REB1200 for Dummies
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Converting Ebook content for use on REB1200/GEB2150

updated:4/7/2007
All ebook content files must first be converted to .IMP file format for use on the REB1200. Then they can be moved onto the REB 1200.

Commercial tools for creating .IMP files

  • GEB ebook Librarian $15 www.breeno.org/ebook - Many users think this is great, simple to use. Converts many ebook file types to .IMP and loads ebooks into your REB1200. (Note: If you install this after you have installed SoftBook Personal Publisher, you must re-install SoftBook Personal Publisher.)

  • REBLibrarian now freeware"REBlib" local software download 888KB
    official website: http://www.ebookstoolbox.com/ is now offline.
    Here's the documentation page captured as a PDF from the old website
    Features:
    - Serve a directory on your PC as your booklist,
    - Serve 2 directories on your PC as webservers for the "Directory" and the "Bookstore" areas,
    - Switch easily between Gemstar and Local servers without having to change the REB configuration,
    - Block all Rom Updates from Gemstar, (surf securely on the Gemstar servers)
    - Identify your device as a REB. Others will never know that your are using this tool,
    - Get book list from another server and merge it your REB,
    - Import and convert Rocket Edition files (*.RB) from Rocket ebooks and REB-1100 devices,
    - Import and convert text files (*.TXT),
    - Import and convert HTML files (*.HTM, *.HTML),
    - Import and convert MS-Word files (*.DOC, *.RTF),
    - Import and convert OEBFF Containers (*.OEB),
    - Import and convert Open ebook Package Files (*.OPF),
    - Change the book properties: Authors, Titles and Categories can be changed,
    - Fully support the GEB1150, GEB2150, GEB2200, REB1200, Softbook 250E.

Free Tools for creating .IMP files

General E-book conversion tools wiki

File formats

Convert files of the following formats/types to .IMP format:

Icon Filename extension Description
.DOC & TXT Microsoft Word document
.PPT Microsoft Powerpoint document
.PDF Adobe Acrobat document
.LIT Microsoft Reader ebook
  .RB Rocket Ebook
.HTM, HTML HTML web pages
.PS PostScript document
  .OEB Open Ebook format
CHM Microsoft Help file
  pdb, .prc Palm pilot documents
  DJVU Image scan ebook format

These tools all create un-encrypted content that you can share.

If you can get your content into Microsoft Word, then you can edit it and fix things up, including putting in a table of contents with clickable links that work on the REB1200.

How to convert content you have in Microsoft Word or Powerpoint for REB1200:

First you need to convert the .DOC Word file into a .IMP file.

There are at least three ways to do this:

1. Book Designer

2. Use Gemstar tools (more complex, but configurable)

3. Use Softbook Personal Publisher (simple to use)

When you install SoftBook Personal Publisher, it adds a menu item to Microsoft Word's File menu called "Export as Softbook Edition..."

Now you open your document in Word and simply choose the menu item "Export as Softbook Edition...". This will create an .IMP file for you. (Make sure ebooks you create are not encrypted: Open the Preferences dialog and remove the checkmark from "Encrypt Softbook Edition ".)

Now you need to get the .IMP file onto the REB1200. There are 2 ways
to do this:

Note: If you have installed Gemstar Publisher 2.X you may be unable to get Softbook Personal Publisher to work. It will run, but will not produce a .IMP file. Gemstar Publisher 2.X registers its own ActiveX control that will render SoftBook Publisher inoperative. Read the documentationthat comes with Gemstar Publisher. Uninstall Gemstar Publisher and reinstall Softbook Publisher
and it will work propertly.

Converting .HTM or .HTML (web pages) files

There are several ways to do this:

1. Book Designer

2. Copy the webpage(s) into Word

This way works best for me, because I can easily edit and fix up stuff using Word before the final conversion to .IMP:

  1. With the Internet Explorer browser showing a web page,
  2. on the Edit menu, do "select all" (CTRL-A)
  3. then Copy (CTRL-C).
  4. Now Edit:paste (CTRL-V) into a document in Microsoft Word.

Do this for all the pages you want in your ebook, pasting each webpage at the end of the Word document..

If you want to put a whole website (or at least multiple web pages) into an ebook, you may want to download all the webpages onto your PC first.

Even though Internet Explorer can download a complete subset of a site for offline viewing, it stores the pages in an unconventional manner.

However, there are several tools for downloading pages so that they are linked properly and stored as normal HTML. They are sometimes called "spiders" or "Offline browsers". One popular one is "BlackWidow" (search for it on download.com)

You can simply open them in Word for editing. If you have a bunch of HTML files that should be in a single book, you probably want to combine them all into one large HTML file first. Use VHtmlMerger.zip to do that.

Edit and clean up the Word document. If you use Style Heading 1,2,3, etc. for chapters or sections, then you can create a clickable table of contents that includes those headings (see Word help for how to create a Table of Contents). Now on the File menu do: Export Softbook Edition... to create the .IMP file.

3. Using the sb2html conversion program

1. Download sb2html.zip [269 KB]

2. unzip it and read the sparse directions (hint: you must create an .opf file for your html files)

Converting PDF (Adobe Acrobat files)

There are several ways to convert PDF files to .IMP files:

1. Book Designer

2. PDFRead the free program PDFRead can convert PDF files to .imp files for both REB1200/1100/1150 and PRS-500. It creates a raster image (.PNG) of each page and an HTML file that indexes and includes all the page images, splitting pages if necessary for legibility.. All the pages are created in landscape mode by default, so you have to read them sideways. On Linux and OSX t does not actually create an .IMP file. You have to use Windows Tools mentioned at the top of this page to convert the resultant HTML and images to an .IMP file. Since the file is composed of images of each page, instead of text, the files are quite large.

PDFRead works on Windows, Linux and OS X. Python source code included.

3. Scanoft PDF Converter The best converter for PDF I have found is PDF Converter by ScanSoft . It costs about $50. PDF Converter for Microsoft Word instantly converts PDF files into Microsoft Word documents that look just like the original - complete with all formatting and graphics.

Then you "Export to Softbook Edition" from within Word. Follow the directions for Word documents

4. ABC Amber PDF Converter ABC Amber PDF Converter is a powerful tool which allows you to convert PDF to any document format (HTML, CHM, RTF, HLP, TXT, DOC, DBF, XML, CSV, XLS, MDB, DB, MCW, WPS, SAM, RFT, WS4, WS7, WRI, etc.) easily and quickly. You can export all pages or just selected pages, as plain text or as preview pictures. Download free 30 day demo version: http://www.thebeatlesforever.com/processtext/abcpdf.html

5. pdftohtml Use the free "pdftohtml" program to convert the PDF file to one huge HTML file and a bunch of image files. This program is opensource freeware. Get pdftohtml at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdftohtml/
Look under Latest file releases, download the "windows binary".

You just drag and drop a .PDF file onto the icon for pdftohtml.exe in Windows Explorer to do the conversion.

Now open the resulting .HTML file in Word and edit to fix it up and then File - Export to Softbook Edition... to create the .IMP file.

There is a windows user interface for pdftohtml called pdf2htmlgui. Here are instructions for using that. (I find the drag and drop method above to be simple enough so that the Windows interface is not necessary though.)

  1. Make a work folder on your desktop.
  2. Add pdf2htmlgui.zip in to it.
  3. Add pdftohtml_0_35-win32.zip in to it.
  4. Extract pdftohtml_0_35 to here.
  5. Extract pdf2htmlgui to here and put the files into the _0_35 folder.
  6. Open _0_35 folder.
  7. Add a shortcut to MSWord in this folder.(not sure if you need this in this folder).
  8. Put the .pdf file you want to change into a .res file in to this folder.
  9. Run the pdf2htmlgui program.
  10. Type name or pdf file xxxxx.pdf into the .pdf to convert box.
  11. Type name of html file you want.
  12. Select convert.
  13. Select cancel after the html files appear in your folder. You now have the html files.
  14. Now you will need to have the save to softbook feature in your MSWord and just import the html and save as softbook.

Converting Microsoft Reader .LIT files

1. Book Designer

2. Here's a program that converts LIT files to IMP: s32lit2sb.exe [1.2MB]

Run s32lit2sb.exe. It will ask you questions about installing itself, choose the options for GEB2150. It will create an icon on your desktop.

To convert a .LIT file to a .IMP file, simply drag the icon for your .LIT file onto the LIT2SB icon on your desktop. A black command window will appear showing text about what is happening. When that window disappears, a .IMP file with a truncated DOS filename with a ~1 suffix should now be in the same folder as the original .LIT file. For example, converting a file: "C:\My Documents\My Library\The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.lit" will be result in: "C:\My Documents\My Library\THEHIT~1.imp"

If you run LIT2SB and it complains about missing a DLL, download this: msvc71runtime.zip [808KB] and put the three DLLs contained in this ZIP archive into your "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\" folder. (Careful, unzipping may create a new folder, but the 3 DLLs must be placed directly in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ folder.)

If the black command window appears, but no .LIT file is produced, you can get LIT2SB to leave the temporary folder it creates so you can work with the OPF, HTML and image files that are created during the conversion process. You do this by creating a blank file called "debug" in the same folder where LIT2SB is installed (e.g. C:\Program Files\lit2sb) This debug file signals LIT2SB to leave its work in the temporary folder it creates, instead of deleting the folder when LIT2SB is finished. The temporary folder will have a truncated DOS name with a ~1 suffix, and will be created in the same folder as the original .LIT file. You can then use HTML2SB to convert the contents of the temporary folder into a .IMP file (see HTML instructions), or load it all into Word (see Word instructions)

Here's some more simple instructions for converting .LIT files: http://www.geocities.com/abelowds/IDIOTS_REB1200.html

Here's another set of simple instructions without using LIT2SB as of Jan 9, 2004

Tools for converting LIT files to <some generic format such as HTML> http://www.convertlit.com

Easy to use Windows (GUI) version of ConvertLIT: http://www.hot.ee/dukelupus/ConvertLIT.htm

or http://dukelupus.pri.ee/convertlit.php

Converting Rocket Ebook .rb files

Rocket Ebook format .rb files are directly usable on the REB1100. There arre 3 ways to convert a .rb file to a .imp file for use on a REB1200:

  1. Book Designer
  2. Gemstar's tool RB2Project will convert .rb format to.IMP. see: Gemstar tools
  3. REBLibrarian will Import and convert RB format books to the IMP format for uploading into REB1200 and GEB2150 and GEB1150 models.
  4. Use rbburst to convert .rb files to HTML files. Get rbburst for free here: http://rbmake.sourceforge.net/ Then convert the HTML to an .IMP file as usual

Converting OEB files

OEB is a standard based on HTML and XML defined by the Open eBook Forum
This site has free "REB1200 Publisher" software for converting .OEB to .IMP

The Reblibrarian can convert .oeb and .opf to .imp or the Gemstar Publisher can too... or use HTML2SB

Converting Microsoft help CHM files

Open a command line window.
type:

hh -decompile c:\ TARGETPATH c:\ SOURCEPATH \ yourfile .chm

This is the Microsoft HTML Help compiler. It will create .HTM files from the CHM file.

Since it creates a bunch of HTML files, you probably want to combine them all into one large HTML file first. Use VHtmlMerger.zip to do that. Then convert the HTM to .imp as usual.

You can download the HTML Help software here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/htmlhelp/html/hwMicrosoftHTMLHelpDownloads.asp

  • Also another great free utility for decompiling CHM files is: keytools http://www.keyworks.net/keytools.htm

Converting Palm PRC and PDB files

1. Book Designer

2. PRC2TXT is a DOS utility that allows you to convert PalmPilot PRC and PDB files to regular text. Also includes the FMT.COM program to format wrap long lines. Convert .pdb and .prc files into .txt , by typing:

prc2txt filename.imp

on the command (DOS) prompt. (for win9x, you need to put "longer-than-8-character-filenames-in-quotes").
Note: This program gave an error message on both my win98 & XP, but you can just ignore the error message.

Open the resulting .txt file in Word and export as Softbook Edition.

Info on decoding Secure Palm Reader format ebooks and technical details on PDB format.

More PDB tools

DJVU

DJVU is the standard format for distributing ebooks that are scanned immages of the pages. Here's info on the DJVU format.

A program called PDFRead can convert DJVU files (as well as PDF files) to .imp files for both REB1200/1100/1150 and PRS-500. It creates a raster image (.PNG) of each page and an HTML file that indexes and includes all the page images, splitting pages if necessary for legibility. All the pages are created in landscape mode by default, so you have to read them sideways. On Linux and OSX it does not actually create an .IMP file. You have to use Tools on Windows to convert the resultant HTML and images to an .IMP file

PDFRead works on Windows, Linux and OS X. Includes source code in Python.