Universal document type

[swdave]

I'm looking into producing some documents that include images that would need to be easily viewed on both PPC and Palm formats.

If Pocket Word would display images in Word files, I'd just do that but in my experience, it doesn't.

So, I'm wondering if the Palm .doc format would be a better alternative since there are readers on both machines or if something iSilo would be better even though it is a purchase only software option.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

Thanks,

[taxus]

iSilo is the best right now if you want to produce a document with images, assuming you're starting from HTML. Its companion desktop software, iSiloX, can even convert part of web sites. (You can control the depth of links it has to retrieve.)

Actually, on my Palm I've been using iSilo as an alternative to AvantGo, at the same time using it to convert HTML documents for viewing on my Palm. (For example, the HTML 4 doc, or Microsoft's XML 2.5 doc.)

The problem with iSilo is that while the companion software that produces documents is free, the reader is not, so this isn't good if what you want is to share documents.

(Also, it looks like it doesn't support ClearType.)

There are two other formats that are cross-platform: Mobipocket and PalmReader. Both support pictures, and both are free readers. They both have serious shortcomings on the aspect of producing documents though.

PalmReader

The format, Palm/Peanut Markup Language (PML), is not really akin to HTML. It's possible to convert HTML to PalmReader, but there are many things that you can't do, because it's a very limited markup language (it does not support tables, you have to use tabulations).

There are two ways to produce documents: using the freely available tool DropBook, or using the new eBook Studio software ($30). I haven't had the chance to try eBook Studio, because there is no trial version, but from what I can gather from the description, it's not a tool like iSiloX at all.

While iSiloX is geared for conversion of HTML without possibility of editing, eBook Studio is an editor. It allows you to import HTML, but it's still an editor that you can't program to retrieve partial web sites.

At least here it's the publishing software that you pay, not the reader.

As for the free tool... it's a real pain to use. You have to convert your original document in PML format first. It's a markup language like HTML, and the free tool takes the code and converts it into a binary PalmReader file.

You must use Word macros to convert Word documents to PML. I'd be very surprised if tables and such complex things were correctly converted to PML. You'd most probably have to edit the PML file directly in a text editor before using the free tool to convert to a PalmReader document, and that means you have to learn PML.

And inserting images is a nightmare. The tool only works with PNG, not JPEG, not BMP, not GIF. You have to convert your images in PNG, but the tool doesn't accept all kinds of PNG. PNG produced by some apps (Microsoft PhotoDraw, for one) don't work. Actually, I never got it to accept PNG images made by mainstream image editors (Photoshop). The only way I found was to use a DOS command line based converter tool. (Not very userfriendly.)

I don't know if eBook Studio has those problems, or if it can import JPEG/GIF images, I don't know if it's any good. But the bottom line is that it's an editor, not a converter, so you'd have to do some editing yourself, most probably.

I think that eBook Studio is meant for commercial publishers so they can more easily port commercial books to PalmReader, therefore broadening the range of available commercial ebooks from Palm Digital Media.

Mobipocket

The Mobipocket format is based on the Open eBook standard, which is based on HTML. I don't think it supports the full range of HTML, but it supports quite a lot. So if your document is in HTML, there is a good chance it will be converted almost accurately.

Mobipocket is a tool for reading ebooks, but also news. There is a Web companion that is used to retrieve news from the web (it can be set up to retrieve only parts of web pages, so you can retrieve only a new article without the ads and big images, but for that you have to write XML commands in text files, which is not really the cup of tea of most people, which means everyone relies on the existing configurations for news sites on the Mobipocket web site).

There is also a free tool to make ebooks, Mobipocket Publisher.

Publisher isn't really an editor. It's a tool that helps you assemble HTML parts to make an ebook. It only works with content on your computer though, not with content on the web.

Mobipocket also sells a tool that converts Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Mobipocket Office Companion (22?). It produces Mobipocket Reader documents.

I figure it's less expensive to save your Word document in HTML, then use Mobipocket Publisher to convert it.

My main beefs with Mobipocket are

• the Palm version is very, very slow
• the PocketPC version doesn't seem to support ClearType

Personally, I prefer PalmReader as a viewer, but its format is very limited, and Mobipocket has the best tools for producing documents.

[swdave]

Thanks for the reply taxus. You've saved me a considerable amount of trouble by giving me the run down.

I'm not sure which solution will work the best but I'm going to move forward with this thing soon and present a solution to the people I'll be working with.

It looks like you are enjoying your e310. It's a very cool PPC and I've been recommending it to all my peers that are looking to break into the PocketPC world.

Thanks again!