Stanza Desktop for Windows dropping words and adding question marks...?

Sun, 01/11/2009 - 16:07 — Anonymous

I am enjoying stanza-for the most part. It wasn’t really that simple to figure out how to convert a text document to the .pdb format…it took time and a bunch of trial and error. I am fairly tech savvy but I think a lot of people would have given up before they figured it out, like I did.
It's not intuitive.
Also, in the first book I read, converted to .pdb through Stanza Destop application on Windows, there were a bunch of question marks peppered into the middle of words and some type-o’s. The question marks were kinda annoying. I turned a friend on to Stanza and showed her how to convert the text files…when she reported back to me, she said it was really distracting because a lot of words got dropped. I told her I’d look into it for her, but that also I think there were some problems with Stanza Desktop (bugs that is) (?) and they were working on maybe updating the software…Not sure about that though…

Just checked the version and came up with this:

version 1.0.0-beta15 build #1:389

Beta Version - expires Feb 13, 2009

...does anyone know what happens when the Beta version expires?? Will my iphone explode??!

Stanza Support

Sun, 01/11/2009 - 16:22 — Emily

To avoid seeing question

To avoid seeing question marks or other unusual characters, try opening the file in whatever program you would normally open it in (e.g., a web browser for an HTML file, Word for a Word doc, or Adobe Reader for a pdf), and then select all the text, and copy and paste it into Notepad. In Notepad, save the file as plain text (.txt), then open that .txt file in Stanza Desktop. You shouldn't see any funny characters.

I don't think Stanza Desktop ever drops words when converting from text, but that might conceivably happen when converting from HTML or pdf. Are you sure your friend wasn't converting a non-text file when she saw dropped words?

Only Stanza Desktop is in beta, so nothing will happen to your iPhone (or your computer) when Stanza Desktop is no longer in beta or when the current version expires.

Sun, 01/11/2009 - 17:15 — Kerri R (not verified)

Thanks for taking the time to

Thanks for taking the time to answer this, even if I'm still fully perplexed.

Firstly the question mark issue-it WAS a txt file...so do you still recommend me opening the text file in ms word, copying it pasting it into notepad and the saving it as plain text??(Cause isn't it already?)

I walked my friend through the same procedure I did-she was using a text file, because I had sent it to her.

Can you please, since you are clearly more in the know-walk me through the process of taking a text file from my computer
and exactly what I need to do to convert it to whatever it needs to be converted to with stanza desktop (palmdatabase?)(do i use the "export book as..." and if so what format should I choose....??

Then how to get it onto my iphone...weird thing is, i did it twice...using my wireless, and even though I had the question mark issue, i could do it...now it won't let me...and I think I'm totally confused!!

If you could I'd be so grateful!

Thanks,
KR

Sun, 01/11/2009 - 21:23 — Emily

I am the customer support

I am the customer support person for Lexcycle, so I am happy to help you out. You've asked a few different questions in your post, so I'll answer them one by one.

1. If your file has funny characters or dropped words when you open it in Stanza, it might not be an actual text file. The only reason words would be dropped or extra characters added is if you had lots of mark-up in your text file, e.g., lots of words in square brackets or angle brackets. Here's how to check to see whether you file is an actual text file.

First, it should end in the extension .txt.

Second, when you open it in Notepad.exe, if should look totally normal, without any question marks or or missing words or anything like that. If it doesn't end in .txt or if there are funny characters or extra question marks or missing words when you open it in Notepad.exe, then it's probably not a text file. It might be a rich text file (rtf) or a Word document.

If it's not a text file, then you should open it in Word, then go to "Save As", and save the file as a plain text file (with the extension .txt). Open the file in Notepad.exe to make sure it looks okay, then open that new .txt file in Stanza.

2. To convert your file to a format readable by Stanza iPhone, open the file in Stanza Desktop, then select Save As from the File menu. This will let you save the file as ePub, which is the format that Stanza iPhone can read. Do *not* save your file as Palm Database or Palm Doc or anything with the extension pdb, if you want to read your file with Stanza iPhone. The format you want is ePub.

3. When Sharing suddenly stops working, it probably means that your computer and iPhone are on a different network or got confused in some way and aren't able to talk each other. The best thing to do is 1) close Stanza Desktop, disconnect and reconnect your computer to your wireless internet, or simply reboot, and 2) turn on Airplane Mode, then turn off Airplane mode on your iPhone.