Noob: just getting my head around all the variables

[KAM]

Hi

I recently received a PRS-505 as a gift and, as a non ebook user until that point, I'm still trying to navigate my way through the maze of options and choices. Any confirmation or clarification of my understanding would be helpful.

As I see it there are four major elements:
(a) the physical reader hardware (Sony, Kindle etc);
(b) the many file formats that the given reader may support;
(c) the starting file format that you may use on a PC to create/edit the document;
(d) the conversion process from (c) to (b)

Given that I've already got the PRS-505 the choice of (a) is fixed for me.

What are the relative benefits of the options in (b) that the Sony can work with? Is there a comparison list anywhere you can point me to that says EPUBs do this but RTFs do that and LRFs and HTMLs do both/neither?

If I'm creating/editing a document I could store it as .txt, .rtf, .doc, .htm etc. Again do any of these have advantages further down the line, or do they block off choices?

Finally, what software or process is current favourite for getting from the PC world to the PRS world?

I've posted in this forum simply because the Sony is the one part of the puzzle already in place. If you feel I'd be better off enquiring in other forums, just point me in the right direction!

Regards

Ken

[slayda]

My Sony is the PRS-500 and is not as capable as the 505 but here are my thoughts (and welcome to the forum).

Calibre is great, free SW - check out our WIKI to DL it. BookDesigner (also a free DL here) is very good but not as easy to use.

I found that the RTF format was very good for archiving my books and can be read on the Sonys. The main drawback is the lack of TOC and image capability. LRF is now available from many ebook stores (Baen, Fictionwise - I think). The 500 has no Epub support so I don't know about it.

HTML may be good but you can end up with several files and I don't know how well that will work. I always preferred RTF for my 500.

I'm sure you'll get more answers from 505 owners.

[dordale]

AFAIK the 505 won't read html files. But html can be easily converted to other formats (LRF, ePub, etc) that the reader can read.

dordale

[lilac_jive]

What are you planning to load on your Reader? Documents you created? Existing books you have?

[Curly]

Have you had look at the wiki? It may help answer some of your questions. There is a list of the numerous ebook formats and a matrix showing which devices they can be used on and links to further conversion information.

[KAM]

At the moment I'm planning on loading documents that I will be editing/creating. This may change as I get to know the world of ebooks better!

My coding knowledge is zero, so I'd prefer if I were to start from creating .doc, .rtf, .txt or similar easily editable formats. I've already loaded a couple of short .rtf's to the PRS-505 just by direct Windows folder-to-folder copying. However the page widths and justification etc don't come across well.

In a perfect world someone might answer my original questions by recommending "start with .xxx files (they're really easy to edit), convert them to the Sony-readable .yyy format using the well-known ZZZ software package. The reasons for these recommendations are .... ". But as I suspect I'm finding through experimentation things are never that simple!

Regards

Ken

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by KAM

At the moment I'm planning on loading documents that I will be editing/creating. This may change as I get to know the world of ebooks better!

My coding knowledge is zero, so I'd prefer if I were to start from creating .doc, .rtf, .txt or similar easily editable formats. I've already loaded a couple of short .rtf's to the PRS-505 just by direct Windows folder-to-folder copying. However the page widths and justification etc don't come across well.

In a perfect world someone might answer my original questions by recommending "start with .xxx files (they're really easy to edit), convert them to the Sony-readable .yyy format using the well-known ZZZ software package. The reasons for these recommendations are .... ". But as I suspect I'm finding through experimentation things are never that simple!

Regards

Ken

If you're just typing it up in Word, it's pretty straightforward. You can grab bookdesigner (a free program you can find here at MR), load it, then convert to LRF (in my opinion the best format for the Sony). There's some good tutorials in the workshop. It would take all of a few minutes to go from a word doc to LRF.

[KAM]

Have you had look at the wiki?

Yes, yes and yes again. I swear I did. Honest. Several times. And it didn't answer my problems.

And yet, mysteriously I've just been back again and there are massive sections that I'm positive weren't there before! Things like "E-book conversion" with a page all to itself. And that in turn contains "Best Conversion Practices" as a link to further pages. Come on, admit it - someone set the text colour on all these pages to white when I was searching to begin with! There was nothing there. (or could it have been me? Naw ....)

Anyway I'm now buried knee-deep in Wiki pages that should keep me quiet for some time. Hmmm... sudden thought, now if only I could get the Wiki pages on to the PRS-505 ...

Thanks again to all

Ken

[ddavtian]

Welcome to the forum!

Originally Posted by KAM

Hmmm... sudden thought, now if only I could get the Wiki pages on to the PRS-505 ...

If you're using firefox, install the Bookit plugin (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24403). Anytime you want to read a web page on your reader, use the plugin to create an lrf file for Sony.

Originally Posted by KAM

In a perfect world someone might answer my original questions by recommending "start with .xxx files (they're really easy to edit), convert them to the Sony-readable .yyy format using the well-known ZZZ software package. The reasons for these recommendations are .... ".

Not a perfect world, but I'll try: start with html files (easy to edit), convert them to Sony-readable .lrf format using the well-known Calibre (see this subforum https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=166 or wiki) software package, use Calibre to transfer the .lrf file to the reader. The reason for this recommendation: it takes a minute or two to complete the whole process. This will allow you to start enjoying your docs on the reader while you're working on wiki.

[RWood]

If you use Word for creating/editing the files, store them in RTF format. I have found it the best interchange format. (Word creates a very, very bloated HTML file that is best to avoid at all costs.)

Then you have three choices:

1. Load the RTF to the Sony
2. Create an LRF file in Calibre
3. Create an LRF file in Book Designer

If you do #1 you lose all graphics you may have in the file and it does create a rather large footprint inside the Sony.

#2 is a great choice and you can do a load and go. Calibre also provides for the creation of ePub files. Calibre is used by Fictionwise to create all of their LRF format books they offer for sale. There is also active Calibre support at MobileRead.

#3 (Book Designer or simply BD) is also a great choice although it has not been updated in over 18 months. (Calibre gets updates frequently.) The set-up for BD is a bit awkward and there are a lot of us around that can help. Once past the initial learning curve it is a very easy program to operate. I have used it for most of the books I have posted in the MobileRead download section.

Why create LRF or ePub files for the Sony. Three reasons -- speed, features, and size. LRF and ePub are the native format of the Sony (LRF) and the emerging standard for ebooks ePub.) They render faster than many other formats. Both LRF and ePub allow the inclusion of a TOC, graphics, footnotes, chapter titles, page breaks, and extensive meta data. Most of these are not available in some formats. Both are also compressed formats and take far less space in the memory of the Sony thus allowing you to store more ebooks than you could with some other formats.

When I started with the Sony back in 2006 Book Designer was all we had. If I was to start today I would learn Calibre and forget about Book Designer.

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by RWood

Then you have three choices:

There's actually four now, as you forgot Book Creator. I've not got much knowledge of it myself, having got BD & Calibre already setup, but the reason I'm raising it as a suggestion is that it's an MS Word template with VBScript code, so runs within MS Word & might suit the OP's needs well.

[MSWallack]

Ken:

Welcome to MobileRead. I told you that you'd likely find the help that you were looking for over here! Now if we can just get Fredrik to add more support for eBooks in BookCAT we'll be in great shape!

[pozo]

Originally Posted by RWood

If you use Word for creating/editing the files, store them in RTF format. I have found it the best interchange format. (Word creates a very, very bloated HTML file that is best to avoid at all costs.)

Actually, in Word (2007, I think 2003 too) you have the 'Save As' option of 'html, filtered' or something like that, it'll remove most of the 'Word' html and leaves you with a pretty clean code. Mainly stores the font used and some other stuff, but it's not as bad as with just saving to html (filesize difference is 50% or so).

I used this to go from an rtf>html>lrf yesterday, using a regex editor in the html phase to implement <h1> tags in HTML to make chapter detection easier (you probably could do this in rtf-code too, but I don't know the tags and Calibre likes html better according to it's FAQ).

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by gwynevans

There's actually four now, as you forgot Book Creator.

Book Creator is basically a wrapper around Calibre.

[KAM]

Originally Posted by ddavtian

start with html files (easy to edit), convert them to Sony-readable .lrf format using the well-known Calibre

Originally Posted by RWood

store them in RTF format. I have found it the best interchange format. (Word creates a very, very bloated HTML file that is best to avoid at all costs.)

Originally Posted by Kovid

RTF is the second worst supported format for conversions

Now you see how easy it is for a novice to get confuserated!
"Use HTMLs; dont use HTMLs use RTFs; don't use RTFs ..." (I picked up Kovid's quote from his reply to me in the Calibre forum)

I think a great deal of experimentation is called for on my part. I'll let you all know how I progress.

Thanks and regards

Ken