batkin]

I'm completely new to Calibre so don't have a lot of confidence in doing things at this point.
However I have a book (in French) that I am translating. I have a Paperwhite. The book is poorly set out for translating purposes (footnotes all over the place and within text). The format is AZW3. If I can convert to Word I will be able to edit to make reference & translation easier.

Trying to convert from AZW3 to any other format with Calibre throws up a 'cannot convert this format' message. I'm sure there must be a way to do this but I haven't the foggiest idea where to look. Can anyone throw me a lifeline - thanks

[jgaiser]

Nope.. Calibre doesn't do Word. RTF might work for you or possibly ODT if you want to install LibreOffice for Windows.

[eschwartz]

You can convert to EPUB and use Toxaris' MS Word addin to open the EPUB in Word.

Unfortunately, it seems you have bigger problems... What exactly is this error message when you try to convert? Can you post the conversion log?

[JSWolf]

My guess is the AZW3 may have DRM.

[Raymond Batkin]

Thanks very much for responding...

The message I get is :

'Failed : Convert book 1 of 1 <book title name> BOOM1MW7S8)

The log is :

Spoiler:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Convert book 1 of 1 (Rudolf Stallmann Rodolfe lemoine (French Edition) B00M1MW7S8)
Resolved conversion options
calibre version: 2.1.0
{'asciiize': False,
'author_sort': None,
'authors': None,
'base_font_size': 0.0,
'book_producer': None,
'change_justification': u'original',
'chapter': u"//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., '\\s*((chapter|book|section|part)\\s+)|((prolog|pr ologue|epilogue)(\\s+|$))', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter']",
'chapter_mark': u'pagebreak',
'comments': None,
'cover': None,
'debug_pipeline': None,
'dehyphenate': True,
'delete_blank_paragraphs': True,
'disable_font_rescaling': False,
'dont_compress': False,
'duplicate_links_in_toc': False,
'embed_all_fonts': False,
'embed_font_family': None,
'enable_heuristics': False,
'expand_css': False,
'extra_css': None,
'extract_to': None,
'filter_css': u'',
'fix_indents': True,
'font_size_mapping': None,
'format_scene_breaks': True,
'html_unwrap_factor': 0.4,
'input_encoding': None,
'input_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.InputProfile object at 0x033F7730>,
'insert_blank_line': False,
'insert_blank_line_size': 0.5,
'insert_metadata': False,
'isbn': None,
'italicize_common_cases': True,
'keep_ligatures': False,
'language': None,
'level1_toc': None,
'level2_toc': None,
'level3_toc': None,
'line_height': 0.0,
'linearize_tables': False,
'margin_bottom': 5.0,
'margin_left': 5.0,
'margin_right': 5.0,
'margin_top': 5.0,
'markup_chapter_headings': True,
'max_toc_links': 50,
'minimum_line_height': 120.0,
'mobi_file_type': u'old',
'mobi_ignore_margins': False,
'mobi_keep_original_images': False,
'mobi_toc_at_start': False,
'no_chapters_in_toc': False,
'no_inline_navbars': True,
'no_inline_toc': False,
'output_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.KindlePaperWhiteOutp ut object at 0x033F7AD0>,
'page_breaks_before': u"//*[name()='h1' or name()='h2']",
'personal_doc': u'[PDOC]',
'prefer_author_sort': False,
'prefer_metadata_cover': False,
'pretty_print': False,
'pubdate': None,
'publisher': None,
'rating': None,
'read_metadata_from_opf': u'C:\\Users\\User\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\calibre_c a_k7g\\ew8ne2.opf',
'remove_fake_margins': True,
'remove_first_image': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size': 1.5,
'renumber_headings': True,
'replace_scene_breaks': u'',
'search_replace': '[]',
'series': None,
'series_index': None,
'share_not_sync': False,
'smarten_punctuation': False,
'sr1_replace': None,
'sr1_search': None,
'sr2_replace': None,
'sr2_search': None,
'sr3_replace': None,
'sr3_search': None,
'start_reading_at': None,
'subset_embedded_fonts': False,
'tags': None,
'timestamp': None,
'title': None,
'title_sort': None,
'toc_filter': None,
'toc_threshold': 6,
'toc_title': None,
'unsmarten_punctuation': False,
'unwrap_lines': True,
'use_auto_toc': False,
'verbose': 2}
InputFormatPlugin: MOBI Input running
on C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\calibre_ca_k7g\7d xmz8.azw3
Python function terminated unexpectedly
unpack requires a string argument of length 4 (Error Code: 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site.py", line 132, in main
File "site.py", line 109, in run_entry_point
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\worker.py", line 195, in main
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\convert\gui_conversion.py", line 31, in gui_convert_override
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\convert\gui_conversion.py", line 25, in gui_convert
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plumber.py", line 1041, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\conversion.py", line 241, in __call__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plugins\mobi_in put.py", line 33, in convert
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\mobi\reader\mobi6.py", line 103, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\mobi\reader\headers.py", line 175, in __init__
struct.error: unpack requires a string argument of length 4

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

RTF would be OK though

I suspect it has a DRM padlock applied. I've had a look at DRM removal tools but some of them throw up a lot of malware threats (that AVG blocks) - so would rather trust forum input than a Google-induced query.

[JSWolf]

The official Apprentice Alf sanctioned DRM removal Tools version 6.0.9 do not have any sort of malware. If AVG says it does, then AVG is tossing out a false positive.

[eschwartz]

One thing to look out for though is the download site has ads which try to get you to download random junk -- the correct download is a zipfile.
http://Adblockplus.org is your friend.

But this error message does not imply a DRM lock. Usually DRM results in a "DRMError".

Sounds like the book is malformed/corrupted or has weird code. I am sure Kovid will come by and explain the error message with hopefully a fix. EDIT: Yep.

[kovidgoyal]

That's a corrupted file. Most likely you accidentally have some other file in your calibre library than the actual book file.

[Raymond Batkin]

Kovid

Thanks for pointing that out - though I would not know!

The file on my Kindle contains :

AssetDownloadMetadata.meta (META File)
B00M1MW7S8.mf (MF File)
EndActions.data.B00M1MW7S8.asc (ASC file)
Rudolf Stallmann_Rodolfe lemoine (French Edition)_B00M1MW7S8 (AZ3F File)
Rudolf Stallmann_Rodolfe lemoine (French Edition)_B00M1MW7S8 (AZ3R File)

On the Kindle all is OK - copying them to the pc results in the error/log file I mentioned

I just noted I mentioned AZW3 originally whereas the file list is AZ3R in fact.
Does this difference in file format explain anything further?

[eschwartz]

.azw3r and .azw3f are not ebooks. They are additional metadata files containing annotations, including bookmarks, highlights, and how far you got in the book.

If the file in calibre is an AZW3R then it isn't a book, the Kindle will usually have all of these plus the AZW3.

According to the log, you have an AZW3 in your library, but suppose it is possible you renamed an AZW3R and added it anyway?

[Raymond Batkin]

eschwartz

Many thanks for that!
Indeed - there was an azw3 file - but it was outside the folder I was looking at.
Once this was loaded into Calibre the rest was easy -
> rtf and from that to .doc

Sorry for my dense input, gentlemen!
You do learn something new every day. Thanks to everyone who responded.