Another Newbie

sashagregor · 02-11-2011, 01:12 PM

Hello! I plan to get a Kindle 3 soon, and have begun investigating the ins and outs of everything.

I happen to be a student of sorts, and I do extensive studying from sets of esoteric pdf books. Previously, I had been printing these pdfs one-by-one, and having them comb-bound as I had the money. After a few years, not only has the cost been adding up, but my bookshelves are now crowded with floppy (and difficult to identify) comb and spiral bound books. Also, when I want to search a particular book, I find I have to go back to the computer and open up a pdf file to find the particular book I'm looking for, then go back to my bookshelf to find the book in question.

I think the Kindle will help me a lot, as I can have dozens of my esoteric books in one place, and I can also key word search for particular information.

I am using a Macbook, and downloaded the Calibre program to begin converting my many pdf files. I'm not very pleased with how they are converting, so I think I'll pop over to the Calibre forum and ask some questions there.

That's all!

for reading this far!

MickeyC · 02-11-2011, 03:51 PM

Hi sashagregor and welcome to MobileRead

catsittingstill · 02-11-2011, 09:15 PM

Welcome to Mobileread!

One thing you might want to look into is how the Kindle handles pdf searches.

Kindle will search all its mobi format (.mobi, .prc, .azw) books for a given word or phrase.

So if I want to search for "feral horse" I can search all my mobi format books at once, and my Kindle makes a list of books in order of how many times the term occurs (say "Misty of Chincoteague" has it 14 times, "Wild Horses of the West" has it 12 times, "Feral Livestock: Problems And Solutions" has it 3 times and "Letters from the West" has it once, I'll see them listed in that order.) If I click on a title, I get a list of samples (about 3 lines of text) of each place "feral horse" occurs in that book.

However as I understand it, if these books were all in pdf format, it wouldn't work that way. I would have to enter each book, and then search just inside that book, so I'd have to search "Misty of Chincoteague" "Wild Horses of The West" etc one at a time. And if I forgot that "Letters From The West" had a mention of "feral horse" I'm out of luck, unless I enter and search every book just on spec.

Now, my understanding may be behind the times. Every year or so I go back and check, because the day the Kindle has cross-document search of pdfs is the day it becomes really useful for handling science papers. But I haven't checked recently.

But if you're planning to use a lot of pdfs, you might want to check this. Of course, if you're going to convert all your pdfs to .azw there should be no problem :-)

neilmarr · 02-12-2011, 04:04 AM

Good to have your company, Sasha. Best wishes. Neil

desertblues · 02-12-2011, 04:57 AM

Hi, welcome to MR from the Netherlands.

GeoffC · 02-12-2011, 06:35 AM

Welcome to Mobileread ….

Do pop into the Kindle Forum for all the tips and tricks.

Valmore Daniels · 02-12-2011, 10:00 AM

Welcome to MR !

02-11-2011, 01:12 PM	#1
sashagregor Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: USA Device: none	Another Newbie Hello! I plan to get a Kindle 3 soon, and have begun investigating the ins and outs of everything. I happen to be a student of sorts, and I do extensive studying from sets of esoteric pdf books. Previously, I had been printing these pdfs one-by-one, and having them comb-bound as I had the money. After a few years, not only has the cost been adding up, but my bookshelves are now crowded with floppy (and difficult to identify) comb and spiral bound books. Also, when I want to search a particular book, I find I have to go back to the computer and open up a pdf file to find the particular book I'm looking for, then go back to my bookshelf to find the book in question. I think the Kindle will help me a lot, as I can have dozens of my esoteric books in one place, and I can also key word search for particular information. I am using a Macbook, and downloaded the Calibre program to begin converting my many pdf files. I'm not very pleased with how they are converting, so I think I'll pop over to the Calibre forum and ask some questions there. That's all! for reading this far!

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02-11-2011, 03:51 PM	#2
MickeyC Grand Sorcerer Posts: 16,732 Karma: 12185114 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Florida Device: iPhone 6 plus, Sony T1, iPad 3	Hi sashagregor and welcome to MobileRead

02-11-2011, 09:15 PM	#3
catsittingstill Guru Posts: 643 Karma: 551634 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle 1.0.8, iPod Touch, Kindle Keyboard	Welcome to Mobileread! One thing you might want to look into is how the Kindle handles pdf searches. Kindle will search all its mobi format (.mobi, .prc, .azw) books for a given word or phrase. So if I want to search for "feral horse" I can search all my mobi format books at once, and my Kindle makes a list of books in order of how many times the term occurs (say "Misty of Chincoteague" has it 14 times, "Wild Horses of the West" has it 12 times, "Feral Livestock: Problems And Solutions" has it 3 times and "Letters from the West" has it once, I'll see them listed in that order.) If I click on a title, I get a list of samples (about 3 lines of text) of each place "feral horse" occurs in that book. However as I understand it, if these books were all in pdf format, it wouldn't work that way. I would have to enter each book, and then search just inside that book, so I'd have to search "Misty of Chincoteague" "Wild Horses of The West" etc one at a time. And if I forgot that "Letters From The West" had a mention of "feral horse" I'm out of luck, unless I enter and search every book just on spec. Now, my understanding may be behind the times. Every year or so I go back and check, because the day the Kindle has cross-document search of pdfs is the day it becomes really useful for handling science papers. But I haven't checked recently. But if you're planning to use a lot of pdfs, you might want to check this. Of course, if you're going to convert all your pdfs to .azw there should be no problem :-)

02-12-2011, 04:04 AM	#4
neilmarr neilmarr Posts: 7,216 Karma: 6000059 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Monaco-Menton, France Device: sony	Good to have your company, Sasha. Best wishes. Neil

02-12-2011, 04:57 AM	#5
desertblues Home for the moment Posts: 5,127 Karma: 27718936 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: travelling Device: various	Hi, welcome to MR from the Netherlands.

02-12-2011, 06:35 AM	#6
GeoffC Chocolate Grasshopper ... Posts: 27,600 Karma: 20821184 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Scotland Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW	Welcome to Mobileread …. Do pop into the Kindle Forum for all the tips and tricks.

02-12-2011, 10:00 AM	#7
Valmore Daniels Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,592 Karma: 2822668 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kindle	Welcome to MR !

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