02-15-2008, 01:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Free eBooks from Tor
http://www.tor.com/
If you go to Tor's new site, you can sign up to receive a free ebook each week until they get it fully up and running, at which point I suspect they will switch to a pay model. Not a bad promotion. :-) This week's book is book is Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
Here is the problem. It comes in PDF format, and seems to be pretty much unlocked. From Adobe Reader 8, I can copy the entire file to the clipboard and past it into Word, but all of the line breaks are gone, and there is a hard return after each line so it won't reflow paragraphs. My Kaiser has Adobe Reader 2.0 LE on it, but it won't reflow the original PDF file, and the screen is to small to zoom in and read without zooming so much, you need to scroll horizontally. I checked on Adobe's site and they haven't updated their download version of Adobe Reader for the PPC in years and am wary of installing it with the ActiveSync converter in Vista's WMDC so it will reflow. Plus, I recall reading some material in that PPC version and even with the reflow, things like illustrations, tables, poetry or maps were either trashed or unusable. I thought about using Repligo to convert the data, but it appears they have totally abandoned the Windows Mobile market. 
So while this may be a good promotion for people that like to read ebooks on their PC, unless someone has an idea how to get this on your device in a usable format, it may not be a great offer for those of us that would rather read on our phones. Anyone have any ideas?
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02-15-2008, 01:19 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 429
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I still use Repligo, but I can't say I'm very happy that they not only have abandoned Windows Mobile; they also appear to have no plans to support Windows Vista. At least, the last time I checked, I still had to publish Repligo documents on on XP machine and transfer them to my Vista laptop to get them on my phone.
__________________
Current devices: iPhone 3G. Previous devices: Samsung Epix and 1st gen 32GB iPod Touch BlackJack II, iPaq 6945, iPaq hx4705, Dell Axim x30 high, iPaq 3765.
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02-15-2008, 01:51 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 4
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why not using the Mobipocket eBook Creator ?
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/Downloa...ilsCreator.asp
it's the best in town to get ebooks non standard to my PPC
it features:
* Import Word and Text documents
* Import Adobe� PDF files into your publication with the powerful PDF to HTML built-in converter
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02-15-2008, 03:33 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 1
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Use Textify
I found a great little tool for reformatting TXT files many years ago called Textify. It's a freeware windows command line utility that takes a text file as input and outputs a text file reformatted to your specifications. Here's how it works:
1) When you start the program you hit C to continue.
2) It then asks for a file name (it works best if you put the files you want to work with in the same folder as the textify.exe program). Type in the filename (without the.txt extention, it adds that automatically)
3) It then asks for a description of your text file (0- Carriage return after EVERY line instead of after each paragraph; 1- Single carriage return after each paragraph; 2-Two carraige returns after each paragraph). Pick the one that describes your file.
4) Next it gives you a few paragraphs of text about strange extra spaces in some documents meant to make things appear to be justified text and asks if you want to remove them. This is almost always a good idea.
5) Finally, it asks how you want the output: 1- One carriage return after each paragraph; 2- Two carriage returns after each paragraph; 3- Output as HTML.
It's a perfect little tool for just the type of problem you're having with CRs after every line. Depending on other oddities that may be present in the translated PDF-Word-TXT file, it may or may not do a great job, but it works well for me most of the time when I run into weird TXT file line break issues.
I had a hard time finding a site to download textify.exe from, so I put a copy up on one of my own servers. You can download it directly from this link:
http://www.quorlan.com/tools/textify.exe. Hope it helps and enjoy!.
Q
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02-15-2008, 04:03 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 59
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I have no problems using Repligo PDF Mobilizer 1.0.1 on Vista Ultimate. I'm just saying...
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02-15-2008, 04:27 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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I f you ave Acrobat Pro, there are numerous export options, including Word, RT, XML and HML. ....
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02-15-2008, 04:35 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,341
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Geez.....I just use ereader. Download and read, that's it. None of this reformating stuff. Too much like work. I just want to read the book, not screw around with it for hours to get it into a format I can easiliy read. 
Dave
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02-15-2008, 07:41 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 235
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So which is better? Mobipocket or eReader?
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02-15-2008, 08:28 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 226
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Quote:
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This week's book is book is Mistborn by Brian Sanders.
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Actually, it is Brandon Sanderson, who will also be writing the final book in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy series due to Jordan's untimely death. As a recent convert to his work, I do recommend Mistborn highly if you enjoy the fantasy genre.
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02-15-2008, 10:56 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 171
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Quote:
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f you have Acrobat Pro, there are numerous export options, including...
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adobe's ppc acrobat reader turns out to be an excellent reader _if_ the pdf file is "tagged" so that text will "reflow" when the text size is increased...
...trouble is that most pdf's don't have these tags and many documents are protected to the point where they can't be added.
If you have "acrobat pro" open the pdf, then select
advanced/accessibility/makeaccessible
acrobat on the ppc offers fast loading, easy moves to any point in large docs, search features, 360 degree screen rotation, toc, etc
Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
ps (edit) was able to "tag" the book Mistborne... makes it easily readable with acrobat ppc reader.
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Linear Mode
