zats_clear: (Daniel read me a story (no text))
zats_clear ([personal profile] zats_clear) wrote in [community profile] ebooks2011-03-02 09:01 am

online reading in epub

 is there a simple way to turn articles I am reading online into epubs?  Right now, I can copy them into a word doc, which I save as a pdf and then transform into an epub using this site.  I am always shocked to find out that I already had the tools at my disposal to do something simpler so I thought I'd check!
dreamatdrew: An orange leopard gecko half hiding behind the leaf of a 'lucky bamboo' plant, looking directly at you. (Default)

[personal profile] dreamatdrew 2011-03-02 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Have you checked out instapaper.com ?
dreamatdrew: An orange leopard gecko half hiding behind the leaf of a 'lucky bamboo' plant, looking directly at you. (Default)

[personal profile] dreamatdrew 2011-03-02 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
I use instapaper because I can download a mobi (or epub, or plaintext, but I just go for the mobis) from my kindle. Drop a bookmarklet in your mark-bar, and you're good...
dreamatdrew: An orange leopard gecko half hiding behind the leaf of a 'lucky bamboo' plant, looking directly at you. (Default)

[personal profile] dreamatdrew 2011-03-02 04:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Also, you can folder-ize stuff
finch: (Default)

[personal profile] finch 2011-03-02 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Instapaper is great if you want to group a bunch together. For single web pages I use a chrome plug in (I think it's called dot ePub? I'm on my phone right now) that does it automatically with one click.
jumpuphigh: Pigeon with text "jumpuphigh" (Default)

[personal profile] jumpuphigh 2011-03-02 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
I was going to suggest dotEpub as well.
ETA: dotEpub doesn't always work well. It works best when the page is mostly text.

Also, for things you've put into Word, don't save them as pdf. Save the file as a web page, import it as a book into Calibre and convert it there. That will work so much better.
Edited 2011-03-02 17:43 (UTC)
cyprinella: broken neon sign that reads "lies & fish" (Default)

[personal profile] cyprinella 2011-03-04 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Would Readability work with that plugin? I use that a lot on cluttered news sites.
jumpuphigh: Pigeon with text "jumpuphigh" (Default)

[personal profile] jumpuphigh 2011-03-04 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
The program is actually based on Readability so I would hope it works with it. I don't use Readability though, so I don't know how the two would interact.

[personal profile] cathepsut 2011-03-02 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
sprat: an illustration of a girl posed in front of a cartoon alien  (Default)

[personal profile] sprat 2011-03-02 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I use Zinepal a lot, especially for multipage things I want to compile into a single epub for my ipod. It has a paid option, but you can create a five webpage ebook with the free account, and it emails you automatically with several formats for download once the conversion is complete.
ephemera: celtic knotwork style sitting fox (Default)

[personal profile] ephemera 2011-03-05 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I use the dotEPUB add on for Firefox and Chrime, which is great when you want the main *text* but works less well if you also want comments. I shall check out some of the other tools mentioned here for multi-page items!