New to the Reader - some conversion questions...

[KennanBurton]

Okay. Got the Reader. It's pretty frickin' awesome. Used my free 50 dollar credits. Got a booklight. Damn. SO MUCH easier than other books... one-handed reading and all that.

This is my first e-book device. Now I have a few questions regarding BookDesigner and the Reader: (sorry, this is kinda my first day.)

I've been trying to convert various .DOCs and .WPDs to BBeBs in Bookdesigner. I got the .lits out of the way. I want my OWN and friend's writings on the Reader. But when I convert the DOCS to BBeBs and open them, weird PAGE BREAKS surface up. It will say the name of my story and the page number out of total pages up top, but for some reason the page seems to be SPLITTING. It will say "Title of Novel page 4/250" but the actual Reader says differently and is on another entire page with a big old LOOOONG page break. How to I get around this? I tried turning PAGE BREAKS off.

Also, I want to adjust the LEFT MARGIN, because I want more left white space. I can adjust the RIGHT and the TOP. Is there any way I can adjust of the LEFT? in BookDesigner...

Sorry for the stupidity of my questions. Again, I've had my reader for 48 hours...

Thanks for any help!! Glad to be part of the Reader club!

[HarryT]

Have you got hard page breaks in your Word file? The Reader will respect those and start a new page at that point.

Rather than using a complex tool like Book Designer, try saving your Word file as RTF and then loading that into the Reader and see how it does with that. A lot easier to control what's going on if you use RTF.

[KennanBurton]

Thanks. That works. But two things. I saved it as RTF and there's no long breaks, which is good. BUT I want margins. Converting from .doc to .rtf leaves NO margin when viewed through the Reader. I also want to be able to give those Word documents a title and author so they show in the Reader. Saving to a BBeB works for that... I think.

[HarryT]

To set the title and author in a Word document, select the "File/Properties" menu item and fill in the "Title" and "Author" fields in the document properties dialog box. The Reader picks them up from there.

To get margins in an RTF file set a paragraph indent. Personally I don't like margins; they are just "wasted space".

[KennanBurton]

Originally Posted by HarryT

To set the title and author in a Word document, select the "File/Properties" menu item and fill in the "Title" and "Author" fields in the document properties dialog box. The Reader picks them up from there.

To get margins in an RTF file set a paragraph indent. Personally I don't like margins; they are just "wasted space".

I've tried the former and it doesn't work. The title of the story shows up with no author listed under AUTHOR in Connect.

For the latter, where and how do I set the paragraph indent?

Thanks much.


BTW: here are some pictures.




This is in RTF. No margins. No page breaks.




The above two pictures highlight the strange page break when converted to an RLF/Libre file. I like the font better AND I get the headers AND the author shows up in Connect and in the reader.

I still would like to change the Right or is it left margins and get away from the strange break.

Next picture is of BookDesigner.


When I change the Left margins, the text on the right is pushed to the lefts. I want the text on the right to be pushed to the left, so would I change the Right margins? And if so, the option is not listed in the picture. Is there any other option anyone sees in the BookDesigner photo above that would allow be to get away from the page break?

Again, sorry for my dumbness. Thanks!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by KennanBurton

I've tried the former and it doesn't work. The title of the story shows up with no author listed under AUTHOR in Connect.

Hmmm. It certainly should work - it really is the standard way to do it! Are you sure you've filled in the correct fields in the properties dialog? It's the "Title" and "Author" fields on the "Summary" tab of the dialog that you need to fill in. In my version of Word (Word 2000), these are the 1st and 3rd text fields on the dialog.

For the latter, where and how do I set the paragraph indent?

The easiest way to do it is to edit them in the style. Go to the "Format/Style" menu in Word, select the "Normal" style (or whatever), then select "Modify", "Paragraph" and you'll get a dialog showing you the paragraph properties, which allows you to set a left and right indent.

[KennanBurton]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Hmmm. It certainly should work - it really is the standard way to do it! Are you sure you've filled in the correct fields in the properties dialog? It's the "Title" and "Author" fields on the "Summary" tab of the dialog that you need to fill in. In my version of Word (Word 2000), these are the 1st and 3rd text fields on the dialog.



The easiest way to do it is to edit them in the style. Go to the "Format/Style" menu in Word, select the "Normal" style (or whatever), then select "Modify", "Paragraph" and you'll get a dialog showing you the paragraph properties, which allows you to set a left and right indent.

So I have the .RTF on my deskstop. I right-click, go to "Properties," then "Summary," then fill in "title" and "author" accordingly. Hit "apply" and "ok". Send the .RTF to the Connect library and then the Reader itself, and for some reason the author is not listed! And the title of the book is still the FILE name and not the title under "Title" in "summary!" So confused I am.

Other than that, I am able to change the tabs and indents now to my liking, thanks!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by KennanBurton

So I have the .RTF on my deskstop. I right-click, go to "Properties," then "Summary," then fill in "title" and "author" accordingly. Hit "apply" and "ok".

I'm not sure that method will work. I think you have to do it from the "File/Properties" menu item in Word itself. ie double click the file to open it, select "File/Properties" menu item, fill in author and title, then save the file.

[RWood]

There seems to be a bit of confusion here.

Harry is talking about loading RTF files directly to the Reader through the CONNECT software or via a memory card.

Kennan is showing screen shots of BookDesigner with the wrong "Make eBooks" option selected. The top option is the one for the Sony Reader. The one you selected is an older one for the short lived Librie.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by RWood

There seems to be a bit of confusion here.

Harry is talking about loading RTF files directly to the Reader through the CONNECT software or via a memory card.

Kennan is showing screen shots of BookDesigner with the wrong "Make eBooks" option selected. The top option is the one for the Sony Reader. The one you selected is an older one for the short lived Librie.

No, I think we're OK. I know that Kennan was using Book Designer originally, but I suggested that he try using RTF files instead, and I think that's what he's no doing. That's my interpretation, anyway .

I really don't see any point in using Book Designer unless you want pictures or something like that. RTF is so much more straightforward.

[RWood]

I use a lot of BookDesigner for texts I read on the Reader. The time it takes to format through BookDesigner (I use mostly the defaults) is minimal and I always keep the original sources in RTF when I can -- it being the closest thing to a universal format that also includes formatting since I am not a great fan of HTML although it too has its uses.

OK, BookDesigner gives me loadable file sizes about 1/10 the size of RTF. This means lots of books in internal memory and no requirement for a memory card unless I also want music or a b+w slide show. It has the meta data so title and author show up where they are expected. It can create a TOC although I haven't delved into that aspect too much as of yet. Like RTF (and unlike PDF) the text also scales nicely through the S-M-L size button.

One nice feature, and one that I miss in other methods, is that it puts the title of the book in the top right corner (like most CONNECT store books) and also puts the chapter or chapter title in the lower right.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by KennanBurton

So I have the .RTF on my deskstop. I right-click, go to "Properties," then "Summary," then fill in "title" and "author" accordingly. Hit "apply" and "ok". Send the .RTF to the Connect library and then the Reader itself, and for some reason the author is not listed! And the title of the book is still the FILE name and not the title under "Title" in "summary!" So confused I am.

The reason it's not getting you what you want is that the approach you're describing is changing the Windows file properties on the file on the hard drive, which doesn't affect the file meta-data (inside the file) that the Reader uses to tell things like title and author.

To change those, you have to open the file in Word (WordPad won't work), or OpenOffice, if you prefer, and edit the file properties in there -- confusing, 'cause Microsoft decided to call both of them the same thing -- "File Properties" -- when they're completely different (another point of gratitude towards M$, I s'pose). The way HarryT describes will get you there: from the menu bar, select File=>Properties, and then fill in the little form that comes up.

Glad you're enjoying your new toy.

[Snassek]

Originally Posted by NatCh

To change those, you have to open the file in Word (WordPad won't work), or OpenOffice, if you prefer, and edit the file properties in there

I have tried OpenOffice and I am unable to add the author to the properties.

[KennanBurton]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Glad you're enjoying your new toy.

Toy? TOY? Yep. A rather functional and mostly easy to use toy.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

I figured out how to save the AUTHOR and TITLE data through Word. Thanks.

HOWEVER, yes, when I have been outputting the files through Designer I'm using Sony Librie. There isn't, or I can't find, a Reader option. I'm using version 5 of the program. Has there been another update? I tried looking for updates but it seems the website is in russian? Also, would the fact that I've been saving the files as Librie files account for the odd page breaks? For some reason I thought they'd be fully compatible. THANKS AGAIN!!!

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Snassek

I have tried OpenOffice and I am unable to add the author to the properties.

Hmm ... I think you're right, I guess I just assumed you could, and hadn't tried it.

Thanks for setting me straight.

Originally Posted by KennanBurton

There isn't, or I can't find, a Reader option. I'm using version 5 of the program. Has there been another update?

The latest update (I think) is linked here -- the instructions for installing it are in the first post of that same thread.

You also might find the conversions entry in the MobileRead Wiki (there's link at the top of the page) to be quite useful. There's a lot of good info on converting stuff there.