Convert wikisource into ePub

[amuzulo]

I recently got a Sony Reader PRS-505 and even published a review of it on my blog at http://www.chucksmith.de/?p=117 and I was wondering if anyone knows of a script to convert a wikisource book to an ePub file. I found the story of Max Havelaar at http://nl.wikisource.org/wiki/Max_Ha...elsmaatschappy which is in modern Dutch spelling and I'm looking to find an ePub version to read on my Sony Reader.

I found a version on Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11024) and at Munseyes (http://www.munseys.com/book/14878/Max_Havelaar), but they both have the old Dutch spelling. Does anyone know of an way to convert a wikisource into an ePub without manually copying the source from each page and converting it by hand? Any answers would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[richardigp]

Amuzulo, you said any answer, so here goes....

So the answer is no regarding the automated script, but the manual method is only a couple of hours of work. Certainly faster than writing a script that traverses URLs and sorts out the content from the "not content"!

I created this ePub in about 10 minutes by copying the text straight into an eScape template in Open Office and formatting it with the default eScape styles. My Dutch is a little rusty (read non-existant), so I cannot say it is all intact, correct or OK.

This 38 chapter book would take 2-3 hours to convert to ePub, with the pleasure of reading as you work. Writing the script would probably take 2-3 days and then be unreliable. I have attached a doc file (imagine my shock when I discovered the "open" mobileread forum didn't support upload of ODT! It's a scandal!). This doc file will have to be opened in Open Office, then saved as ODT and exported as XHTML.

I have also attached an ePub from the intro and two chapters that may serve as an inspiration. A little effort can give rewards.

The fact is there isn't a script for everything in life, and some things are better done manually. This may be one of them. For what its worth, hope that helps. If you don't have / use / want to use Open Office at least you have two chapters!

[amuzulo]

I didn't receive a notification that anyone replied to my thread here, so I'm only seeing your answer today. Thank you very much for your help!

I'm very new to the ebook world, so these issues of actually manually converting things are quite interesting. However, I'm mostly just looking to read the book and I'm not sure if I will like it enough to want to dedicate a few hours of my time to work on converting the files. I'm also toying with the idea of trying to read it in the old Dutch spelling as I think not too much has changed even though it looks funny to my eyes since I lived in Holland only after the spelling reform.

In any case, I'll keep you up to date with what I do and thank you very much for helping out an ebook reader newbie like me. I really appreciate it!

[Interretano]

For Googlers: there is now a tool to convert Wikisource texts to Epub, XHTML, and ODT at http://toolserver.org/~tpt/wsexport/book.php. Hope it saves you a lot of searching!

Al gugluzantoj: estas nun ilo por EPUBigi Vikifontarajn tekstojn ĉe http://toolserver.org/~tpt/wsexport/book.php. Mi esperas ke vi ŝparos serĉtempon pro tiu-ĉi mesaĝo.