Hello

[Lucy]

Hi! I am an avid reader and personally own a Kindle. When I am stuck in LA traffic and can't read, I like listening to audiobooks. I am somewhat familiar with other reading devices (Sony, Palm Z22, iTouch, iPod) as my current job is converting a series of hardcopy books to formats suitable for each. I am most familiar with the InDesign CS3 to epub workflow and also the Sony Reader file formats. Currently I am mid converting epub to mobipocket .prc file format. I was able to use the Mobi Creator and Mobigen to make .mobi files, but I need .prc files to upload. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has successfully made this transition.

Lucy

[pdurrant]

To convert a .mobi file to a .prc file, just change the file name extension from .mobi to .prc.

No, really, that's all there is to it. The Mobipocket file format uses either extension - it mostly used .prc in the past, as it was necessary to use that for the Palm Sync software to work. Mobipocket .mobi files are identical to .prc mobipocket files.

Unless - unless you're talking about creating a mobipocket file for an earlier generation of Mobipocket reader. In which case you'll need an earlier version of the Mobipocket Creator program.

Originally Posted by Lucy

Hi! I am an avid reader and personally own a Kindle. When I am stuck in LA traffic and can't read, I like listening to audiobooks. I am somewhat familiar with other reading devices (Sony, Palm Z22, iTouch, iPod) as my current job is converting a series of hardcopy books to formats suitable for each. I am most familiar with the InDesign CS3 to epub workflow and also the Sony Reader file formats. Currently I am mid converting epub to mobipocket .prc file format. I was able to use the Mobi Creator and Mobigen to make .mobi files, but I need .prc files to upload. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has successfully made this transition.

Lucy

[BookishDreamer]

Welcome to the forum, Lucy! Seriously...you're paid to convert books into ebooks?! Which books?

Dreamer

[MickeyC]

Hi Lucy and welcome to the Forum

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Welcome!

[Lucy]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

To convert a .mobi file to a .prc file, just change the file name extension from .mobi to .prc.

No, really, that's all there is to it. The Mobipocket file format uses either extension - it mostly used .prc in the past, as it was necessary to use that for the Palm Sync software to work. Mobipocket .mobi files are identical to .prc mobipocket files.

Unless - unless you're talking about creating a mobipocket file for an earlier generation of Mobipocket reader. In which case you'll need an earlier version of the Mobipocket Creator program.

Hi! And thanks very much. This worked like a dream and the files maintained their formatting.

Now when I try to upload I get an error message that says the eBook is not encrypted correctly and to publish with the Level 4 (encryption+PID) security option in the Mobipocket Publisher. I went back to the Mobipocket Creator and tried to use the build function to add the encryption (before I didn't use this as I used the mobigen to build the file automatically) and I get a warning "Warningparsing) No text encoding found" as well as two error messages. One that says "Error(prcgen): Hyperlink not resolved in toc: (and then the string to my files)" and another "Error(prcgen): The table of content could not be built."

Any ideas?

Lucy

[Patricia]

I wish that someone would pay me for book conversions.
I'd give up the day job.

Welcome to the forum, Lucy.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Patricia

I wish that someone would pay me for book conversions.
I'd give up the day job.

Welcome to the forum, Lucy.

i wish someone would pay you to do book conversions too ! (not that i can keep up with you as it is... but you deserve it).

welcome lucy, it will be interesting to hear about your experiences converting books. we've got some very interesting conversations about different conversion tools, best practices, etc.

[Lucy]

Originally Posted by BookishDreamer

Welcome to the forum, Lucy! Seriously...you're paid to convert books into ebooks?! Which books?

Dreamer

Hello Dreamer!

Yes, I get paid to do what I love most--work with and read books! Galaxy Press in LA just released a series called Stories from the Golden Age by L. Ron Hubbard (see www.goldenagestories.com) These are his early fiction titles originally published in the pulps in the 1930s and 40s. Galaxy immediately got numerous requests for ebook versions for the Sony Reader, Kindle and other mobile devices which is the project I'm working on.

Lucy

[DixieGal]

And here comes the Scientology adsense again.

[Lucy]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i wish someone would pay you to do book conversions too ! (not that i can keep up with you as it is... but you deserve it).

welcome lucy, it will be interesting to hear about your experiences converting books. we've got some very interesting conversations about different conversion tools, best practices, etc.

Hello and thanks. It has been an experience and I am still learning. Unfortunately there is no book on the subject that lays out in plaintext what to do. ePub may be the "industry standard" but everyone still has their own file format and format issues when it comes to book layout. I am working with a guy expert in xml and InDesign and we've gone through a lot of trial and error so far. He plans to publish a book (ebook naturally) on the subject to help make the transition easier for others.

Lucy

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Lucy

Hello and thanks. It has been an experience and I am still learning. Unfortunately there is no book on the subject that lays out in plaintext what to do. ePub may be the "industry standard" but everyone still has their own file format and format issues when it comes to book layout.

oh boy, tell me about it. this is the subject of much discussion (and lamentation) around here, we call it "the tower of e-babel." personally (as a web designer) i think a standard format is essential (see the Web Standards Consortium, W3C), and i have very high hopes for epub ; not only will it allow standardisation of a single, cross-device format (with luck... if all goes well... but we are definitely on the right track there so far, so fingers crossed !), but it also is the first format that is actually designed specifically for ebooks, taking into consideration the specific necessities of that medium and also taking advantage of the specific strenghths and advantages in a way no existing format does. (most existing formats are profoundly flawed, each in their own way, some in many ways). epub is going to revolutionise epublishing, i firmly believe.

I am working with a guy expert in xml and InDesign and we've gone through a lot of trial and error so far. He plans to publish a book (ebook naturally) on the subject to help make the transition easier for others.

Lucy

that is brilliant news. i'm always really pleased to hear about more people using standard formats, and you're right that (especially given the standard is still being defined) it can get complicated really fast ! and there aren't many easy to use tools for it. you seem to be taking the right path though, definitely.

the epub creation tool i've been recommending to novice ebook creators around here is the online interface at feedbooks.com ; take a look at it sometime if you like. it might even be useful for you for certain projects. feedbooks is actually intended to be a creation tool but also a distribution platform, for the publication of Public Domain / CC texts (it will also support the sale of self-published texts in the near future (not sure when)), but you can also take a look at the output without publishing it by asking for a preview, and you can also look at the code (in the advanced view), so it can be a good learning tool as well.

glad to have you around. i see you have a technical question a few posts up, i recommend creating a new thread for this in the appropriate forum, because i'm sure we've got someone who can help you around here but they might not see it in this thread.

[pdurrant]

I've never tried uploading through Mobipocket. I can only guess that they are insisting on people using their DRM (urgh). IMO DRM only troubles the people who are actually willing to pay for your books. Whether there's a way to publish through Mobipocket without using DRM I don't know.

The no text encoding sounds easy - your source files haven't specified what text encoding they use, and you have specified explicitly in the appropriate field in the Mobipocket Creator program either. Do one or the other (i.e. specify whether the text source is in Windows Latin-1, Mac Roman or UTF-8)

The table of contents error sounds like you're specified your own table of contents, but that one of the links in it is broken in some way.

For Mobipocket, I've found the best way to do a table of contents is to get my source text into basic HTML, with the sections/chapters marked up with header (H1,H2,...etc) and then get Mobipocket Creator to create the TOC for me. I can always then tweka the html in the new table of contents file, but I can be sure the links are all correct.

Originally Posted by Lucy

Now when I try to upload I get an error message that says the eBook is not encrypted correctly and to publish with the Level 4 (encryption+PID) security option in the Mobipocket Publisher. I went back to the Mobipocket Creator and tried to use the build function to add the encryption (before I didn't use this as I used the mobigen to build the file automatically) and I get a warning "Warningparsing) No text encoding found" as well as two error messages. One that says "Error(prcgen): Hyperlink not resolved in toc: (and then the string to my files)" and another "Error(prcgen): The table of content could not be built."

Any ideas?

Lucy

[Lucy]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've never tried uploading through Mobipocket. I can only guess that they are insisting on people using their DRM (urgh). IMO DRM only troubles the people who are actually willing to pay for your books. Whether there's a way to publish through Mobipocket without using DRM I don't know.

The no text encoding sounds easy - your source files haven't specified what text encoding they use, and you have specified explicitly in the appropriate field in the Mobipocket Creator program either. Do one or the other (i.e. specify whether the text source is in Windows Latin-1, Mac Roman or UTF-8)

The table of contents error sounds like you're specified your own table of contents, but that one of the links in it is broken in some way.

For Mobipocket, I've found the best way to do a table of contents is to get my source text into basic HTML, with the sections/chapters marked up with header (H1,H2,...etc) and then get Mobipocket Creator to create the TOC for me. I can always then tweka the html in the new table of contents file, but I can be sure the links are all correct.

Hi! Apparently Mobi won't take a file from a publisher unless it has the DRM. This was handled by using the mobigen.exe tool and specifying -s2 in the command prompt. The file then opens in the Mobi Creator and formats with the encryption.

Thanks for the tip on the encoding. My error was not specifying in the Mobi Creator--> Book setting the correct encoding. It defaulted to Western and the files were International UTF8, so by changing this in the setting, it handled the error.

On the TOC, this took some trial and error, but I finally hit on a simple handling as I wanted to use the TOC already formatted and linked in the epub file. The epub file uses an .ncx file for the navigational map and to create the TOC. Mobi doesn't recognize .ncx, so by changing the toc.ncx to toc.xhtml to match the other files, it handled the bug and built the files.

Lucy

[Syclla]

Just Say Hello here,and I Come Form China,my first Post