Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Posts: 170

Converting Word files to e-book format

How do I convert a Word file to a format I can load onto my VDX to read via iSilo or MobiPocket?

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Nebraska- the Good life
Posts: 695

The place with the best help on that topic is www.memoware.com.

Generally, what I do is to save it as a MS-DOS text file, then import it with Pilot Install, a freeware installer that also converts .txt to a Palm-friendly format on the fly. You will loose formatting this way, however.

If you have WordSmith, it will install a tool in Word that will translate the documents to the WordSmith DOC standard, which I believe iSilo can read. I do not know if this tool is a part of the freeware version of WordSmith. Blue Nomad's InstallBuddy does something similar.

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Macau
Posts: 52

Mobipocket also has a book "publisher" app that allows you to covert files to mobipocket format. As I recall, you don't lose formatting with it. The software is available free from their web site.

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Posts: 170

Thanks for the suggestions!

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 48

If you have a Mac, you can get an app called "iSiloMac" from www.isilo.com
It can convert text and doc files to iSilo format. There may be a PC version available, too.

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 284

Taking that one step further, you can export the Word document to HTML and, with some mild editing, import it into either iSilo or Palm Reader, saving most of the formatting.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Posts: 170

Thanks All

I've tried a few, and I like the results I've gotten with iSilo's free reader and document converter. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Anyone know about any free software that will allow me to convert and view .jpgs?

Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Holly Springs, NC
Posts: 124

Thank you Madkins007 on the tip about Pilot Install!

I have been using Pinstall for the last few days. It lets you put files on your palm without going through the whole hot sync process. You can also add files directly to any directory in your memory card through VFS... I couldn't get it to work with my memplug, but I havn't tinkered with that aspect of the program very much. It also changes txt, html, and a few other text formats into the palm doc format. It also lets you load tons of grafix formats without having a special viewer on your palm. The program takes the image and makes a prc out of it, then it loads the prc to your palm. Each picture shows up as an individual app in your launcher program. One of the best parts is that each app's icon is a thumbnail of the image. It lets you view the image pixel-for-pixel or zoomed out to fill the screen. From my experiance, the whole image-to-prc proccess adds only 1 or 2 kb to the file size of the image. Great program! Best part? It's freeware, besides a small banner it adds to the top left corner of your images. You can pay $17.90 for the Pro version if you can't stand a few pixels in the corner...

Free Version: http://www.palmgear.com/software/sh...amp;prodID=7146

Pay Version: http://www.palmgear.com/software/sh...mp;prodID=20734

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Posts: 170

Wow!

Whoa!
That PInstall is WICKED!
Thanks for the tip!

One question: I now have two icons on my desktop, they seem to be identical programs, but one is called Pilot Install and the other is called PInstall. Any idea why?

Last edited by leojbramble on 03-23-2002 at 09:44 PM