Keeping track of my stuff

Bro Pete · 03-07-2011, 07:43 AM

First of all I don't want to publish, I want to compile. If this is in the wrong place let me know.

I am a pastor. I have over 500 of my own sermons that I would like to carry with me on my Sony PRS-650. Right now each of these sermons are individual Corel Word Perfect files. I no longer use Corel to write my sermons. I would like to create a table of contents that coincides with the books of the Bible. That way each of my Genesis 1 sermons will be under Genesis 1 and so on.

I have several questions...

Is cut-and-paste the best method to compile these into a book format?

What file type should I use to save them?

How should I create a Table of Contents?

What about adding sermons at a later date?

Any advice from someone who has done something similar?

jbcohen · 03-07-2011, 08:06 AM

I don't have all of the answers to your questions but I will tell what I think I know. First, problem is the format that you are using to store your work in, Word Perfect. By in large the mobile book readers do not support Word Perfect but instead they will support epub and pdf. To the best of my knowledge Word Perfect does not support either of those formats. Thus you will need to download and install a new software suite that will support one of the two formats. There is no reason for your organization to shell out anything additional in dollars to support your mobile sermons so I would recommend Open Office - which incently is free and supports PDF.

Second, I know limited things about the Sony PRS readers so I am not going to go into depth about them instead I am going to leave that to other forum members that know more than I. Second, download and install Calibre which will pick up that PDF sermon that you wrote and provide for the table of contents that you spoke of (again I know nothing about Calibre thus wil not speak to it) and will take care of uploading the sermon to your reader.

I know that this requires adjustment on your part but one of the major benefits is that Open Office (openoffice.org) supports 101 different langueges including: english, spanish, bulgarian, tagalong and africans so its litteraly impossible that you would not be able to communicate your sermons to someone. The worst thing that might happen is you might have to get a cheap reader such as a Kobo or a Libra Pro to display your sermons in another languege for someone that does not speak english or display your sermons on a digital overhead projector in what ever languege the person speaks so that while you deliver your sermons in your languege that person can read your sermons in what ever languege they speak (and again, not being able to speak that person's langeuge is not possible.) I have been told that Open Office is involved in middle east peace talks becuase its the only one that can speak hebrew, yiddish and arbaic.

spaze · 03-07-2011, 08:28 AM

Try application called Sigil and do the following:

Create a new EPUB file with SIGIL and copy/paste content into their own chapters in EPUB file.

This way you have, for example, one EPUB file for all your Genesis 1 sermons in which you can locate each sermon from the table-of-contents.

Quote:

Is cut-and-paste the best method to compile these into a book format?

With Sigil, copy/patse would work just fine.

Quote:

What file type should I use to save them?

You just copy/paste from Corel into Sigil and don't have to worry about file types.

[quote]How should I create a Table of Contents?[quote]

Sigil does this automatically based on Heading type of text. Then you can just unclick all Heading type texts you wih not to include in TOC.

[quote]What about adding sermons at a later date?[quote]

Just open up the EPUB file you have created previously and add new sermon to it and save the file. Your update EPUB file is now ready.

Quote:

Any advice from someone who has done something similar?

I have done Lyrics/Chords collection this way and let me tell you, it just works.

I would be more than happy to help you out more if you are in need of help. Just let me know.

Worldwalker · 03-07-2011, 09:31 AM

To clarify and compile what several of the previous posters have said:

You're looking at two different problems here. First, you need to make ebooks out of your sermons, which are currently just word processor files. Then you need to organize them so you can find them when you need them.

I have a Sony 505, which works in many ways like your 650. What's going to save your sanity is the Collections feature. Instead of a table of contents, I think you're going to want a collection for each book. So, you'd look in the Genesis collection and there would be all your Genesis-related sermons. One big advantage of this is that you can file a specific sermon in two or more collections if appropriate. Perhaps you write a sermon in which you relate some elements of Genesis to, say, Leviticus. With the idea of one big file and finding them in a TOC you'd have to decide which book was more important and file it there; with collections, you could file it as both Genesis and Leviticus, and it would come up when you selected either one.

Making ebooks out of your Word Perfect files is a bit more complicated because there are so many routes you can take. You could save them as pdf files (yes, OpenOffice Writer is excellent for this; it's my word processor of choice myself). Personally, I don't like how pdfs work on ebook readers because the whole point of a pdf is to reproduce the original page exactly, and ebook readers are by their very nature small, and in dire need of a format that reflows well. Fortunately, your 650 supports epub, which does. You could use Sigil to create those epubs directly -- there's a Sigil support forum here on MobileRead where people can answer any questions you have. Or you could save your books as html files and use Calibre to bulk convert them to epubs. Again, there is a Calibre support forum here with lots of friendly people (starting with the creator) who can answer any questions you have and help you out with everything.

You're going to want Calibre in any event, because that's the easiest way to manage your tags and collections.

queentess · 03-07-2011, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I have a Sony 505, which works in many ways like your 650. What's going to save your sanity is the Collections feature. Instead of a table of contents, I think you're going to want a collection for each book. So, you'd look in the Genesis collection and there would be all your Genesis-related sermons. One big advantage of this is that you can file a specific sermon in two or more collections if appropriate. Perhaps you write a sermon in which you relate some elements of Genesis to, say, Leviticus. With the idea of one big file and finding them in a TOC you'd have to decide which book was more important and file it there; with collections, you could file it as both Genesis and Leviticus, and it would come up when you selected either one.

Just want to second what Worldwalker said. Collections on the 650 are definitely the way to go, and Calibre is the way to manage it.

HarryT · 03-07-2011, 11:29 AM

Or you could do exactly the same thing with the Kindle, equally easily.

Worldwalker · 03-07-2011, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Or you could do exactly the same thing with the Kindle, equally easily.

Well, yes, but he already has a Sony 650, so why should he buy a different ebook reader when the one he already has will do the job just fine?

queentess · 03-07-2011, 11:56 AM

I've used collections on both Kindle and Sony, but unless something has changed, Kindle doesn't read tagging from Calibre and Sony does. You have to go one-by-one on Kindle and assign the book to a collection... I find it difficult to see what's already been tagged and what hasn't. And if you lose your device or get a non-Kindle device, all that hard work is gone, whereas tagging it in Calibre means it can be transported to many devices.

Collections are one area (ePub being the other) where I think the Kindle suffers in comparison to Sony.

jbcohen · 03-07-2011, 12:05 PM

Agreed with worldwalker. The only thing that I am suggesting that would cost anything would be the Kobo and the Libra Pro as a device to upload your sermons on and loan them out in foreign langueges. I have nothing against the Sony PRS or Kindle in any way the reason I selected the Kobo and Libra Pro is they cost less, and I would rather suggest passing out $75 devices then $130 ones.

spaze · 03-07-2011, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I have a Sony 505, which works in many ways like your 650. What's going to save your sanity is the Collections feature. Instead of a table of contents, I think you're going to want a collection for each book. So, you'd look in the Genesis collection and there would be all your Genesis-related sermons. One big advantage of this is that you can file a specific sermon in two or more collections if appropriate. Perhaps you write a sermon in which you relate some elements of Genesis to, say, Leviticus. With the idea of one big file and finding them in a TOC you'd have to decide which book was more important and file it there; with collections, you could file it as both Genesis and Leviticus, and it would come up when you selected either one.

I saying this from the point of view of only trying out Bebook and Cybook Opus e-readers, but I am not sure what you mean by collections. Is this a feature of Sony?

I'm just thinking about what's going to happend when he desides to get a reader other than by Sony?

jbcohen · 03-07-2011, 12:20 PM

Sony and Kindles have unique features thus you get mroe for your dollars then say a bebook or a cybook opus. Because if you didn't get something extra for your dollars why pay more for the Sony or kindle, which is the reason why I say - If you pay more for a Kindle then use the unique features becuase if you don't use those features you might as well have bought a Kobo or a Libra Pro not gotten those features and paid less.

Bro Pete · 03-07-2011, 12:22 PM

I want to thank you all for your excellent suggestions. I use Calibre but I am sure I don't even scratch the surface of what it can do. I've never tried Sigil but from your recommendation it sounds like that willdo what I have in mind.

A couple of you mention using collections. Unless I am using it wrong, collections allows you to catagorize your books but when looking at your library in the reader they are all listed in the general catagory in addition to the assigned topic. I wanted to use a book format so that I wont have to sort through all my sermons to find what books I am reading and the reverse. I don't want to sort through all my books to see my sermons. I wish all of my subjects could remain closed until I requested to look at one specifically.

jbcohen, I appreciate your evangelistic idea. Most of my sermons are in outline or note form. They would not make as much sense as the preached sermon. I just don't want to loose all of that research over time. I have them saved in a couple of locations (hard drive, laptop and backup drive, also a couple of flash drives,) but I since I don't carry a laptop all the time I wanted something that I could actually read through them if the need arose to deliver a sermon with short notice.

Bro Pete · 03-07-2011, 12:33 PM

Worldwalker, Cross referrencing is a very important feature for just the reason you state. Sermons rarely focus on one text. Just getting these sermons all in one accessible unit will be quite a task, but it would be awesome to have scripture, topic, illustrations, date and location crossreferrences.

Worldwalker · 03-07-2011, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bro Pete

A couple of you mention using collections. Unless I am using it wrong, collections allows you to catagorize your books but when looking at your library in the reader they are all listed in the general catagory in addition to the assigned topic. I wanted to use a book format so that I wont have to sort through all my sermons to find what books I am reading and the reverse. I don't want to sort through all my books to see my sermons. I wish all of my subjects could remain closed until I requested to look at one specifically.

I'm not sure I'm quite understanding you here, so if I'm missing something, please let me know.

I'll use my 505 as an example, since it's right here, but I believe the 650 works almost identically. On the main screen, I have "Continue Reading", "Books by Title", "Books by Author", "Books by Date", and "Collections" (and other things after that, of course). If I select "Collections" it lists all the collections I have created by way of my Calibre tags: Science Fiction, for instance, happens to be at the top at the moment, but the dame page also has things like "Short Fiction", "Speeches", and "Sports". Choosing a collection lists all the books within that collection. Under the apparently mistaken assumption that you would be using the 650 solely to store sermons, I thought that would solve your problem: a "Genesis" collection might have sermons like "The Meaning of Creation Today" and "History's First Murderer", each of which would have the text, notes, or whatever for that sermon. That way, if you wrote a new one -- "Is the Tree of Knowledge Still Present?" -- you'd just tag it and it would be automatically added to the proper collection when you uploaded it to your reader.

Unfortunately, collections are only one level -- you can't have "Science Fiction" with "Modern SF" and "Classic SF" as additional collections inside it. However, by choosing your collection titles, you can put your collections where you want them. For instance, I have a few items I want to have immediately accessible, such as a calendar and a list of books I'm looking for (so, naturally, I didn't have my Reader along at Friday's AAUW book sale, and had to guess anyway!). I put those in a collection with an _underscore as the first character, so it's the first on the list. You could do that with your sermons, to put them at the beginning or end of the collections. For example, name a collection "z Genesis" and it would sort based on the z, and fall down to the end. Or "z 01 Genesis" to get the books in the proper order.

But in any event, it looks like no matter how the solution works out, it's going to involve Sigil and Calibre in some way.

AndrewH · 03-07-2011, 01:50 PM

I don't know if it's been improved with the newer Sony models, but on my PRS-600, the more books you load onto it, the slower it is when you turn it on. At one time I had my entire ebook library loaded on my reader and it would take 20-30 minutes to boot up. For me an omnibus would be greatly preferable to 500 individual files tagged as a collection.

Perhaps something to consider.

03-07-2011, 07:43 AM	#1
Bro Pete Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 52944 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Central Texas Device: Sony PRS 650	Keeping track of my stuff First of all I don't want to publish, I want to compile. If this is in the wrong place let me know. I am a pastor. I have over 500 of my own sermons that I would like to carry with me on my Sony PRS-650. Right now each of these sermons are individual Corel Word Perfect files. I no longer use Corel to write my sermons. I would like to create a table of contents that coincides with the books of the Bible. That way each of my Genesis 1 sermons will be under Genesis 1 and so on. I have several questions... Is cut-and-paste the best method to compile these into a book format? What file type should I use to save them? How should I create a Table of Contents? What about adding sermons at a later date? Any advice from someone who has done something similar?

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03-07-2011, 08:06 AM	#2
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	I don't have all of the answers to your questions but I will tell what I think I know. First, problem is the format that you are using to store your work in, Word Perfect. By in large the mobile book readers do not support Word Perfect but instead they will support epub and pdf. To the best of my knowledge Word Perfect does not support either of those formats. Thus you will need to download and install a new software suite that will support one of the two formats. There is no reason for your organization to shell out anything additional in dollars to support your mobile sermons so I would recommend Open Office - which incently is free and supports PDF. Second, I know limited things about the Sony PRS readers so I am not going to go into depth about them instead I am going to leave that to other forum members that know more than I. Second, download and install Calibre which will pick up that PDF sermon that you wrote and provide for the table of contents that you spoke of (again I know nothing about Calibre thus wil not speak to it) and will take care of uploading the sermon to your reader. I know that this requires adjustment on your part but one of the major benefits is that Open Office (openoffice.org) supports 101 different langueges including: english, spanish, bulgarian, tagalong and africans so its litteraly impossible that you would not be able to communicate your sermons to someone. The worst thing that might happen is you might have to get a cheap reader such as a Kobo or a Libra Pro to display your sermons in another languege for someone that does not speak english or display your sermons on a digital overhead projector in what ever languege the person speaks so that while you deliver your sermons in your languege that person can read your sermons in what ever languege they speak (and again, not being able to speak that person's langeuge is not possible.) I have been told that Open Office is involved in middle east peace talks becuase its the only one that can speak hebrew, yiddish and arbaic.

03-07-2011, 09:31 AM	#4
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	To clarify and compile what several of the previous posters have said: You're looking at two different problems here. First, you need to make ebooks out of your sermons, which are currently just word processor files. Then you need to organize them so you can find them when you need them. I have a Sony 505, which works in many ways like your 650. What's going to save your sanity is the Collections feature. Instead of a table of contents, I think you're going to want a collection for each book. So, you'd look in the Genesis collection and there would be all your Genesis-related sermons. One big advantage of this is that you can file a specific sermon in two or more collections if appropriate. Perhaps you write a sermon in which you relate some elements of Genesis to, say, Leviticus. With the idea of one big file and finding them in a TOC you'd have to decide which book was more important and file it there; with collections, you could file it as both Genesis and Leviticus, and it would come up when you selected either one. Making ebooks out of your Word Perfect files is a bit more complicated because there are so many routes you can take. You could save them as pdf files (yes, OpenOffice Writer is excellent for this; it's my word processor of choice myself). Personally, I don't like how pdfs work on ebook readers because the whole point of a pdf is to reproduce the original page exactly, and ebook readers are by their very nature small, and in dire need of a format that reflows well. Fortunately, your 650 supports epub, which does. You could use Sigil to create those epubs directly -- there's a Sigil support forum here on MobileRead where people can answer any questions you have. Or you could save your books as html files and use Calibre to bulk convert them to epubs. Again, there is a Calibre support forum here with lots of friendly people (starting with the creator) who can answer any questions you have and help you out with everything. You're going to want Calibre in any event, because that's the easiest way to manage your tags and collections.

03-07-2011, 11:29 AM	#6
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Or you could do exactly the same thing with the Kindle, equally easily.

03-07-2011, 11:56 AM	#8
queentess Reading is sexy Posts: 1,303 Karma: 544517 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	I've used collections on both Kindle and Sony, but unless something has changed, Kindle doesn't read tagging from Calibre and Sony does. You have to go one-by-one on Kindle and assign the book to a collection... I find it difficult to see what's already been tagged and what hasn't. And if you lose your device or get a non-Kindle device, all that hard work is gone, whereas tagging it in Calibre means it can be transported to many devices. Collections are one area (ePub being the other) where I think the Kindle suffers in comparison to Sony.

03-07-2011, 12:05 PM	#9
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	Agreed with worldwalker. The only thing that I am suggesting that would cost anything would be the Kobo and the Libra Pro as a device to upload your sermons on and loan them out in foreign langueges. I have nothing against the Sony PRS or Kindle in any way the reason I selected the Kobo and Libra Pro is they cost less, and I would rather suggest passing out $75 devices then $130 ones.

03-07-2011, 12:20 PM	#11
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	Sony and Kindles have unique features thus you get mroe for your dollars then say a bebook or a cybook opus. Because if you didn't get something extra for your dollars why pay more for the Sony or kindle, which is the reason why I say - If you pay more for a Kindle then use the unique features becuase if you don't use those features you might as well have bought a Kobo or a Libra Pro not gotten those features and paid less.

03-07-2011, 12:22 PM	#12
Bro Pete Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 52944 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Central Texas Device: Sony PRS 650	I want to thank you all for your excellent suggestions. I use Calibre but I am sure I don't even scratch the surface of what it can do. I've never tried Sigil but from your recommendation it sounds like that willdo what I have in mind. A couple of you mention using collections. Unless I am using it wrong, collections allows you to catagorize your books but when looking at your library in the reader they are all listed in the general catagory in addition to the assigned topic. I wanted to use a book format so that I wont have to sort through all my sermons to find what books I am reading and the reverse. I don't want to sort through all my books to see my sermons. I wish all of my subjects could remain closed until I requested to look at one specifically. jbcohen, I appreciate your evangelistic idea. Most of my sermons are in outline or note form. They would not make as much sense as the preached sermon. I just don't want to loose all of that research over time. I have them saved in a couple of locations (hard drive, laptop and backup drive, also a couple of flash drives,) but I since I don't carry a laptop all the time I wanted something that I could actually read through them if the need arose to deliver a sermon with short notice.

03-07-2011, 12:33 PM	#13
Bro Pete Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 52944 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Central Texas Device: Sony PRS 650	Worldwalker, Cross referrencing is a very important feature for just the reason you state. Sermons rarely focus on one text. Just getting these sermons all in one accessible unit will be quite a task, but it would be awesome to have scripture, topic, illustrations, date and location crossreferrences.

03-07-2011, 01:50 PM	#15
AndrewH Fanatic Posts: 553 Karma: 1234566 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver, WA Device: Sony PRS-T1, & Kobo Mini	I don't know if it's been improved with the newer Sony models, but on my PRS-600, the more books you load onto it, the slower it is when you turn it on. At one time I had my entire ebook library loaded on my reader and it would take 20-30 minutes to boot up. For me an omnibus would be greatly preferable to 500 individual files tagged as a collection. Perhaps something to consider.

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