Mobipocket Desktop vs Mobipocket Creator

[Zorrosuncle]

Greetings -- Which of the above is better to use in converting a downloaded TXT file on my computer to the Kindle format.  I am a newbie at ebook reading, and the first I ever heard of Mobipocket was on this very forum.

Regards,

ZU

[WestPointer1968]

I'm relatively new too, but from what I've read here all you have to do is download the mobipocket file to your computer and then email it to your kindle.  It is converted in the email process. 

John

P.S.  when you email the file, make sure your Kindle is on and so is the Whispernet.  It takes a few minutes so don't expect it to appear immediately.

[Leslie]

There is no Mobipocket Desktop. There's Mobipocket READER and Mobipocket CREATOR.

To do what you are asking -- converting a txt file -- you need the Creator. It's a free download.

http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/default.asp?Language=EN

L

[Leslie]

I'm relatively new too, but from what I've read here all you have to do is download the mobipocket file to your computer and then email it to your kindle.  It is converted in the email process. 

.TXT files need to be converted by the user. It's not a supported format that will be converted by Amazon. An easy way to do this would be to open the file in Word, save it as a Word file (.doc extension) and then send that to Amazon for conversion.

Or you can use Mobipocket Creator.

L

[jmiked]

.TXT files need to be converted by the user. It's not a supported format that will be converted by Amazon. An easy way to do this would be to open the file in Word, save it as a Word file (.doc extension) and then send that to Amazon for conversion.

Or you can use Mobipocket Creator.

L

Or if you don’t have Word, you can send a file created by Open Office (as long as you save it in Word format), which is free.

Note that you can’t convert a Word document with MobiCreator unless you have a copy of MS Word on your computer. It apparently uses Word to do some of the conversion to html (an intermediate step).

[Jeff]

For some reason saving a text or HTML file as a Word document in OpenOffice adds an extra carriage return/line feed. Or maybe I’m doing something wrong.

[jmiked]

That’s strange. I’ve been using OO for years and haven’t come across that problem.

[Leslie]

The Kindle will read text files fine without conversion. You do need to manually move them to the Kindle via USB, but since I normally do NOT have access to whispernot I tend to forget about that option.

Well there you go...it does work! Thank you for that. Everything I have read says they need to be converted. I never bothered to try a .txt file but it works just fine.

Thanks!

L

[Ann in Arlington]

I have successfully e-mailed .txt documents via Whispernet to my Kindle.

Ann

[Leslie]

I have successfully e-mailed .txt documents via Whispernet to my Kindle.

Ann

And when you do, they get converted to .azw files. (I just tested all this this afternoon). The conversion is not an issue. The point is more...for folks who are not in a Whispernet area, they can just transfer .txt files to their Kindle and not worry about converting them beforehand. They will work natively on the Kindle. This was new information to me.

L

[Ann in Arlington]

And when you do, they get converted to .azw files. (I just tested all this this afternoon). The conversion is not an issue. The point is more...for folks who are not in a Whispernet area, they can just transfer .txt files to their Kindle and not worry about converting them beforehand. They will work natively on the Kindle. This was new information to me.

L

Ah!  Gotcha!

[CS]

Honestly, I've been very unimpressed with Mobipocket Creator. It has done a lousy job of converting files other than txt, at least in my limited experience. E-mailing your files to the Kindle - or even using the free.kindle.com service - is so much better, and it works like a charm!

I just Kindle-ized several issues of an online newsletter I subscribe to, and I'm in HEAVEN right now.

[Leslie]

I knew something you didn't?! 

Yes, you did, and thank you! I have also set a few other people straight, too!

L

[marianneg]

Honestly, I've been very unimpressed with Mobipocket Creator. It has done a lousy job of converting files other than txt, at least in my limited experience.

I've found it to do a pretty nice job with HTML, and it lets me create a table of contents, too.

[CS]

I have to agree. I've converted a lot of files (e.g. Gutenberg) using Mobipocket Creator. HTML gives by far the best results! There is a big learning curve, but once you figure it out it works quite well.

I honestly haven't tried much with HTML yet. The one site I did try may as well have been designed by a 5 year old.

BTW, www.freekindlebooks.com has most (all?) of the Gutenberg books already formatted.

[Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake']

I've found it to do a pretty nice job with HTML, and it lets me create a table of contents, too.

html seems to be the best way to go.  I don't have Word on the computer that has Internet, so I convert my wpd documents to html and then convert them through mobipocket creator.  The formatting comes through perfectly.