# Having trouble converting .lit files to work on my Kindle 3



## Taven (Jan 4, 2011)

I have a bunch of books on my PC that are all .lit files and I can't seem to properly convert them to work on the Kindle.  I have downloaded ABC Amber LIT Converter, ConvertLIT, and also Mobipocket Creator to try and convert them to .prc(i have heard that is the best to use on the kindle)

Here's what happens to me:

First I use ConvertLIT to explode the .lit file:

And then I end up with an HTML file, and an OPF file which both correlate to the book.

The html file at this point is completely readable on my PC using Google Chrome, Explorer...etc etc

The OPF cannot be read, however, so I double-click the OPF of the book, thus opening MobiPocket Creator.

MobiPocket then opens the OPF file into an htm doc and a cover page.

I then use MobiPocket to convert from the htm to .prc and when i upload it to my Kindle it reads fine except for one tiny flaw...


Literally almost every word in the book is hyphenated for no apparent reason. It makes it completely unreadable.

This only happens when I convert it to .pdf or .prc

When I open the .htm or .html file it reads perfect with no hyphens, even if I adjust the window size, the .htm and .html puts the hyphens where they are supposed to be to connect words on multiple lines.


Has anyone else experienced this that could possibly shine some light in my direction?

Thank you in advance.

Taven=


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

This sounds dreadful.

Have you tried Calibre?  It recognizes .lit files and is an excellent free program.


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## Taven (Jan 4, 2011)

What does it do exactly? 

I am in the process of downloading it now.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Sounds like the LIT file has fixed length, fully justified lines using carriage returns at the end of each line.

My only suggestion is that you manually edit the HTML file to remove the hyphens in the improperly hyphenated words and then selectively remove the carriage returns at the end of the lines. I don't think Calibre has any batch filter that might automate it but I'm not a Calibre expert.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Taven said:


> What does it do exactly?


Calibre is an ebook management program.

It can convert many formats to other formats as needed. It can also send the file directly to your Kindle via USB or it can also email it to your Kindle.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Taven, if Calibre doesn't work for you, email me one of the HTML files and let me see if I can come up with a simple batch process for you. Click the envelope under my avatar.


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## Taven (Jan 4, 2011)

Okay, Jeff, I'm installing Calibre now.

Hopefully I'll know within a few minutes if I can use it or not.

Thanks!


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## Taven (Jan 4, 2011)

Importing the .lit file into Calibre and then converting it to .mobi book file seems to have worked!

Not very sure why but there are no longer hyphens scattered throughout my kindle!

Thanks for the tip, Elk.

And also, thank you Jeff for your offer =)

Thinking I will be hanging around the boards more often seeing how nice the community is!

Happy readings!

Taven.


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

Taven said:


> Literally almost every word in the book is hyphenated for no apparent reason. It makes it completely unreadable.


I ran into this last year when I was figuring out how to convert various formats to read on the Kindle. I recall some circumstance in which all the normally hidden hyphens were converted to visible hyphens. I'm sorry that I don't recall how I got rid of this, it may have been a character set issue. Or an artifact of using some version of HTML in the conversion process.

Mike


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Taven said:


> Importing the .lit file into Calibre and then converting it to .mobi book file seems to have worked!


That's great. Sooner or later somebody else will need help converting LIT files and now we know what to tell them.


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

Just for general information, I'm pretty sure that Calibre converts books into HTML as an intermediate step before converting to the target format, so there is HTML involved.


Mike


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Taven said:


> Importing the .lit file into Calibre and then converting it to .mobi book file seems to have worked!


Excellent!

It's a neat program.


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