how to tell the character encoding???

[kovidgoyal]

Look at item 2

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by rheostaticsfan

I bought the book then ran it through ereader2html then input the html into calibre. The output of ereader2html looks fine, but when I click V in calibre it shows me a winzip folder (it imported as zip). If I open the book file in there the em dashes and apostrophes are replaced with squares.

You have to set the input encoding prior to adding the html file to calibre. Once you see little squares you know to remove the html set a different encoding and try adding the html back to calibre.

Originally Posted by rheostaticsfan

I saw that. It seems to tell me to input the proper encoding. But that's how I started the thread. How do I know what the proper encoding is?

Or is there something I'm missing???

Kovid is pointing you to the area of the manual that tells you to set the encoding prior to adding the html to calibre.

2. When adding HTML files to calibre, you may need to tell calibre what encoding the files are in. To do this go to Preferences->Plugins->File Type plugins and customize the HTML2Zip plugin, telling it what encoding your HTML files are in. Now when you add HTML files to calibre they will be correctly processed. HTML files from different sources often have different encodings, so you may have to change this setting repeatedly. A common encoding for many files from the web is cp1252 and I would suggest you try that first. Note that when converting HTML files, leave the input encoding setting mentioned above blank. This is because the HTML2ZIP plugin automatically converts the HTML files to a standard encoding (utf-8).

[rheostaticsfan]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

2. When adding HTML files to calibre, you may need to tell calibre what encoding the files are in. To do this go to Preferences->Plugins->File Type plugins and customize the HTML2Zip plugin, telling it what encoding your HTML files are in. Now when you add HTML files to calibre they will be correctly processed. HTML files from different sources often have different encodings, so you may have to change this setting repeatedly...

The way I parse this is that when adding html I must tell Calibre what encoding it is in. Which is my original question: how do I determine what encoding to enter?

I'm getting rather frustrated. I think my command of the english language is sufficient to comprehend a FAQ...

[kovidgoyal]

By trying various encodings and seeing which one works

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by rheostaticsfan

The way I parse this is that when adding html I must tell Calibre what encoding it is in. Which is my original question: how do I determine what encoding to enter?

I'm getting rather frustrated. I think my command of the english language is sufficient to comprehend a FAQ...

Kovid told you the answer that everyone uses - trial and error, but there are other methods. You could always ask the html author, check the http headers, etc. (Live http headers in FireFox - look for the Content-Type: text/html; charset= header) You could use a hex editor, look at the high bit characters, and get a table of encodings to match it up. In the end, you're probably back to try it and see what works.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by rheostaticsfan

Which is my original question: how do I determine what encoding to enter?

Starson17 said it earlier in the thread, most of us guess, if it doesn't work we try again.

Originally Posted by Starson17

Most people don't do it that way, however. They just try reasonable options until one seems to work. Here are the ones I usually try:
cp1252
cp1251
latin1
utf-8

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Starson17 said it earlier in the thread, most of us guess, if it doesn't work we try again.

Is there a reason that there is not a Pulldown list (with verbose language tips) in that (code page) space, rather than make novices look them up.?

Maybe bias the list order with the most common near the top.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by theducks

Is there a reason that there is not a Pulldown list (with verbose language tips) in that (code page) space, rather than make novices look them up.?

Maybe bias the list order with the most common near the top.

Good Idea!

[rheostaticsfan]

That would be very helpful.