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Development: Converting Texts to Rocket eBook Format


There has been some discussion of the problems of getting texts properly and well-formatted for the Rocket eBook. Overall it is not difficult to do as the Rocket Writer does all the work, however their are some tips-n-tricks that make a text much more readble.

First, experience has shown that best results are gotten from converting from HTML instead of TXT formatted documents. This removes the CR,CR,LF problem compounded with the <br> at the end of every line problem (because you ARE re-coding?).

Second, hand-coding is essential to get best results.

Third, knowing the tags that the Rocket eBook uses is essential.
      (See the RocketEdition HTML Reference)

Some of my 'best practices':

Use one of the NoteTab products from http://www.notetab.com, preferably NoteTab Pro.

Try my NoteTab Pro clipbook Rocket_eBook.clb (you may have to right-click/ Save-as). This clipbook only has tags that are of the sub-set of the HTML 3.2 DTD that the Rocket eBook supports. This greatly assists 'hand-coding'.

  1. If the original text is in HTML either carefully hand-convert or 'Strip HTML' tags and start over.

  2. If the original text IS text (.txt), try 'Document to HTML' and search/replace the <br> tags out with nada and then carefully add other necessary tags.

  3. If the original text is in a Wordprocessor format open it in that application and
    'Select all' (CTRL A ), Copy (CTRL C), and Paste (CTRL P) into Notetab. Now it is text (.txt) and you can make it HTML (step 2 above).

  4. The greatest amount of work in formating one of these things is properly putting in the
    <P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">
    Don't forget this tag!....this tag 'gets rid of' the 'ragged' right hand edge!
    (Its a pain in the mouse to do properly though.)

    I found that pasting in </P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"> on the blank line between paragraphs is the easiest way to this.



Any questions or comments may be directed to Sam McDonald




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