ePUB format, how to create from word processing?

[willpollard]

There is publishing support for the ePUB format, Stanza on mobile
devices also Sony Reader. It is based on open standards - XHTML, SVG,
ZIP

but then it is easy to get lost. Series of containers for the menu
structure. may be obvious to some people but just creating ePUB as a
save or export button when writing text is not available as far as I
can find.

I can bring a Sony Reader. The software for loading files comes for
Windows but the Reader runs on Linux I think. Could presumably load
files directly to a memory card and slot in.

Anyone know more about this?

[Martin]

Last time someone challenged the participants a bottle of whisky to get
a pair of club lights working, as I recall it took a couple of hours
tops. Maybe a similar challenge, on the day, might you somewhere :-)

Cheers,
- Martin

[Will Pollard]

Martin

did this include documentation, so the method could be replicated?

Will

[Martin]

On Fri, 2009-02-27 at 11:20 +0000, Will Pollard wrote:
> Martin
>
> did this include documentation, so the method could be replicated?

I think they taught the owner how to set up and operate them. This was
more a hardware style hack - I have no idea whether anyone present will
be able to solve the problem you're having but it's at least worth
asking :-)

Cheers,
- Martin

[willpollard]

Martin,

Missed you on the day, but spoke to people from Bristol Wireless and
they may look into the ePUB issues a bit further. I brought a bottle
of wine, whisky being scarce, and it has been left at Bristol Wireless
till it seems like a good moment to open it. This sort of thing can
change fairly quickly. One week the spec seems quite daunting, next
week it is all assumed as standard. Probably someone near Bristol
Wireless will notice when the moment is.

Will

[willpollard]

First the good news, copied from Ben Green email-

I installed the eScape program on Linux with no problems (using WINE
of course), and yes, made an ePub document with not too much trouble.
It's only got one chapter.

The basic process is:
1/ load their template into oowriter
2/ fill in the fields, including the books contents
3/ export to XHTML
4/ run eScape on it

Please find attached the ePub, which contain some text purloined from
Ursula Le Guin.

(This is not posted here as Ursula Le Guin and her agents have not
given permission)

So, this also means I've now got a document in ePub format, which
looks easy enough to create, some zipped up folders of HTML. I
wouldn't be suprised to find open source ways of creating them, don't
know when anyone will be motivated to write them.

I'm liking this format at the moment, but like I said I'd like to hear
the objections first!

cheers,
==
From Ben Green

===============================
Ben's emails are copied in reverse order in case you just need the
headline

---------------------------------------------------
I've found a list of conversion/creations tools:

http://www.lexcycle.com/faq/how_to_create_epub

Which include this OpenOffice.org plugin one:

http://www.infogridpacific.com/igp/AZARDI/eScape%20-ODT2ePub/

Windows only damn it!


====================
My previous email to Ben following conversation at Techadventure-


More on ePUB.
I have been writing about this for OhmyNews

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=4&no=383259&rel_no=1

sony reader

-----

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=384838&rel_no=1

o'reilley labs

-------

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=384425&rel_no=1

e-books online

-------
It has advantages over PDF for mobile devices as the text reflows for
any width. No idea what a page break is.

links found so far

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/x-dw-x-epubtut.html

http://www.snee.com/bobdc.blog/2008/03/creating-epub-files.html

I just want a "save as ePUB" button in open office

maybe this is it
http://blog.bookglutton.com/?p=71

but still looks a bit daunting

===========

So this is going ok. I think I will add more to the list of known
problems.

[Martin]

On Sun, 2009-03-01 at 03:43 -0800, willpollard wrote:
> Martin,
>
> Missed you on the day, but spoke to people from Bristol Wireless and
> they may look into the ePUB issues a bit further. I brought a bottle
> of wine, whisky being scarce, and it has been left at Bristol Wireless
> till it seems like a good moment to open it. This sort of thing can
> change fairly quickly. One week the spec seems quite daunting, next
> week it is all assumed as standard. Probably someone near Bristol
> Wireless will notice when the moment is.

By the sounds of it, they managed to get it sorted. Bristol Wireless
have always seemed like a nice bunch of people to me :-)

Cheers,
- Martin