(no subject)

[catsittingstill]

So here's a shout out to all my friendslist who read e-books--anybody have suggestions about conversion programs that

1) work on a Mac (because Macs are all I have--a PC only conversion program like MobiPocket Creator is a non-starter, alas)

and

2) convert from various ebook formats or word processing formats (Word would be nice, HTML would be nice, epub would be *particularly* nice, and rtf would be nice--other formats would be nice too but less sought after) into unsecured Mobipocket format?

Several of these formats Amazon will convert for free to Kindle format, but I'd like to have the conversion process under my control if possible.

Comments

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Rumor's out around LJ that it's your birthday. So

Happy Birthday to you
HapPy Birthday ^TOOO you
HaPpy ^BIRTHday dear Caaa_AAAT
^HappY Birth_{day TOOOOO YOOOOUUUUUU}

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Hippo Birdies Two Ewe... :)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thanks! But what will I do with all these animals?

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* Well, if it's raining there as much as it's raining here, I'd suggest finding a few more animals and some gopher wood... seems like half the Pacific NorthWet is trying to float away!

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

Yes, we are a brave and soggy host today. ;-)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) but at least still brave.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

We could use some of that rain here :-) I'll trade you a hippo and a ewe for, say ten days of rain?

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

If it wasn't for the shipping, you would *so* have yourself a deal.

(I don't blame you for keeping one of the sheep, though. Wool, milk, keeps the grass cut.... :)

[xap]

Happy Birthday!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Catherine, Catherine, you're a wonder
And when you are old and gray
We will all say, yes by Thunder!
You were some gal in your day!

***tootle!****

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) Thank you.

[telynor.livejournal.com]

I have used eBook Studio for the Mac with great success.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the suggestion. I have been poking around a bit on their site, and it looks to me like this is mainly for making eReader format files. Do you happen to know if it will also make Mobipocket files? While I have no particular objection to eReader, I'm really thinking about using this on an ebook reader that can't read eReader files.

I appreciate any help you have time to offer--thanks!

[tollermom]

We've not found a good Mobi converter/creator for the Mac, so all of ours (I work for a publishing company) are being done under Windows. However, they're still being done on a Mac, as we run Parallels and then run Mobi Creator under Parallels. (Same would work under VMWare's virtual machine.) If all you need it for is ebook creation, though, that's a pricy solution, by the time you buy Parallels and a Windows license.

Oh, and Happy Birthday!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up. Darn it, I was afraid of that.

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

[mdlbear]

Happy b'day again!

OpenOffice does a good job of converting Microsoft Office files to PDF, but that's probably not helpful in the present case.

The cheapest solution may be to get a used Windows machine -- something in the $50-100 range -- and run it headless using VNC (what Leopard calls "screen sharing"). A Mac and a Windows box are perfectly happy to share files.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

To a certain song I've heard in the past...

Ebooks I would wish for, to read from a screen,
without trundling paperbacks or hardbooks, I mean.
I'll have gray hair and be hip so the teens will not scold,
and if questioned I will answer, "It's great to get old!"

It's great to get old, get over your fears.
When birthdays follow others, the next ones are near.
I'll say what I want, be outrageous and bold,
cause life is for living and it's great to get old!

Happy birthday! Okay, so that doggerel ... got away from me. My understanding is that HTML is viewable natively within a Kindle (i.e., if you transfer via SD card).

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the birthday song :-)

Alas, though html *is* one of the formats that Amazon will convert to .azn for you (for free, even if the resulting file is e-mailed to the user's computer, rather than downloaded to the user's Kindle), the Kindle itself can't (at the moment) support html as an e-book.

Though it does have a primitive web browser; I wonder if it's possible to use the browser on an internal file...?

Or as a really bandwidth inefficient workaround, I could post html books on the web from my computer and use the web browser to read them over the EVDO.

OTOH, I have read on one message board that the .azn files created by conversion of user documents are unprotected .prc files, just with a different extension. (And, for that matter, I've seen speculation on that basis that the DRM'd .azn files are just .prc files with a different DRM than normal secure .prc files. I need to find that board again and read more of it.) Anyway, if that's the case then converted documents would be somewhat cross platform compatible (I think). But I've only seen that info in one place, so I'm not sure how trustworthy it is.

Oops, this reply seems to have gotten out of hand and drifted from the real point, which is thank you for the suggestion--I think it may not work but I will check again in the Kindle manual.