General limitations of online converters:
Limited file size
Limited formats
Your stuff is on their server
--Privacy?
--Sensitive/Proprietary stuff
Some sites look dodgy
--Read the comments and reviews
Issues:
You can’t make people use them
Device idiosyncrasies
Complex formatting doesn’t work well
No editing in some forms
So why bother?
Take it with you – once it’s downloaded you’re not tethered to an internet connection
Device/App affordances
--Bookmarks
--Highlighting
--Annotations
--Adjustable reading experience (background color, etc.)
Edocs flow better than PDF
Calibre (www.calibre-ebook.com)
Free
Open source
Convert formats
Create own metadata
Convert ebook/edoc/webpage to read on ereader or smartphone
Auto delivery of online blogs, newspapers, etc.
Works with many ebook formats, including MOBI (Kindle)
According to the forums, converting Overdrive books to .mobi using Calibre still requires stripping the DRM, which is of questionable legality
Metadata searching, organizing, cataloging
Developer and user community
Using it is either really easy or really hard
Not for creating full featured ebooks
No columns or non-image tables (causes flow problems)
MS Word documents must be saved as RTF or filtered HTML
Updates require a re-install
2epub (www.2epub.com)
Free
Relies on other open source software (including Calibre)
Convert from: doc, docx, epub, fb2, html, lit, lrf, mobi, odt, pdb, pdf, prc, rtf, txt
Convert to: epub, fb2, lit, lrf, mobi
Epub 2 Go (www.epub2go.com)
Free
Converts PDF to Epub that can be read on an iPhone/iPad using Stanza
Convert files from computer or from the Internet
Get Stanza from the iTunes App Store
No scrolling side to side
No tables are convertible
Not all images are converted
PDF file must be <= 30 MB
Grab My Books (www.grabmybooks.com)
Firefox add-on
Grab content from the web, including RSS feeds, and convert them to ePub format
Select manually or automatically
Automatic skips menus
Create edocs on the fly
Links not live
For more information on these and other converters, go to http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/edocs
