# Auto Ebook Converter for Kindle



## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

I got tired of looking for something to auto convert documents and put them on my kindle so I wrote a little app.
http://www.deadmessengers.net/forum/index.php?topic=676.0

Its very simple. It uses some pretty standard document processors to extract images and convert .lit .htm .html .pdf to .mobi and moves the file to the kindle directly if you so chose. This is a bit of a work in progress and I have found a couple of instances with .lit conversion that fail but otherwise it works.

Known issues with .lit is the .lit processor is not written for 64 windows and wow32 seems to get upset with it.
Also at times the internal filename of a .lit is used on the output file as a result the file output is not moved to the output destination. The workaround is that the program keeps the processed files in a temp folder. Each time the program runs it erases the temp folder. If a lit fails to convert on this intermediate step you can grab the html output file from the temp folder and run it through the processor again and it will complete the conversion.

I dropped this on the amazon kindle boards but I figure it may get a little more exposure over here. Anyways check it out and let me know if you have any feedback. Its all free and the source is available in zip and in the installer.

Please post feedback in this thread or the thread associated with the project on my site. 
http://www.deadmessengers.net/forum/index.php?topic=681.0


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## Rivery (Nov 10, 2008)

Thank you for your effort.  I loaded this on my computer, but I haven't had occasion to use it yet.


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

I have updated my Kindle Ebook Converter it now supports pdb format conversion.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/autokindle/

Warning to Vista users currently due to the UAC system in Vista (that thing that goes bong and asks you are you sure constantly) interferes with this converter. I am working on a fix to allow it to function without users having to disable the User Access Control Security in Vista. If anyone would like to help run a few test since I do not run Vista. It would be appreciated.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Does the program require any other items to be installed for it to work? Such as .NET, etc.?

Mike


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## bigmat1201 (Dec 13, 2008)

any chance you could make a mac version, please


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

jmiked said:


> Does the program require any other items to be installed for it to work? Such as .NET, etc.?
> 
> Mike


Nope its all in one package



> any chance you could make a mac version, please


Working on it but I don't have a mac to build on so its going to be a linux build that I hope will work for mac


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## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

I tried to convert a 443kb pdf file. I had previously emailed it to my K, and it did convert properly by Amazon. However your program produced a 24kb mobi file which was unusable. I am running Windows XP. Love the idea of what you are doing, please keep working on it.

Steve


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

I would love to see any documents that fail so I can test it if you wouldn't mind sending the doc to me 
[email protected] I would appreciate it.


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## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

ninjapanzer said:


> I would love to see any documents that fail so I can test it if you wouldn't mind sending the doc to me
> [email protected] I would appreciate it.


Both the original pdf and the converted mobi are on their way to you.

Steve


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

Ok the issue is that I remove images with my converter. This being an unusual situation that causes problems occasionally I will be adding an option to allow the user to select if they want the images maintained or not.

Thanks for the files

I also found a new bug with PDF conversion that is repaired in the new increment of the converter v0.3.02


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

Not to keep pointlessly bumping an old post of mine but I released a new version of my kindle converter not at version 0.4.01.

I have outlined some additional issues and creative fixes to random problems with PDFs not converting correctly also aside from PDB support that I included last time. This new version processes CHM files. These are compressed HTML help files. You may have noticed them. They often have the chapter index on the left and the text on the right. Well These come across very well with the 15 or so that I tested. As usual images are disabled but if enough people ask for it I will make sure images are supported in the next version.

Big Bug Fix in this version! UAC in Vista should be fully supported now and the program should work by first requesting admin rights before trying to do any file work on Vista systems. Lit still is not supported in all 64 platforms but the UAC resolution has helped on some systems I have tested.
Sorry to drag on. Here is the link! http://sourceforge.net/projects/autokindle/
Enjoy 

No Mac version in sight though until I convert the project to Ruby. That will not be until I being on a GUI version for release.

Anyways I hope you find this new version as useful as I do. In the end I made it for my mother so she could manage books after I got her a Kindle for Christmas


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

Ok here I go again bumping this post but I had a great idea while converting some books. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just drag the book onto the converter and have it convert the book automagically. Well now it does. Create a shortcut for the application on your desktop after you install my new version from http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=248415.

The easy way to create the shortcut is to go to the application in the start menu right click and go to Send To ---> then select Desktop(Create Shortcut)

Now all you have to do is take your book file drag it on this icon and it will start the conversion process just asking for the destination.

The next step will be to allow you to configure the applications settings so you can have a default location for your converted documents along with preferences for having the app process images with your files. The current configuration is to discard images but as I have become aware some of you guys have pdfs that are all images and this causes some issues.

Enjoy as usual.


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## irabren (Nov 9, 2008)

I downloaded it - and it had a malware trojan with it - so be careful !


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## chynared21 (Oct 28, 2008)

irabren said:


> I downloaded it - and it had a malware trojan with it - so be careful !


*Thanks for letting us know.*


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

okay i'll stick with mobipocket


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

I assure you there is no trojan in it but please use the software that makes you most comfortable

Just to be sure I scanned everything (old releases and current files) with Pest Patrol anti-spyware and etrust anti-virus, and trendmicro

Results are as such
This is from etrust antivirus sorry it doesn't give me a log of the files it scans but anyways









I opened a ticket for the issue over at source forge but thus far I have found this happens occasionally

Please Reference http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/index.php/t60375.html

And just to focus this



> I'd redownload autoit, it's obviously not a trojan. And do another scan - if it comes up as a false positive, add it to the exclude list. Scanners sometimes claim that software that has been packed w/ upx* (or other executable packers) are malware.
> 
> * UPX: Program that packs binary executables to reduce their size.


To help with an explanation. Auto it is a script runtime environment that I used to create this application. To create an executable (.exe) from the script I include with your installation it compresses the file using upx which some virus scanners blow the whistle on.

Here is another example of an application called UPX shell that uses upx and a false positive from AVG and edwido

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=209614

Sorry for the scare to any of you


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## Lotus (Oct 31, 2008)

I'll have to download it and try it out when I get my PC back  I'm currently on a Mac, so I can't use it


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## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

Just tried the newest version on the same pdf file that I sent you. It didn't ask if I wanted to save any pictures, and it converted to the same worthless 24b file that I originally sent you.

Steve


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## twiz (Jan 20, 2009)

I'd just like to say Thank You for the application! There's a lot of grief that goes into writing these and revising them.

I run Sabayon Gentoo 3.5 (linux) and I can successfully use this with wine. I see that it's built on the mobigen app, which I've been running via command line to convert my books for Kindle. But obviously it's nice to have a GUI too. I can't get Mobipocket Creator to function at all in wine. Mobicreator is a nice enough application, but I no longer have a Windows machine to run it on, and I'm certainly not creating another Windows virtual machine anytime soon just to run the thing!

I've only had a few minor glitches with it (the same issue with images previously reported) and once it was nice enough to tell me a pdf was copyrighted and couldn't be converted (didn't know the free Tor.com ebooks were using copyrighted pdf's but I guess that's a duh). Still, I'm reading thick fiction novels so the loss of images isn't heartbreaking.

So thanks again for the app; it's a nudge in the right direction for us stranded linux users (which Mobi has so far blown off). And if you ever sort out the image thing or add a metadata editor, that would be pretty cool too!


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

I added a new version that will force the title of PDB files to be the same as the filename and now if you process any mobi it will prompt you to change the title that the kindle will display. This method overwrites the file you select so you could correct the title metadata of a file on you kindle by plugging your kindle into your computer and selecting a file on the kindle to change. There is no installer for this release. Just a zip with all the necessary files. I will be incorporating more features before the next official release.

Subnote.

Also removed UPX packing as the space savings has become unnecessary vs the number of false anti-virus hits the app has recieved.


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

Due to the number of bugs I have been able to expose yesterday I decided to throw out a clean release. I would advise uninstalling your old version before installing the new one again as usual. This is basically yesterdays release except I updated the download page and created a normal installer for the application to make things easier then a zip archive.

So drag and drop is stable again and title metadata handling works 

Single version increment on the lowest build to better organize program logic.

Next are a lot of big changes in program workflow. As far as being able to set default actions to eliminate all dialogs and possible shell embedding so you can do a right click and convert kind of action.

Enjoy


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## cmechlin (Feb 27, 2009)

Thanks for the converter, its great. Please consider adding image support. I read a lot of technical books w/ images.

Thanks again.


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

cmechlin said:


> Thanks for the converter, its great. Please consider adding image support. I read a lot of technical books w/ images.
> 
> Thanks again.


It just so happens I was just working on that problem for the C# version and have slid the solution for PDF images back to the original release This brings things to 0.4.35 now with command line support for a gui-less usage for batch processing and image support for PDF documents. Also a much better handling of intermediate files for PDFs.

https://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=248415


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## ninjapanzer (Dec 14, 2008)

After the CNET's review of the app I decided to add a small component for better process streamlining. There is a configuration app that ships with the converter that lets you setup the default behavior of where the program places the output file and allows you to turn on or off image support.

Enjoy

Review
http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-10187502-12.html?tag=rtcol;relnews

Download
https://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=248415


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## kevindorsey (Mar 4, 2009)

The add on is very useful, thanks.


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