Free eBooks from Tor

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.tor.com/">http://www.tor.com/</a><br /><br />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 <u>Mistborn</u> by Brandon Sanderson. <br /><br />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 <a href="http://www.repligo.com">Repligo</a> to convert the data, but it appears they have totally abandoned the Windows Mobile market. :( <br /><br />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?

[emuelle1]

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.

[decebal]

http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsCreator.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

[Quorlan]

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

[Bushrod]

I have no problems using Repligo PDF Mobilizer 1.0.1 on Vista Ultimate. I'm just saying...

[SteveHoward999]

I f you ave Acrobat Pro, there are numerous export options, including Word, RT, XML and HML. ....

[Paragon]

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

[cab124]

So which is better? Mobipocket or eReader?

[QYV]

This week's book is book is Mistborn by Brian Sanders.

Actually, it is Brandon Sanderson (http://www.brandonsanderson.com/), 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.

[BevHoward]

f you have Acrobat Pro, there are numerous export options, including...

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.

[Faenad]

The best results I had so far for reading PDF on PPC in to convert them to HTML with Mobipocket Creator (free), then reading them with µBook (15USD).

Images and text formatting is conserved, text is of course reflowable.
If the resulting image in the HTML file are too big then i use PhotoScape (a free Image editor incluing batch editing) to resize them to 240x320 max.

I use Repligo a little bit.
I obtained very good result on my HX4700 although not a good as the mobipocket +µbook method, but now on my P3000 with a 2.8" QVGA screen it's not that great.
I use it only for PDF files that I cannot convert, such a technical datasheet with a lof of mathematic formula that are not correctly recognised by Mobipocket Creator but are converted flawlessly with Repligo.
In that case Repligo is far better than any native-PDF software I tried on the PPC platform (and I tried quite a few) : it's a lot faster, reflowing is far better, and it's less buggy.

[Ed Hansberry]

Actually, it is Brandon Sanderson…

thanks. fixed. wonder if Wheel of Time will finally make it to ebooks. Jordan was very opposed to it.

[Paragon]

So which is better? Mobipocket or eReader?

I prefer ereader. It has a few more options to enhance the reader, and I think ereader has a better selection of books. Mobipocket is still a good reader though.

Dave

[Sogarth]

On the one hand, I love the fact that it looks like Tor is seriously considering opening up their catalog to digital distribution. On the other hand, I have a nagging suspicion that it won't be anywhere as good as what Baen has (either their free catalog (http://www.baen.com/library/) or their pay catalog (http://www.webscriptions.net/)), considering that they allow online reading and downloads in HTML, Ebookwise/Rocket, Mobipocket, RTF, and Microsoft Reader instead of just forcing everybody to use Adobe Acrobat. If only everybody would play nice and have it all through one system! :wink:

[asims]

Has anyone gotten an email from them? I clicked on the link, went through the hoops and signed up, but haven't gotten an email yet. And it's been two or three days now. :(

[Ed Hansberry]

Has anyone gotten an email from them? I clicked on the link, went through the hoops and signed up, but haven't gotten an email yet. And it's been two or three days now. :(

was 4-5 days for me.

[SteveHoward999]

Has anyone gotten an email from them?


not yet ...

[STANUL]

Try Leo's PDF reader.
I don't have the link, but you can Google to find it.
It was created for SmartPhones, but works perfectly on PPC.

[Rob Alexander]

On the one hand, I love the fact that it looks like Tor is seriously considering opening up their catalog to digital distribution. On the other hand, I have a nagging suspicion that it won't be anywhere as good as what Baen has (either their free catalog (http://www.baen.com/library/) or their pay catalog (http://www.webscriptions.net/)), considering that they allow online reading and downloads in HTML, Ebookwise/Rocket, Mobipocket, RTF, and Microsoft Reader instead of just forcing everybody to use Adobe Acrobat. If only everybody would play nice and have it all through one system! :wink:

Yeah, Baen is about the only one I buy from these days.

I like the eReader application, but they way they handle it just grates on me. Here's the free reader. But wait, you can pay to get Pro with more features. What features? Well, the ability to buy a font pack from us for another $20 or the ability to buy a dictionary for even more money. It just always feels like they've got one more way to part you from your money. (I know they just made Pro free, but that's not the point... the rest still works the same.)

And don't get me going on the price of the books. Sure, a 10 year old book might cost six or seven dollars, but a new book is outrageous. An example. A new book by John Varley (Rolling Thunder) is $19.96 as an ebook from eReader.com. The same book in hardback is $16.47 from Amazon. (I didn't have to search for this example. I just clicked on their site and there it was on the front page.)

In contrast, Baen books are fairly priced, of high quality, are available in a variety of formats and have no DRM. I'll spend my money with people like that, thanks.

[Ed Hansberry]

For what it is worth, this weeks book came in PDF, HTML and MobiPocket. :way to go:

[SteveHoward999]

For what it is worth, this weeks book came in PDF, HTML and MobiPocket. :way to go:

Yup - great deal :-)!!!