Book Designer Difficulty

JEMelby · 07-05-2007, 07:33 AM

The mark of a usable piece of software is how many folks are brave enough to wade in and offer support. A difficult bit of software will get few responses, but a good program will have folks lined up to offer assistance and/or defend their favorite.

So, here it is:

In anticipation of the arrival of my Sony Reader, I have been lining up some books to load. I have a variety of books in HTML, LIT, and RTF format which I am attempting to format for the Reader. In all cases, the LRF file which is output is suspiciously small. Where a 1.1 MB HTML file was used for the source, the output LRF is only 16KB! Even minus the cover art, this is small. With the LIT file I opened, I only got the first page to open in book designer. The source file was 450KB. So what am I missing? I suspect there is a simple switch I am not flipping.

Here is the other problem: On the HTML file, there was a link to the cover art JPG. I don't have the JPG, so I get the classic "X" graphic in Book Designer. I figured I'd just select and delete the offending graphic marker, but when I select it, it will never delete. The resulting LRF file has the same "X" graphic in it.

This looks like a pretty comprehensive program, and I'd love to master it. Any assistance out there would be greatly appreciated.

simond · 07-05-2007, 08:32 AM

I've seen that too, I think it's when a LIT file is made up of lots of HTML files and BookDesigner doesn't notice the ones other than the front page, I've used ABC Amber LIT Converter to convert to other formats and then into LRF with BookDesigner, but it doesn't keep the graphics unfortunately, if anyone can prove me wrong I'll be grateful

HarryT · 07-05-2007, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JEMelby

In anticipation of the arrival of my Sony Reader, I have been lining up some books to load. I have a variety of books in HTML, LIT, and RTF format which I am attempting to format for the Reader. In all cases, the LRF file which is output is suspiciously small. Where a 1.1 MB HTML file was used for the source, the output LRF is only 16KB! Even minus the cover art, this is small. With the LIT file I opened, I only got the first page to open in book designer. The source file was 450KB. So what am I missing? I suspect there is a simple switch I am not flipping.

On the "Make Sony Reader" dialog, are you sure you're clicking the "Make" button rather than the "Test" button? "Test" only converts the first few pages, rather than the entire book.

Quote:

Here is the other problem: On the HTML file, there was a link to the cover art JPG. I don't have the JPG, so I get the classic "X" graphic in Book Designer. I figured I'd just select and delete the offending graphic marker, but when I select it, it will never delete. The resulting LRF file has the same "X" graphic in it.

Double click the missing graphic - you'll get the "Insert/Edit Picture" dialog. Click the "Delete" button in this dialog to delete the picture.

JEMelby · 07-05-2007, 12:48 PM

Both counts have been resoved. Thanks Harry and Simond. In the case of the LIT file, I had forgotten to run ConvertLIT (refuse to abrieviate that) to bust it up into pieces.

And deleting the graphic from the graphic options menu worked like a champ.

Standby for more!

BruceW · 07-10-2007, 01:10 PM

I am very new to the conversion of books from on format to another. I would like to read a lot of the BAEN books but they need to be converted. I have followed most of the threads for BD and have read that converting from HTML is better than from RTF.

How do you convert books like those from BAEN that are multiple HTML files? How do you get BD to "grab" all of the links?

JSWolf · 07-10-2007, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceW

I am very new to the conversion of books from on format to another. I would like to read a lot of the BAEN books but they need to be converted. I have followed most of the threads for BD and have read that converting from HTML is better than from RTF.

How do you convert books like those from BAEN that are multiple HTML files? How do you get BD to "grab" all of the links?

BD does not grab files over the net. The files need to be on your system to start with. Now if you have seperate HTML files and want to put them together, BD does have a book joiner. Just go to the tools menu and select Join Books. It will only join HTML or text formats. I have used it for HTML and it works fine.

What I did for the last Bean book I converted was to use the LIT format version. It's all contained in the one file. BD will load the lit file. Then all I did was clean it up, and done. Cleaning up is suslaly fixing the ToC because BD tents to get this wrong sometimes. But overall it's a fairly simple process. Download the lit file, load it into BD, clean it up, save the BD source, save the LRF, load the LRF onto the reader and read.

NatCh · 07-10-2007, 01:21 PM

I've been using BookDesigner converting Baen's offerings from RTF without any trouble. I haven't messed with converting the HTML, however, so I'm afraid I can't be much help to your actual question.

You might look at the HTML2LRF threads ... it seems to me that it handles multiple HTML files ....

BruceW · 07-10-2007, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Now if you have seperate HTML files and want to put them together, BD does have a book joiner. Just go to the tools menu and select Join Books. It will only join HTML or text formats.

Thanks JSWolf, I will give this a try Wednesday.

Quote:

You might look at the HTML2LRF threads ... it seems to me that it handles multiple HTML files

Thanks NatCh, HTML2LRF does handle multiple HTML files. I will try the BD solution as I want to learn only one tool if possible. I do not have a hole lot of time to convert books, so I will consentrate on only one tool.

I appreciate the assistance from both of you.

igorsk · 07-10-2007, 09:36 PM

LIT2LRF works pretty well for me. Or HTML2LRF with --baen switch.

07-05-2007, 07:33 AM	#1
JEMelby Save the Stone Tablet Posts: 31 Karma: 23 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Planet Earth (Mostly) Device: Coleco ADAM (With high-speed digital tape drive!)	Book Designer Difficulty The mark of a usable piece of software is how many folks are brave enough to wade in and offer support. A difficult bit of software will get few responses, but a good program will have folks lined up to offer assistance and/or defend their favorite. So, here it is: In anticipation of the arrival of my Sony Reader, I have been lining up some books to load. I have a variety of books in HTML, LIT, and RTF format which I am attempting to format for the Reader. In all cases, the LRF file which is output is suspiciously small. Where a 1.1 MB HTML file was used for the source, the output LRF is only 16KB! Even minus the cover art, this is small. With the LIT file I opened, I only got the first page to open in book designer. The source file was 450KB. So what am I missing? I suspect there is a simple switch I am not flipping. Here is the other problem: On the HTML file, there was a link to the cover art JPG. I don't have the JPG, so I get the classic "X" graphic in Book Designer. I figured I'd just select and delete the offending graphic marker, but when I select it, it will never delete. The resulting LRF file has the same "X" graphic in it. This looks like a pretty comprehensive program, and I'd love to master it. Any assistance out there would be greatly appreciated.

07-10-2007, 01:10 PM	#5
BruceW Connoisseur Posts: 55 Karma: 773 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Ottawa Canada Device: Sony Reader	Converting BAEN books I am very new to the conversion of books from on format to another. I would like to read a lot of the BAEN books but they need to be converted. I have followed most of the threads for BD and have read that converting from HTML is better than from RTF. How do you convert books like those from BAEN that are multiple HTML files? How do you get BD to "grab" all of the links?

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07-05-2007, 08:32 AM	#2
simond Fanatic Posts: 532 Karma: 1062755 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London, UK Device: Kobo Aura One, iPad, iPhone	I've seen that too, I think it's when a LIT file is made up of lots of HTML files and BookDesigner doesn't notice the ones other than the front page, I've used ABC Amber LIT Converter to convert to other formats and then into LRF with BookDesigner, but it doesn't keep the graphics unfortunately, if anyone can prove me wrong I'll be grateful

07-05-2007, 12:48 PM	#4
JEMelby Save the Stone Tablet Posts: 31 Karma: 23 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Planet Earth (Mostly) Device: Coleco ADAM (With high-speed digital tape drive!)	Both counts have been resoved. Thanks Harry and Simond. In the case of the LIT file, I had forgotten to run ConvertLIT (refuse to abrieviate that) to bust it up into pieces. And deleting the graphic from the graphic options menu worked like a champ. Standby for more!

07-10-2007, 01:21 PM	#7
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	I've been using BookDesigner converting Baen's offerings from RTF without any trouble. I haven't messed with converting the HTML, however, so I'm afraid I can't be much help to your actual question. You might look at the HTML2LRF threads ... it seems to me that it handles multiple HTML files ....

07-10-2007, 09:36 PM	#9
igorsk Wizard Posts: 3,442 Karma: 300001 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Belgium Device: PRS-500/505/700, Kindle, Cybook Gen3, Words Gear	LIT2LRF works pretty well for me. Or HTML2LRF with --baen switch.

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