doc to epub

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by awp

Please reread this entire thread. I never suggested Atlantis Word Processor as a "free solution".

Posts #2, #3, and #5 of this thread all mention Atlantis Word Processor, and they are not mine. My first post to this thread is #10. When someone says that Atlantis Word Processor generates an invalid EPUB file, why I cannot ask for details? When Laura said that "Atlantis worked perfectly", and asked for batch conversion "in Atlantis", what's wrong with replying with MY solution?

Thank you for answering direct queries from users on this forum. It is nice to know someone from AWP is watching and ready to assist as needed.

It is also worthy of note that you stepped up to help even though you knew she was using the free version of your software.

Originally Posted by frabjous

As I noted, the batch file is two lines long:

Here's what you need to do:

1. Download and install AbiWord. It's completely free.
2. Download and install calibre. It's completely free.
3. Copy and paste the two lines above into Notepad, and save a file named "doc2epub.bat" or anything else whose name you'll remember ending in .bat. Save it in the same folder where your .doc files are.

The lines assume you're using a 64-bit operating system. If not, then use this instead:

for %%I in (*.doc) do "C:\Program Files\AbiWord\bin\AbiWord.exe" --to=html "%%I"
for %%I in (*.html) do "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\ebook-convert.exe" "%%I" "%%~nI.epub"

This is a very nice solution. I'm glad you stopped whining about another forum member answering questions and trying to help someone long enough to provide a working solution.

I'll have to save this post for future use.

Karma to both of you.

[Laura81]

Originally Posted by frabjous

Those .dll and .txt files aren't the result of the script, though they may be the result of installing either Abiword or calibre. I looked at my Windows partition and they were there too. If I had to guess, I'd say they're a byproduct from using the .msi installation routine, and/or using Internet Explorer to download the programs to install, since the EULA files are Microsoft-related. Typical microsoft messiness.

I went ahead and deleted them, and everything still worked just fine, including my conversion script.

Yeah, you can copy or move the .bat file from one folder to another, and run it whereever.

Thanks for your help in this too! I will just delete it all then. And now for some massive conversion time today!

Oh and I actually prefer using your bat command versus even Calibre because it annoys me that Calibre creates a new area to put my ebooks when I want them arranged a certain way and I can't do that with Calibre. Ever think about writing more command lines for converting other things? Like PDF and LIT files?

[frabjous]

Thanks.

Yeah I pretty much do all my calibre conversions using scripts or the command line, partly to avoid Calibre's GUI messing with my file structure. Calibre is still doing the conversion, though, so let's give credit where it's due.

Actually, the modifications you'd need to do batch converting with .PDF or .LIT should be pretty straightforward. If you want, e.g., to convert all the .pdf's in a folder to *.epub, using calibre alone, just use my second line above, but change (*.html) to (*.pdf). Or change it to (*.lit) to convert .lit files to .epub. If you want .lit files as output, just change the "%%~nI.epub" at the end to "%%~nI.lit"

Similarly, if you want to use it for converting files that AbiWord handles but calibre doesn't (WordPerfect, or Works, or Word 2007), keep the first line, and change (*.doc) to (*.docx) or (*.wpd) or (*.wps), or whatever. Keep to=html at the end, and (*.html) in the second line.

If you want to get serious about this, though, you should read up on calibre's ebook-convert command line program and the many options it offers, as well as a batch guide for Windows such as this one, or if you use another OS, try a bash script.

[Laura81]

Thanks frabjous, I doubt I'd get fully serious about it though as I'm not sure I would fully understand it all. Changing your first command line to use Calibre that way though seems pretty straight-forward so I think I'll try that.

[Laura81]

Hey frabjous, I tried changing the .html to a .lit as you said above to convert those to epubs but it didn't work for me. The file I saved just saved as a .dat and didn't change into a windows batch file like the other one did.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Laura81

Hey frabjous, I tried changing the .html to a .lit as you said above to convert those to epubs but it didn't work for me. The file I saved just saved as a .dat and didn't change into a windows batch file like the other one did.

The other one didn't change into a batch file, you named it that way. If you opened the previous bat file in notepad and made the changes frabjous

for %%I in (*.html) do "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\ebook-convert.exe" "%%I" "%%~nI.lit"

suggested then just save the file as html2lit.bat and it will be a batch file.

Good Luck.

[Laura81]

This is the change I'm trying to make:

for %%I in (*.lit) do "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\ebook-convert.exe" "%%I" "%%~nI.epub"

I then saved the above as lit2epub.dat but it does not turn into a windows batch file as the other one did. It just stays the dat file.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Laura81

This is the change I'm trying to make:

for %%I in (*.lit) do "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\ebook-convert.exe" "%%I" "%%~nI.epub"

I then saved the above as lit2epub.dat but it does not turn into a windows batch file as the other one did. It just stays the dat file.

Change the D to a B it is called a batch file because we name it such. change .dat to .bat

Save it as lit2epub.bat

[Laura81]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Change the D to a B it is called a batch file because we name it such. change .dat to .bat

Save it as lit2epub.bat

Oi vey, do I feel like an idiot! How much more obvious can it get! Excuse my idiocy and thanks!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Laura81

Oi vey, do I feel like an idiot! How much more obvious can it get! Excuse my idiocy and thanks!

ABCD is the extent of my knowledge, glad I could help.

[Laura81]

Well I tried it and while it did create the batch file properly it didn't work. Not sure why. I pasted it in the folder with the lit files but the black command screen just flashed up really quickly and then closed again.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by Laura81

Well I tried it and while it did create the batch file properly it didn't work. Not sure why. I pasted it in the folder with the lit files but the black command screen just flashed up really quickly and then closed again.

You could add a third line to the batch file
sleep 30
This will keep the window open for 30 seconds (replace 30 with the number of preferred seconds). Will allow you to see any error messages.

[Laura81]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

You could add a third line to the batch file
sleep 30
This will keep the window open for 30 seconds (replace 30 with the number of preferred seconds). Will allow you to see any error messages.

Thanks for the suggestion but I would have no clue how to do that. I don't know how to write any code at all.


EDIT: I worked out what I was doing wrong with the code... using the 32bit line instead of the 64bit. Another smack upside my head needed. All working perfectly now.

[frabjous]

Glad to hear it!

[gastan]

Thank you, frabjous, for the script you supplied. I came here looking for a solution to convert an html file to epub. I used only the one html2epub line and it worked perfectly.

Needless to say, I'm going to save the bat file and bookmark this thread.