Mobipocket reader/mobi2mobi/library questions

[AlexBell]

I'm still having major problems setting up the library display on my Cybook.

I've found that if one right clicks on a mobipocket ebook with the .mobi suffix and the clicks on properties one can usually get the option to enter data into the Title and Author windows. I've also found that one can use mobi2mobi (I use the Windows GUI) to do what seems like the same thing - entering data into Title and Name fields.

The trouble is that the mobipocket reader and mobi2mobi seem to be entering the data into different parts of the file - what I put into an ebook file with mobipocket reader doesn't necessarily show when I open the same file with mobi2mobi, and vice versa.

And even when I put the data into the file with both what I entered doesn't necessarily show when I open the Cybook library. For example, I bought a book called Beguilement from Fictionwise. This is the first of four in the Sharing Knife series, so I wanted to call it The Sharing Knife 1 Beguilement so that when I get the others in the series they will show up in the library in the right order. I converted the .prc file to a .mobi file, and entered the name I wanted. The library still shows the Title as The Sharing Knife, which is going to cause some problems when I get the rest of the series.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a solution?

Regards, Alex

[tompe]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

The trouble is that the mobipocket reader and mobi2mobi seem to be entering the data into different parts of the file - what I put into an ebook file with mobipocket reader doesn't necessarily show when I open the same file with mobi2mobi, and vice versa.

The mobipocket reader does not enter it in the file but creates another file with the data. mobi2mobi can use this file to enter the data in the mobi file.

And even when I put the data into the file with both what I entered doesn't necessarily show when I open the Cybook library. For example, I bought a book called Beguilement from Fictionwise. This is the first of four in the Sharing Knife series, so I wanted to call it The Sharing Knife 1 Beguilement so that when I get the others in the series they will show up in the library in the right order. I converted the .prc file to a .mobi file, and entered the name I wanted. The library still shows the Title as The Sharing Knife, which is going to cause some problems when I get the rest of the series.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a solution?

On the command line:

mobi2mobi original.prc -o new.mobi --title "The Sharing Knife 1 Beguilement"

or 

mobi2mobi original.prc -o new.mobi --prefixtitle "Sharing Knife 1-"

[wallcraft]

When you edit the author and title in Wndows MobiPocket Reader, all it does is add the information to the .mbp file, not the original .mobi file, and this gets lost when you transfer the ebook to the Gen3. The --mbpfile option to mobi2mobi will copy this information into the .mobi, or you can add it using the other mobi2mobi options.

I suggest testing the result first using Windows MobiPocket Reader, by deleting the .mbp file and seeing if the new author/title is picked up as expected from the .mobi file.

I don't know what the Gen3 uses as the title, but on the Kindle there have been reports that the "updatedtitle" will over-ride the longtitle (from --title), and that if this already exists you may need:

mobi2mobi --outfile [output filename] --exthtype updatedtitle --exthdata "[Corrected Title]" [original AZW/MOBI filename]

See Change book title to remove typos and extraneous info?.

[tompe]

Aha, ticked added mobiperl... Nicer support for updated title could be good to have.

[AlexBell]

Many thanks to all who replied, especially for the information about mbp files and the command line option. But these lead me to two more questions
- Is there a summary somewhere of the mobipocket group of files so that I can read up on it myself? Or how can I find out what these files do and so on?
- I presume the command line option refers to the perl (non Windows GUI) version? I think that I really will have to bit the bullet and learn how to install perl etc.

Regards, Alex

[tompe]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

- I presume the command line option refers to the perl (non Windows GUI) version? I think that I really will have to bit the bullet and learn how to install perl etc.

You do not need to install Perl. You can use the Windows binaries directly. You have to use them from a command line.

[AlexBell]

Thanks, Tommy. Actually, I seem to be having more success now - I was probably doing something wrong without realising it.

Thanks again for mobi2mobi.

Regards, Alex