What am I doing wrong

kasb · 05-01-2011, 03:50 AM

I am totally new to this and if this is the wrong place to ask this, I apologize in advance. I am not a programmer in any way.

Almost every one of my 600+ epubs I downloaded (yes I got a little crazy getting books, most of which I already own in print) has either periods (usually three ... or . . .) between words or before a quotation mark or has the symbol "—" between 2 words. I have tried to search and replace but it isn't consistent on where it is placed and what should be there, it is either a "space" between 2 words or a Period and end quotation mark (.") I also noticed that every now and then it repeats the word before it. For example: I like...like books. Is my only option to put them into a word document and manually clean them up? If that is the case, maybe I should stick with print. Also on the search function, I am testing it before I do it and sometimes it is picking up on just words, and if I replace the periods with a space it will wipe out words as well.

I hope this makes sense.

What am I doing wrong. I was just using Caliber to clean up the titles/authors and add series notes/numbers (Sorry that is the librarian in me) and didn't think that the actual pubs would be so much work to make readable.

Thanks in advance.
Kasb

Manichean · 05-01-2011, 04:10 AM

Your best option may be to find a source with better quality books (If you bought them, complain to the publisher, if they're public domain, reupload to the site after fixing them. I'm assuming for the sake of your conscience that you didn't pirate them.).
If you can't or don't want to do that, I'd advice you to use the search & replace function found within the conversion settings, chances are that you'll have to adapt the search expression for every book, though. Just to get you started, your example "I like...like books" could be rectified by using a search expression like

Code:

\s(\w+)\.\.\.\1\s

and replacing that with

Code:

\1

There's a beginners level tutorial for regular expressions available, should you need it.

theducks · 05-01-2011, 10:06 AM

@Manichean
There may actually be a bug that has sneaked into .8 code. I have been seeing runtogetherwords, that were not so in the source HTML. mdash (? what char code was really used, no clue. cut/paste replacing with — worked in Sigil) was one.

ellipses is a good possibility for others
I tried different Heuristic settings and it at least passed the unknown character through to be fixed in Sigil

Manichean · 05-01-2011, 10:15 AM

Hm, I haven't noticed anything yet. Is there some part of the conversion pipeline that's exclusive to 0.8, then?

theducks · 05-01-2011, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manichean

Hm, I haven't noticed anything yet. Is there some part of the conversion pipeline that's exclusive to 0.8, then?

It may not be an exclusive .8 issue

. I have just been using the tweaked versions

kasb · 05-02-2011, 08:36 PM

Thank you.

Some are purchased, some public domain. Since I already own most in print, I kinda have justified it to myself that it is like making a back up copy of music or software and have found alternative sources for them. I have tried several sources, and even different formats if an epub wasn't available and then converting them to Epub but the issues is still there.

So basically, I will be doing clean up on the ones that are messed up or deleting them. I was hoping that there was an easier way than saving to a work/text program like Word or wordpad, opening and then fixing, saving, and reconverting to epub.

I looked at Sigil program but don't really understand how to use it to edit and fix the problems. To me it isn't intuitive, (again not a programmer).

On the comments on runtogether words. I am noticing that as well. Spell check was catching those. (didn't see that in Sigil either)

Oh well, maybe print is better after all, takes up more room (not that I was EVER going to give up my print books) but travelling sure is easier with an IPad vs 4-5 hard/paperback books.

Again thanks for the information. This is the first forum I have ever joined or posted to and it wasn't painful at all.

.

Manichean · 05-03-2011, 03:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kasb

So basically, I will be doing clean up on the ones that are messed up or deleting them. I was hoping that there was an easier way than saving to a work/text program like Word or wordpad, opening and then fixing, saving, and reconverting to epub.

There is, see my first post in this thread: Use the search & replace feature.

cybmole · 05-03-2011, 01:12 PM

sounds like poor quality source material. what format are most of your source books in ?
can you post code snippets from them to illustrate the issue. ( easy to do if source is HTML or EPUB ) ask for help if needed.
I strongly recommend that you learn how to use sigil if you plan on repairing books. it's no harder than using MS word & has its own, helpful forum.

PS in my experience, the tempting mega collections : 1000+ books in 1 download, are atrocious quality, and the older the book, the more likely it is to have been through multiple bad conversions before it even reached you. I'm thinking e.g. golden era sci fi - written way before ebook formats or decent scanning software were invented.

"scanned in a galaxy far, far away" is NOT a badge of quality ! & if there is no legal e-book version on sale anywhere then the book was most likely scanned & run thru OCR software, then converted from PDF, not typed in word by word from a printed original!

speakingtohe · 05-04-2011, 05:34 PM

Just to test the theory that the books you downoaded may be crap download a few free ones from mobile read. Or some free ones from other sources. Give you something to read on the road anyway and because they are free doesn't make them bad

05-01-2011, 03:50 AM	#1
kasb Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: ipad	What am I doing wrong I am totally new to this and if this is the wrong place to ask this, I apologize in advance. I am not a programmer in any way. Almost every one of my 600+ epubs I downloaded (yes I got a little crazy getting books, most of which I already own in print) has either periods (usually three ... or . . .) between words or before a quotation mark or has the symbol "—" between 2 words. I have tried to search and replace but it isn't consistent on where it is placed and what should be there, it is either a "space" between 2 words or a Period and end quotation mark (.") I also noticed that every now and then it repeats the word before it. For example: I like...like books. Is my only option to put them into a word document and manually clean them up? If that is the case, maybe I should stick with print. Also on the search function, I am testing it before I do it and sometimes it is picking up on just words, and if I replace the periods with a space it will wipe out words as well. I hope this makes sense. What am I doing wrong. I was just using Caliber to clean up the titles/authors and add series notes/numbers (Sorry that is the librarian in me) and didn't think that the actual pubs would be so much work to make readable. Thanks in advance. Kasb

05-01-2011, 04:10 AM	#2
Manichean Wizard Posts: 3,130 Karma: 91256 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Device: Cybook Gen3	Your best option may be to find a source with better quality books (If you bought them, complain to the publisher, if they're public domain, reupload to the site after fixing them. I'm assuming for the sake of your conscience that you didn't pirate them.). If you can't or don't want to do that, I'd advice you to use the search & replace function found within the conversion settings, chances are that you'll have to adapt the search expression for every book, though. Just to get you started, your example "I like...like books" could be rectified by using a search expression like Code: \s(\w+)\.\.\.\1\s and replacing that with Code: \1 There's a beginners level tutorial for regular expressions available, should you need it.

05-02-2011, 08:36 PM	#6
kasb Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: ipad	Thanks Thank you. Some are purchased, some public domain. Since I already own most in print, I kinda have justified it to myself that it is like making a back up copy of music or software and have found alternative sources for them. I have tried several sources, and even different formats if an epub wasn't available and then converting them to Epub but the issues is still there. So basically, I will be doing clean up on the ones that are messed up or deleting them. I was hoping that there was an easier way than saving to a work/text program like Word or wordpad, opening and then fixing, saving, and reconverting to epub. I looked at Sigil program but don't really understand how to use it to edit and fix the problems. To me it isn't intuitive, (again not a programmer). On the comments on runtogether words. I am noticing that as well. Spell check was catching those. (didn't see that in Sigil either) Oh well, maybe print is better after all, takes up more room (not that I was EVER going to give up my print books) but travelling sure is easier with an IPad vs 4-5 hard/paperback books. Again thanks for the information. This is the first forum I have ever joined or posted to and it wasn't painful at all. .

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05-01-2011, 10:06 AM	#3
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,047 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	@Manichean There may actually be a bug that has sneaked into .8 code. I have been seeing runtogetherwords, that were not so in the source HTML. mdash (? what char code was really used, no clue. cut/paste replacing with — worked in Sigil) was one. ellipses is a good possibility for others I tried different Heuristic settings and it at least passed the unknown character through to be fixed in Sigil

05-01-2011, 10:15 AM	#4
Manichean Wizard Posts: 3,130 Karma: 91256 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Device: Cybook Gen3	Hm, I haven't noticed anything yet. Is there some part of the conversion pipeline that's exclusive to 0.8, then?

05-03-2011, 01:12 PM	#8
cybmole Wizard Posts: 3,720 Karma: 1759970 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	sounds like poor quality source material. what format are most of your source books in ? can you post code snippets from them to illustrate the issue. ( easy to do if source is HTML or EPUB ) ask for help if needed. I strongly recommend that you learn how to use sigil if you plan on repairing books. it's no harder than using MS word & has its own, helpful forum. PS in my experience, the tempting mega collections : 1000+ books in 1 download, are atrocious quality, and the older the book, the more likely it is to have been through multiple bad conversions before it even reached you. I'm thinking e.g. golden era sci fi - written way before ebook formats or decent scanning software were invented. "scanned in a galaxy far, far away" is NOT a badge of quality ! & if there is no legal e-book version on sale anywhere then the book was most likely scanned & run thru OCR software, then converted from PDF, not typed in word by word from a printed original!

05-04-2011, 05:34 PM	#9
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	Just to test the theory that the books you downoaded may be crap download a few free ones from mobile read. Or some free ones from other sources. Give you something to read on the road anyway and because they are free doesn't make them bad

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