[ale] [OT] how do I convert this web based book to pdf or doc

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd post an update.  My main objective was to be able to download and print the ebook.  They provide it in a CHM format, but I could never read it for some reason.  I installed Calibre, then imported the chm file and then saved it back out.  Now, for some reason, I'm able to read it natively in Windows.  I printed it from there, which was somewhat of a nightmare.  I had to go to each major topic page in the table of contents then print it.  Fortunately, the print screen has an option to also print all linked documents one level down in the hierarchy.  So, by printing each main topic, I was also able to get almost all the sub topics.  Of course, each page also linked to the previous and next topic, as well as things like the company home page, etc., so I had a lot of redundant content that I threw into the recycle bin.  But, over a period of a few hours, I got it printed.  I took it to office max and had it bound.  It turned out to be 5 volumes each about 3/4" thick printed on my laser printer single sided.  Now I have to set about learning the topic that's documented in the book, which relates to a specialized currency trading platform.  There was no way I was going to try to read all that on my computer monitor.

Maybe later, I'll get around to finishing converting this to PDF, RTF, or EPub, but I couldn't figure that out with a cursory review of the Calibre menus.  If any of you are thinking of publishing an ebook, PLEASE PLEASE make it printable in one simple procedure.  I still have to go through and hand number the pages and correlate that to the table of contents.  I'm glad this info was provided to me free on the website by the software maker, but it has not been free in either time or supplies to get it into printed form.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

Sincerely,

Ron 



JD <jdp at algoloma.com> wrote:

>Lots of tools for this, but why PDF? PDF should be used when page
>layout is
>mandatory. If this is CHM or HTML, then that is NOT the case. Google
>found many
>chm2epub converters too.
>
>Why not use epub which will be easier to read on a tablet? Remember, I
>have the
>same tablet you have. FBreader is nice.
>
>I'd use wget with a name filter to download the parts you want. There
>is
>probably a perl script on SourceForge that does it too.
>
>$ wget -r -nd -Ahigh-quality.mp3 URL
>man wget will explain everything.
>
>While I was at it, I'd put all the data into a single file, then save
>as RTF
>(.doc is evil!) and let Calibre convert to epub.
>
>Android is not as open and easy from a scripting standpoint from what
>I've
>experienced.  I'd do all this on my Linux desktop.
>
>This sort of stuff is where the command line accels compared to PnC.
>Most
>beginning Linux books show off many of the old tools (sed, awk, cut,
>... ) and
>teach how to use them together, but if you've picked up a little ruby,
>python or
>perl, this is an easy task to write.  This is where the philosophies of
>UNIX/Linux different greatly from Microsoft. We use multiple, little
>tools to
>solve a problem, whereas Microsoft encourages a programmer to create a
>massive
>tool with feature creep to solve it.  Though I have to admit that more
>and more
>of the MS-ideals are coming to Linux which helps make the transition
>easier, but
>leaves a hole class of people looking for specific, huge programs to
>solve
>simple problems.
>
>Not that you haven't made the thought shift to Linux, but a lurker
>might not
>have yet. This
>http://blog.jdpfu.com/2012/02/15/beginning-linux-thought-shift-needed
>tries to
>explain the different way of thinking.
>
>Good luck with your solution!
>
>
>
>
>On 01/29/2013 09:54 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I need some more geek help.
>> 
>> There is a web based book that I need to download and convert to pdf
>or doc
>> or open doc format so I can read it off-line and print it.  They have
>a
>> downloadable copy as a windows help file but I cannot seem to read it
>at
>> all.
>> 
>> I need to start with this page: http://book.mql4.com/ and add this
>page:
>> http://book.mql4.com/overview and add this page:
>> http://book.mql4.com/content
>> 
>> and all the pages that are the main body of the book linked to from
>the
>> previous page, but not all the ancillary pages referenced at the
>bottom of
>> every page, etc.
>> 
>> Can someone tell me how to do this in a relatively painless fashion. 
>Copying
>> the text from the browser to a doc file is definitely NOT painless.
>> 
>> I prefer something that is cross platform, or something which runs as
>an
>> android program, or something which is a Firefox plugin.  It would be
>> preferable if all the content is stored in one pdf or doc file but if
>each
>> web page is a doc or pdf file, that would be better than nothing.
>> 
>> As always, any help is appreciated.
>> 
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--

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Ron Frazier
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