Home › Browse Extensions

odt2pml - Writer to eReader Export Extension

by Rup.Xamqon
(5 votes)
odt2pml - eReader Export Extension

odt2pml exports a Writer document into a "Palm Markup Language" (PML) tagged plain text file, ready to be processed by DropBook for eReader.

odt2pml is WYSIWYG, within PML limitations: format your Writer document as you like, and eReader will show it with nearly the same formatting. That includes character and paragraph styles, page breaks, chapter headings, footnotes, frames, images and direct formatting (bold, italic, subscript, ...). Tables are not supported.

You may enable direct calling of DropBook in order to get a .pdb file ready for eReader (only on Linux and Windows).

Three helper macros are included:

  • Text Converter: enhanced AutoCorrect, uppercase words to italic, _xxx_ to italic, first words in chapter to uppercase...
  • Picture Converter: extracts and converts pictures and drawing shapes, saves them as .png files, and links them to your document.
  • Heading Style Formatter: You may create an eReader table of contents simply by formatting your document's chapter titles with Heading styles.

Version 4.2 with many new features: New Text Converter, improved Picture Converter and Extension Help (integrated into OpenOffice.org Help). Almost all eReader formatting options are now handled - see odt2pml Help: "What gets converted?"

Dialogs and Help available in 5 languages: de, en, es, fr, it. [OOo might have a problem when the User Interface language is not one of them: The default language should be English, but a different one might show up. Cfr. http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=88470 ]

Extension tested with OOo 2.4 and 3.0, on Kubuntu Intrepid, Windows XP service pack 2 and 3 and Windows Vista.

You may find a great step by step tutorial here (Thanks, FRDV!):

Comments, bug reports and enhancement requests are always welcome!

More info about PML, DropBook and eReader: http://www.ereader.com/ereader/help/dropbook/

All trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. The author is in no way related to any of them.

Download extension
Operating System: System Independent
Compatible with: OpenOffice.org 2.4 | StarOffice 8 Update 9 or higher.
Official release: 4.2.1
Date: 2009-Feb-24
Size: 188 KB
View all releases
License: opensource | Read license
Further product information: Product details
Report abuse here
  • 28912 downloads initiated
  • 75 downloads this week

Comments

Fri, 10/31/2008 - 06:35 — ElizabethN

Thanks and a few questions

Love this macro! I really like being able to read my non-drm RTF ebooks in ereader now.

Between comments here & various mobileread forum threads, I have figured out how to use this & the previous version with only a little tweaking and have created nicely formatted books in minutes.

"configuration" is nice for telling the macro where dropbook is, but I turned it off since I do a little more editing before using dropbook - see question 1.

But I still have a few questions that are probably blindingly obvious to someone with programming background - not me.

1)since OO won't let me edit PML, and I like seeing the author, title, copyright, ISBN info on the ereader page, I currently open the PML file with notetablight and put in the appropriate PML comments, save, then open with dropbook. Is this editing something that I could do while the file is in ODT form or with the macro and skip the notetablight step?

2)"You may create a table of contents simply by formatting chapter titles with Heading styles." Is this something that I need to do when the file is in ODT form before using the macro? What do you mean by Heading styles? Help please.

3)"Three helper macros are included: John Vigor's Ascii Formatter, Oliver Brinzing's Image Extractor, and a Chapter heading style Formatter." Are these macros just automatically packaged into your macro? Does the ascii formatter mean that I could convert my html ebooks somehow to ereader?

4)I currently use this macro on my windows partition primarily. if I delete the previous edition off my linux/ubuntu hardy partition, where do I install the new edition ? - edition 3 is currently sitting on desktop so that I could tell OO where to find it.

Thanks so much, I've been so pleased since I found this macro & started using it. Plus, my husband's been happy since I'm converting old RTF ebooks rather than buying new.

Elizabeth N.

Addendum:
Just back from work - found the help section specific to the extension, that may help me with some of the above questions.

Updated ubuntu with the new release. still couldn't figure out where I am supposed to save the extension so I just put it on desktop. tried to put it in the open office folder (file system - etc - openoffice) but it didn't seem to take. I don't mind the icon on desktop, I just don't like the cluttered look.

thanks for any help/info.

Fri, 12/26/2008 - 11:55 — Rup.Xamqon

Thanks, and answers

Hi, Elizabeth,
thanks for your comments! I'll try to answer your questions:

  1. See the Extension Help (running the macro and clicking on the Help button, or F1), "Export to eReader", under "eBook title" - you can insert that info directly in your Writer doc.
     
  2. If your Writer doc has e. g. 10 chapters, you may place the cursor on every chapter title, click on the "Apply Style" textbox ("Formatting" toolbar, second "button" in my OpenOffice), and select "Heading 1" (or 2, 3, 4). You will find this also if you click on Format, Styles and Formatting, and double click on the desired paragraph style. If you right click on the style, you can modify it (e. g. to start every chapter on a new page: click Text flow, Insert page break before).
    If all your chapter titles start with the same word (e. g. "Chapter"), you may use the "Apply Heading Style" macro (third button in the new odt2pml toolbar).
    If you are working on a big and structured Writer doc, you may use e. g. "Heading 1" for the book title, "Heading 2" for "Part" titles, and "Heading 3" for "Chapter" titles.
    Only after formatting everything in your Writer doc to your liking, run the "Export to eReader" macro. In your eBook, you will find all your "Heading" (1 to 4) formatted titles in the table of contents - correctly indented.
     
  3. They are all part of the Extension. You will see 4 buttons in the new odt2pml toolbar, or clicking on Tools, Addons, odt2pml (both are only visible when a Writer doc is opened). Click on each one, and then on the "Help" buttons for more info.
    The Ascii Formatter is meant for simple text files with paragraph breaks at every line end (e. g. older Gutenberg texts).
    It is perfectly possible to convert HTML files with odt2pml, see the corresponding Help page.
     
  4. I am not sure I understand your question. To upgrade odt2pml from version 3.x.x to version 4.0.x, follow the same procedure in Linux or Windows:
    1. Download the new version and save it wherever you want - desktop might be a good place.
    2. Open your OpenOffice (I assume you have version 3 installed), and click on Tools, Extension Manager...
    3. Click in the Extension Manager list on odt2pml (it should have some version number starting with 3) and on Remove
    4. Close the Extension Manager and restart OpenOffice and Quickstarter (just to be sure...)
    5. Click again on Tools, Extension Manager..., Add, search for the downloaded new version and install it.
    6. Restart OpenOffice and Quickstarter again (so the Toolbar and the Help pages will show up correctly), and open a Writer doc. You should see a new toolbar with 4 buttons. Enjoy!
    7. After installation, you may safely delete the downloaded file (to "unclutter" your desktop :-).

    To update from version 4.0.0 to 4.0.1 and above, it's easier: In OpenOffice, click on Tools, Extension Manager..., Check for Updates...

I hope this helps. Any questions, just continue asking!

Cheers, Rup.Xamqon

Mon, 08/11/2008 - 03:35 — kkmichik

Keeps locking up or crashing

I an running Open Office 2.4.1 on Vista. Every time I run the Format ASCII text, when I get to Main File Processing Finished, no matter what I do, either the program locks up or the program crashes. Any ideas?

Mon, 10/20/2008 - 05:31 — Rup.Xamqon

New version

I didn't find this problem. Please try the new version, odt2pml 4.0.0, or send me a copy of the document that caused your error.

Tue, 08/12/2008 - 23:46 — poxi1023

Vista problem?

I don't have Vista. On Kubuntu and Windows XP I find no error.
Did you try with different kinds of documents?

Wed, 08/06/2008 - 11:25 — gstachow

Polish characters

Hey

This macro is great, but how about adding Polish letters support. I see that this macro converts special characters to unicode codes. Here is a complete list of polish characters and their codes:

\u0105 ą
\u0107 ć
\u0119 ę
\u0142 ł
\u0144 ń
\u00F3 ó
\u015B ś
\u017C ż
\u017A ź
\u0104 Ą
\u0106 Ć
\u0118 Ę
\u0141 Ł
\u0143 Ń
\u00D3 Ó
\u015A Ś
\u017B Ż
\u0179 Ź

It would be great if you could add covertion of those characters.

Wed, 08/06/2008 - 15:55 — poxi1023

Polish characters

Hi,
thanks for your feedback! I will include those characters in the next version of odt2pml.

http://www.ereader.com/ereader/help/dropbook/pml_extcharacters.htm warns:
"Only the limited subset of Unicode characters given in the table below are supported. In addition, some of the characters that are included in the table are not present in eReader Pro versions prior to 2.4. To ensure that the characters are displayed correctly, books using these tags should be read using eReader or eReader Pro version 2.4 or later.
On Palm OS handhelds these special symbols are only available in one size, matching the "Small" font."

Please note that not all polish characters will be converted. In my test, the following characters are not shown on Palm: ż, Ą, Ć, Ę, Ń, Ż, Ź. The others show, but only in small font, even if the text is formatted large, bold, etc.

That is an eReader limitation, sorry!

Fri, 06/20/2008 - 23:19 — SegundoBob

Thanks

SegundoBob

I just used odt2pml for the first time. I have verified that it produced a good table of contents for my file. This was the feature I wanted. I have not yet evaluated the .pdb in detail.

I had to guess how to use odt2pml and I may not have made optimal guesses. I did the following under Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron).
I opened "Well Laid Lines.odt". This is the file that I wanted to export to my Palm.
I clicked Tools - Macros - Run macro. This popped up a window that allowed me to select macro library: My Macros - odt2pml - odt2pml. Then macro name sbPMLWizard.
Running sbPMLWizard popped up a wizard that allowed me to produce "Well Laid Lines.pml" in the same directory as "Well Laid Lines.odt"
I opened a terminal in the directory containing DropBook1.5.2.1.exe and "Well Laid Lines.pml" and ran:
wine DropBook1.5.2.exe
I used wine because DropBook1.5.2.exe is a Windows executable.
This brought up the DropBook GUI which allowed me to convert "Well Laid Lines.pml" to "Well Laid Lines.pdb."

Thanks for a useful macro.

Mon, 06/23/2008 - 04:26 — poxi1023

Toolbar

Hi, SegundoBob,
thanks for your comments!

When opening Writer, you should find a new Toolbar with 3 icons. The one on the right, named Export to eReader, calls the macro you are looking for. You will find the same 3 icons as submenu under Tools - Add-Ons - odt2pml.

On the wizard's first page you will find some help buttons explaining odt2pml usage, direct calling of DropBook, etc.

I hope this helps you!

Sun, 04/20/2008 - 06:33 — scoff

Fantastic

Took seconds to install and seconds to use. The end result was a perfect eReader compatible copy of Journey to the West.

Thank you so much

Mon, 04/21/2008 - 23:49 — poxi1023

Thanks!

Hi, Scoff,
I'm glad you liked it!

Currently I am fixing some bugs reported by two users.
I hope to post a new, improved version soon.