Rogue Chrs on Bookbox in mobi to epub conversion

ianeck · 08-14-2012, 02:40 PM

Hi,
I have converted several mobi to epub and most are fine. A few though have rogue '?' characters inserted when viewed only on my Bookbox.

This is the first sentence as seen on the Bookbox

?George, can?t you sit still for even a minute!? said Julian. ?It?s bad enough to have the train rocking about all .........

This is a cut and paste from the Calibre viewer of the same file extract.

George, cant you sit still for even a minute! said Julian. Its bad enough to have the train rocking about all ...................

The Calibre viewer also display the original mobi in exactly them same way.

It seems to be something to do with spaces but not all and presumably the ? means Bookbox can't interpret a character Calibre has produced in the conversion

Any pointers to help solve this would be appreciated.

Ian

ianeck · 08-14-2012, 03:28 PM

It seems it is that the Bookbox and now also my Bookeen Orizon doesn't recognise quotes (double apostrophe) and apostrophe characters that appear in the epub created by Calibre. Presumably because Calibre doesn't understand the characters used in the source mobi.

Calibre's viewer presumably doesn't recognise the characters either but it just ignores the unknown characters rather than inserting a ? which just messes up the grammar.

Again any ideas of what to do to correct this would be most welcome.

Ian

davidfor · 08-14-2012, 07:58 PM

Did you have "Smarten punctuation" set on the "Look & Feel" page? This will put different characters for the opening and closing quotes than the simple double quote on the keyboard. Same for the apostrophe.

DoctorOhh · 08-15-2012, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ianeck

Any pointers to help solve this would be appreciated.

Check out item 1 of this FAQ. I would first try cp1252 or windows-1252 in the Input character encoding box under Look & Feel then convert again. Other character encoding options might be found here.

ianeck · 08-30-2012, 12:45 PM

Thank you both for your suggestions. Both certainly make sense and I am sure the solution lies in the area you have directed me too. I have been able to edit the XML and used find and replace to correct the rogue characters with some slow sucess. This is laborious so your suggestions are most welcome. As soon as I get a moment I will fiddle with the settings suggested and update this post. Thanks again.

08-14-2012, 02:40 PM	#1
ianeck Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2012 Device: View Quest Bookbox	Rogue Chrs on Bookbox in mobi to epub conversion Hi, I have converted several mobi to epub and most are fine. A few though have rogue '?' characters inserted when viewed only on my Bookbox. This is the first sentence as seen on the Bookbox ?George, can?t you sit still for even a minute!? said Julian. ?It?s bad enough to have the train rocking about all ......... This is a cut and paste from the Calibre viewer of the same file extract. George, cant you sit still for even a minute! said Julian. Its bad enough to have the train rocking about all ................... The Calibre viewer also display the original mobi in exactly them same way. It seems to be something to do with spaces but not all and presumably the ? means Bookbox can't interpret a character Calibre has produced in the conversion Any pointers to help solve this would be appreciated. Ian

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08-14-2012, 03:28 PM	#2
ianeck Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2012 Device: View Quest Bookbox	It seems it is that the Bookbox and now also my Bookeen Orizon doesn't recognise quotes (double apostrophe) and apostrophe characters that appear in the epub created by Calibre. Presumably because Calibre doesn't understand the characters used in the source mobi. Calibre's viewer presumably doesn't recognise the characters either but it just ignores the unknown characters rather than inserting a ? which just messes up the grammar. Again any ideas of what to do to correct this would be most welcome. Ian

08-14-2012, 07:58 PM	#3
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Did you have "Smarten punctuation" set on the "Look & Feel" page? This will put different characters for the opening and closing quotes than the simple double quote on the keyboard. Same for the apostrophe.

08-30-2012, 12:45 PM	#5
ianeck Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2012 Device: View Quest Bookbox	Thank you both for your suggestions. Both certainly make sense and I am sure the solution lies in the area you have directed me too. I have been able to edit the XML and used find and replace to correct the rogue characters with some slow sucess. This is laborious so your suggestions are most welcome. As soon as I get a moment I will fiddle with the settings suggested and update this post. Thanks again.

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