Monday, December 17, 2007

OT Tech tip: making e-books for ipods

The grades are in, and now I can get to work on some writing. But first: a tech reward!

As you can see from my Kindle-envy, I want to be able to carry books to read when I'm waiting. I've lost my more recent Palm Pilot, and the old one is too old to sync with any XP or later machine, so that leaves the iPod as a free device on which to read ebooks. The problem is that it only lets you copy a document that's really tiny (a page or so), but there is a solution.

Here's how to put a whole book on your iPod:

1. Go to Project Gutenberg and get a book (or convert your own file to .txt format in Word or another program).
2. Go to the converter site at http://www.ambience.sk/ipod-ebook-creator/ipod-book-notes-text-conversion.php . Upload the file, and the site will convert it.
3. Download the zipped file and extract it.
4. Drag and drop the folder to the Notes folder in iTunes. Instructions are here; other instructions are here. You need to make sure that you have "Enable disk use" checked in the sync menu for your iPod.
5. Sync the iPod.

The conversion program breaks up the text document into small enough pieces so that the Notes program can read them, and it puts Forward and Back arrows into the document so that you can move around in it. The text on the iPod is tiny, but if the thought of being stuck waiting in a car or doctor's office without something to read makes you wish that there were an alternative, here it is.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey thanks a lot. I was really hoping i didnt have to break the files into smaller pieces myself

undine said...

Glad it worked! It's not a substitute for fancier reading devices, but it's free, and that's a lot.