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Author Topic: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!  (Read 18770 times)

Offline ⋆rockyanne⋆

Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« on: December 11, 2011, 11:10 PM »
Holy Cow!!!  A Pdf conversion that works!!!

I thought I tried everything until I read TraceMae88's post in the Topic: Question about Calibre conversions Thread.

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Here is what I do.
First I convert it to txt in Calibre.
Then I open the original pdf file, copy the whole book (control-A to select it all) and paste it into notepad.
Then I save it as .txt to replace the txt file I made with Calibre. 
From there I convert the txt to epub in calibre. 
Makes a perfect epub/mobi file!

Couldn't understand why she converted to txt first in Calibre, it seemed unnecessary.  And it was.

I tried four pdf conversion that worked great:  an old SS, a Mary Stewart, a Pepper Martin, and a Patricia Cornwell.

Did what TraceMae88 said to do:
Opened the pdf.  Copied the whole book with control-A.
Pasted that into my NoteTab Lite with control-V.
Saved it as a text file.
(I have a couple of programs that won't work with a right-click copy/paste, so kept to the control-A/control-V).
Then used Calibre to convert the saved txt file to .mobi, and Voila!   PERFECT!

But do note that what you see in the original pdf is exactly what you get.  (Didn't notice that in the Cornwell pdf there were a lot of "?"'s in the middle of some words.  Just took those out in the txt file, re-saved, re-converted, and all's fixed.)

This won't work with everything, but WOW!, what it has done is amazing!  Of course, you do still need to add the covers before converting, but then a lot of old pdf's don't have covers, so there's now a chance to add them.

What it doesn't seem to work with is those damn books that make every line break a paragragh -- usually in the middle of a sentence.  They were probably originally carriage returns.  Now if the were a way to eliminate carriage returns, but keep the legitimate breaks & paragraphs...

Anyhow, many, many thanks to TraceMae88!  A great solution for many, many books!   :-*
(Gave you both a Thank You & an Applaud).


(Putting this as a new Topic on the General Board since it not only references Question about Calibre conversions but also ties in Does anyone know a good pdf>mobi/epub convertor?)
« Last Edit: December 12, 2011, 03:13 AM by rockyanne »
Don't mind helping people.  Do mind being taken advantage of.
 
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Offline ⋆rockyanne⋆

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2011, 12:00 AM »
Alas, just found another type of pdf that this type of conversion won't work with.
Those that will not allow you to copy ANYTHING at all on the pdf, even using Ctrl + highlighting.  Must be something like password protecting or like the DRM.
Anybody know how to get around that?

Luckily not all pdf's are like this.    :)
Don't mind helping people.  Do mind being taken advantage of.
 

Offline GG drypen!

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2011, 01:50 AM »
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Alas, just found another type of pdf that this type of conversion won't work with.
Those that will not allow you to copy ANYTHING at all on the pdf, even using Ctrl + highlighting.  Must be something like password protecting or like the DRM.
Anybody know how to get around that?

Luckily not all pdf's are like this.    :)

I've run into that too, but not lately. I've been toying with dropping it into calibre then using the Calibre version with Rockyanne's way.....
 

Offline Twasn't me

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2011, 08:04 AM »
hi
« Last Edit: July 31, 2018, 06:17 PM by Twasn't me »
"I know you think you understood what I said, but what you think you heard is not what I meant."
 

Offline ⋆rockyanne⋆

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2011, 09:02 AM »
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Have you tried make a copy first and then using that one?
Don't know what you mean.
With that impossible-to-copy-anything pdf,  I did try to get Calibre to convert it to a txt file when I couldn't do it with a control-A/control-C/control-V copy & paste, but after trying  for a couple of minutes a Calibre ERROR pops up with:
"Exception: Empty output file, probably the conversion process crashed."
I watched the entire process and it converts to the very end, then it does crash when writing the "TXT output."  Weird.
Don't mind helping people.  Do mind being taken advantage of.
 

Offline Twasn't me

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2011, 10:19 AM »
hi
« Last Edit: July 21, 2018, 01:44 PM by Twasn't me »
"I know you think you understood what I said, but what you think you heard is not what I meant."
 

Offline danisaks

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2011, 04:12 PM »
hey..i've been wondering, is it possible to edit the cover of a .mobi file book? i have a kindle fire and it only shows the title if the books have covers
 

Offline ⋆rockyanne⋆

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2011, 05:21 PM »
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hey..i've been wondering, is it possible to edit the cover of a .mobi file book? i have a kindle fire and it only shows the title if the books have covers
Don't know for sure.  I only have Kindle PC & that only for downloads from Amazon - which I promptly convert from .azw to .mobi.  (I don't read on Kindle, I use Mobipocket).

I do, however, often add/change covers on other .mobi's I have with Calibre and just reconvert them to the same format.  If Calibre asks if I'm sure I want to convert mobi to mobi, I just click Yes or OK.  Haven't had a problem so far & all the books I've done it to have come out fine -  with covers.

@acrc1969
Like I just said, you can add covers with Calibre, but with other pics in a book I guess you would be out of luck.
Don't mind helping people.  Do mind being taken advantage of.
 

Offline jessadia

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2012, 09:58 PM »
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hey..i've been wondering, is it possible to edit the cover of a .mobi file book? i have a kindle fire and it only shows the title if the books have covers

When you convert it in Calibre are you making sure to go into the "Page Setup" tab and selecting the correct eReader for your Output Profile? (See screenshot below)
 

Offline jessadia

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2012, 10:03 PM »
@Rockyanne- great job with this thread, can I move it to the new Tutorials board?


Also, I have a cleaner (probably not easier or quicker though) way to convert a PDF almost seamlessly......




This is taken verbatim from a website I use (it's for making your own clean, seamless ePub files from word doc's):

STEP 1. Prepare! Your! Manuscript!
Cleaning Up Your MS Word .doc Manuscript

Preparing! Your! Manuscript! is a lot less scary than it sounds. And contrary to what you may read elsewhere on the internet (shame on you, you promiscuous cyberslut), italics, bold, and underline formatting in your MS Word .doc transfers perfectly fine to the ePUB file format. Transferring chapter headings and chapter breaks, on the other hand, will give you heartburn.

    For this reason, the simplest way to start "cleaning" up your MS Word manuscript for the ePUB file format transfer is to strip out all the extras in your headers: page numbers, title/author name, and any other fancy-schmancy stuff you've listed there. That header information was required by the agents. Instead, that information is placed in the "metadata" of your ePUB file (see Step 3), so if you keep the header information in your manuscript, it will simply gum-up your final ePUB layout.

    The next thing is to remove all those chapter breaks. Yes, remove them. Highlight your chapter titles in bold and underline. This will sufficiently call out a new chapter break within your ePUB file. All those extra breaks between chapters are no longer necessary, and again, will self-destruct your ultimate goal of a nice, clean eBook layout.

STEP 2. Re-Save! Your! Manuscript!
Converting Your MS Word .doc to an HTML file WITHOUT Knowing Any HTML Code

An ePUB file is just a glorified XHTML file.

A what? Yeah, XHTML. That means that if you're a programmer, you can actually spend all night, going line-by-line, and coding your own eBook.

For the rest of us who aren't cylons, you can easily change your MSWord .doc manuscript into a HTML file with a few clicks of your mouse. No coding required, mere mortal.

    While in MS Word, open your "cleaned" MS Word .doc and simply select "Save As". Then, change the "File Name" and change "Save as Type" to --->Web Page, Filtered (*HTML, *HTM) from the file format drop-down menu.

You have now saved your cleaned MS Word .doc as an HTML file. Congrats!

You will now be able to see how your HTML file will look on any ePUB reading device simply by viewing this new "Web Page, Filtered" file in MS Word. If there continues to be funky spaces between chapter breaks, go back into your original MSWord .doc, remove them, and resave over your web-filtered file.

Really, that's it? That's all the prep work? But that's too, too, too damn easy... something must be wrong here?

Yeah, it is easy. Unfortunately, it's Step 3 that requires the real brain power. (Egg Timer Check: 15 minutes and counting)

STEP 3. Perform! the! Conversion!
Convert Your "Cleaned" Manuscript Web-Filtered .HTM File into a ePUB-Formatted File.

An ePub file can be read on most eReaders like Apple's iPad, Sony's Reader, and Barnes & Noble's NOOK as well as the iPhone and all Android-based smartphones.

Yes, indeed. It is time to Perform! the! Conversion!

Whether you use a Mac or PC, what we're offering you as our way to perform! the! conversion! is what we believe is the most user-friendly way. But it requires two things:

    That you're as computer literate as your twelve-year-old nephew or his dog, Skippy

    That you're willing and able to download the free Calibre conversion software.



**Of course that only works for a from .doc file so first you'll either need to copy/paste from pdf to word or convert from pdf to .txt or .doc/.docx but other than that, follow the steps outlined and it works fine ;)


 

Offline ⋆rockyanne⋆

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2012, 04:42 PM »
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@Rockyanne- great job with this thread, can I move it to the new Tutorials board?

Also, I have a cleaner (probably not easier or quicker though) way to convert a PDF almost seamlessly......
(Been waiting to post this.  Just before I could, STP went down for maintenance the other day.)
Anyhow, as I was going to say, and which doesn't seem all that important now...

Funny, I just 'discoved' "Save as .. to HTML" last week.
Had downloaded a mega-bundle & half of 'em were in .doc, which Calibre of course won't convert.  Since Calibre did such a great job on the html's in the bundle, and OpenOffice offered to save in html, I figured, what the hell.  Was most pleased that it worked.   ;D

...making your own clean, seamless ePub files from word doc's looks like a great way to do things.  Lately, though, I've been letting other people do all the editing jobs.  And just reaping the benefits.    ;D
Don't mind helping people.  Do mind being taken advantage of.
 

sparkly

  • Guest
Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2012, 04:18 PM »
For those troublesome PDFs that don't allow you to select text, try using a program that removes pdf restrictions first, like 'PDF Restrictions remover' or AnyBizSoft's 'PDF password remover'. The same applies to PDF's that don't permit you to right-click and copy images - after removing restrictions, images can be copied effortlessly. If you don't have one of these programs, you can always try one of the free online pdf restriction removers, like this one:
Code: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
http://www.crackmypdf.com/
 

Offline Caro

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #12 on: December 04, 2012, 11:56 AM »
I did it!  I converted by first PDF to txt then to Epub, its not pretty but it could be. Next time I will convert copy into word and see how that works.  Thank you for the help.   :-* :-* :-*
Need to convert file try -

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Offline ⋆rockyanne⋆

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #13 on: December 04, 2012, 04:05 PM »
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I did it!  I converted by first PDF to txt then to Epub, its not pretty but it could be. Next time I will convert copy into word and see how that works.  Thank you for the help.   :-* :-* :-*
Great!  Have fun!    :)
(I kinda like 'saving' to html after I've done some editing.
Then I can see how the html file looks in my browser.
Not perfect, but you get an idea.
And Calibre will convert the html.)
Don't mind helping people.  Do mind being taken advantage of.
 

Offline Caro

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #14 on: December 04, 2012, 04:25 PM »
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Great!  Have fun!    :)
(I kinda like 'saving' to html after I've done some editing.
Then I can see how the html file looks in my browser.
Not perfect, but you get an idea.
And Calibre will convert the html.)

That is great advice, I will give it a go,  thank you.
Need to convert file try -

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Offline shadowmaster13

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2013, 02:44 AM »
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(Been waiting to post this.  Just before I could, STP went down for maintenance the other day.)
Anyhow, as I was going to say, and which doesn't seem all that important now...

Funny, I just 'discoved' "Save as .. to HTML" last week.
Had downloaded a mega-bundle & half of 'em were in .doc, which Calibre of course won't convert.  Since Calibre did such a great job on the html's in the bundle, and OpenOffice offered to save in html, I figured, what the hell.  Was most pleased that it worked.   ;D

...making your own clean, seamless ePub files from word doc's looks like a great way to do things.  Lately, though, I've been letting other people do all the editing jobs.  And just reaping the benefits.    ;D

Another way to do this is to save your .doc file as .rtf and use Calibre. They'll the same and read the same but Calibre does convert RTF format.
 :-*
"To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one." - Chinese Proverb
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detavion

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Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #16 on: May 05, 2013, 07:20 AM »
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Another way to do this is to save your .doc file as .rtf and use Calibre. They'll the same and read the same but Calibre does convert RTF format.
 :-*

Calibre can now convert .docx but not .doc. You just have to install the docx conversion plugin.
 
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Offline rueyew

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #17 on: May 12, 2013, 12:24 PM »
It takes a little more effort, but the program guaranteed to give the best result with converting pdfs is Abbyy FineReader.
 
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Offline nina8

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #18 on: May 03, 2014, 06:52 AM »
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It takes a little more effort, but the program guaranteed to give the best result with converting pdfs is Abbyy FineReader.

I'll try this and let you know if it works and is easy to use

Edit: Nope, nothing works , no way to convert perfectly a pdf!  :(
« Last Edit: May 21, 2014, 06:20 AM by nina8 »
 

Offline nina8

Re: Holy Cow!!! A Pdf conversion that works!!!
« Reply #19 on: July 07, 2014, 12:38 PM »
I found another way to convert PDF to epub with Adobe Acrobat Pro.

It's the easiest and converts better than any other way i tried and i really searched  :33:

Open the pdf with Adobe Acrobat Pro, go to file and save as HTML, convert with calibre the HTML to epub. that's it! It works for me  :)

 
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