I finally did it! I converted two of my books, "True Love" and "Centipedophobia", into eBook format and put them on my Nook. It was very simple and, even better, it was FREE!
First, Mr. Elkner downloaded eCub onto my computer. eCub is the program that converts documents into eBook format. Before you can convert a document to eBook format, go to the document and click "save As." Then save it as a text (.txt) document. If you don't do this, eCub won't be able to convert the book. Once the program is downloaded, you click on the icon. Then click "New Project". It will take you to a screen where you have to type in the title of the book, the author, and the identifier. I'm still not sure what the identifier is, but I type in a different number for each book that I convert. There are other areas that can be filled in, but that is optional. Then click next. After that, you have to locate the folder that your text document is saved in. Hit the next button. You can hit the next button again. Then you will come to a screen that has a box with checked items in it. Make sure that your document is checked. If not, nothing will convert over. Hit the finish button. Now you will see a smaller screen with the title of the book on it. Up at the top is a button that says "Compile." Press that. Once eCub is finished, your book is now in eBook format! It will be saved in the same folder as your original document.
Next, Mr. Elkner downloaded Calibre. You can use Calibre, or Adobe Digital Editions. Both are free. Click the icon of whichever program you downloaded. For this blog, I will describe what to do in Calibre. Once the Calibre library pops up, plug in your eReader. A button that says "Device" will pop up on the top. That's how you know your eReader is registered. Next, click the button on the top that says "Add Books." Browse for the epub format of your document and click OK. Now your book is in your Calibre library! You can drag and drop it to the button that says device, or you can right click and click on "Send it to device", or you can click the item and then click the button at the top that says "Add to device."
That's all you have to do! Make sure you eject your device before you unplug it, and then you are done!
This is *way too cool*, Imani Jai! It is exactly the type of thing I like to do most as a teacher - find a creative student with a passion and help them do what they want to do. After more searching this weekend, I found a better replacement for ecub, called Sigil (see http://code.google.com/p/sigil/) which I will have installed on your computer by the time you come in on Monday. Sigil enables you to edit your epub works directly, rather than being limited to just converting them like ecub. The documentation also looks good (http://code.google.com/p/sigil/wiki/BasicTutorial).
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, I've been looking for that core list of words for beginning English Language Learners that I mentioned to you, and I think I found it here: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Basic_English_alphabetical_wordlist. Let's talk Monday about where to go next!