Convert Kindle books to Logos?

Matthew, as has been stated, it is very easy to convert Kindle books to Logos personal books.  However, there is disagreement as to the legality.

If you purchase a book legally, I don't see a real problem with converting that book to another format in order for you to read and use it.  That is not everyone's opinion, and I am no lawyer.  I regard it much like buying a cd and converting the songs to mp3 to listen to them on your iPod or cell phone, which has been held to be legal.

There is no question that it is illegal and violation of copyright to share either the converted book or the original file with anyone else.  That is not in dispute.  It does not matter if you give it away for free or sell it. 

It is a matter of conscience.  Frequently, you can obtain permission to do this for your personal use, and then there is no issue of conscience.  I have on a number of occasions been able to obtain permission from authors or publishers to convert one of their books to a personal book.  Always worth a try.

Obviously, you would have to convert the Kindle file into a Word document.  The free program Calibre does that for most Kindle books.  Then just make a Personal Book from the Word document.

Jan:

I haven't tried your program yet, but my experience is that HTML is the ideal intermediate format for copying and pasting into Word, as it preserves text formatting that can either be recognized by the PB compiler as a TOC heading, or makes it simple in Word to convert to headings. Also, any pictures will survive the conversion (my experience, YMMV). That would include original language words that are actually little pictures.

Thanks for making this.

Matthew said:

Great idea, is there a Mac version?

Sounds good. Two minor problems with that:

1. I hate Apple.
2. Apple hates me.

If the Windows app is successful, I might consider learning C# and do a cross-platform mobile app instead.

Bernhard said:

Any chance a future version could automatically scroll through the book or at least some kind of indicator that shows how far one should scroll?

My first thought was "no" as this would create a mass scraping tool for piracy purposes. Thinking about it again now, ebook pirates already have their tools of choice with Calibre plus the DRM removal plugin. So I can investigate and add that feature without danger of misuse.

Bernhard said:

It seems like this doesn't work for books which would download in Topaz format when using Kindle for PC.

I've already noticed that... This feature is definitely up for investigation, and coming in the next version if it's feasible to implement.

Jerry Smith said:

Thank you for this tool! I'm working with Word2016 and can't get images to show/display in the imported html file into Word. Word is correctly set to display images . . . thoughts?

Seems like Word doesn't like embedded images... How about the following approach: click into the right panel, mark all (ctrl+a), copy (ctrl+c), then paste into Word.

I'll add a "copy all" button to the next version.

Jan Krohn said:

How about the following approach: click into the right panel, mark all (ctrl+a), copy (ctrl+c), then paste into Word.

Could be the long way around . . . but, opened the html in Chrome, "printed" with Acrobat Pro, "exported" a Word document. Did pretty well. Ran Find/Replace several times to remove double spaces between words. Created a Personal Book in Logos and it imported well and with images. It works, "the long way around."

Jan Krohn said:

I've done some research, and found an easier way.

If you open Word on https://www.office.com/ (online version), and paste the book into there, all images are preserved. You can then download a local copy, and continue editing the document offline.

[Y][Y]

Doc B said:

I've never used the online version. I have an Office365 subscription...so does that mean I have access to the online version of Word?

It does.

I remember having access to Word Online before I had an Office 365 subscription (maybe not the full feature set though) - but a Microsoft account is generally sufficient for opening documents and basic editing capabilities.

Jan Krohn said:

If you open Word on https://www.office.com/ (online version), and paste the book into there, all images are preserved. You can then download a local copy, and continue editing the document offline.

Jan can you explain what you mean by "paste the book"? I am having some difficulty.

I use your excellent program to get a book into the right hand side of your utility. Then I click the 3rd button and save the HTML file. I open that file in MSWord 2016 then save as a docx and upload to my OneDrive folder. When I open office.com and try to open the file from my OneDrive then I get an error. (When I tried to open the HTML in Word Online it said that the file type was not supported).

Everything is coming into the HTML file and everything is converting from HTML to docx except the graphics. It is a little tedious to use the snipping tool to copy the graphics from the Kindle for PC app then pasting the graphics into the docx file.

Jan Krohn said:

My work-in-progress already has a "copy all" button for that. If nothing goes wrong, I'll upload that version tonight.

Thanks Jan, I appreciate this utility as well as your free book email list!

I am having trouble pasting into word online - maybe the book I am copying is too long or perhaps my internet bandwidth is an issue. When I paste into word online it says "saving the document" then I get an error that the document was not saved. I may try some smaller portions and see if that makes a difference.

Jan Krohn said:

I remember having access to Word Online before I had an Office 365 subscription (maybe not the full feature set though) - but a Microsoft account is generally sufficient for opening documents and basic editing capabilities.

FYI - Have Office 365, can't get all things working. Saving book as HTML, copying, "attempting" to paste into online Word. Could be the books are too large, too many charts/graphics, but it hasn't worked yet. I have plenty of Interenet speed so that's not an issue as I can see it. But, still working on the process.

In the meantime, back at the ranch, opening HTML in Chrome, printing a PDF through Acrobat Pro, opening Acrobat Pro and Exporting as a Word document. Several steps but it works pretty well. Thank you Jan for your work here . . .

Kevin A. Purcell said:

I can't use this to log in. Keeps saying my password is incorrect, but I know for certain I'm entering the right one.

Use the countries dropdown to select your location so you can log into the correct Amazon account. It should auto-detect your location, but that maybe not 100% accurate...

Skycaptain50 said:

I cannot get the Kindle Cloud reader to open in the left window. 

"We're sorry. Kindle Cloud Reader is not currently available on this browser. You can read on your phone or tablet by downloading a free Kindle app now."

I have all the browsers listed on my laptop, but none of them show up in the HeiDoc window.
Any help?

Run one of the two registry files contained in this archive:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!As_fPVpP5WzhgY8VBLDruegALTSIYg

If you have IE 10, then run IE10.reg. If you have IE11, then run IE11.reg,

It should have been done automatically by the downloader... Not sure why it didn't work for you...

David Thomas said:

I concur. This is the challenge I am having. That is why I tried the long way around of saving in Word2016 then trying to open in WordOnline.

Apparently Microsoft has known about this issue since 2009, and not acted on it yet :-(
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/9d0c628b-d6e4-4ab8-8f6c-c4c05b7f01e3/does-microsoft-word-read-xhtml-properly?forum=innovateonoffice

Anyway, I've just uploaded a new version that has a copy button and a print button, and can also handle Topaz books.
https://www.heidoc.net/amazon/eBook%20Downloader.exe

I'm still researching on auto-scrolling, but Amazon doesn't make that easily possible. They're quite clever for a multi billion dollar corporation...

Whyndell Grizzard said:

I will assume "copy all" is for whats in #2 only- and not the whole book, correct?

Yes, just panel #2 for now.

I'm still not giving up on auto browsing yet... Next week, next try...

Mike Hanson (Faithlife) said:

I adjusted your post count and Graham is correct with the cause.

Mike,

Would it be possible to update my post count as well.  I updated my e-mail some months back.

I appreciate your efforts but I can't get the hang of this- every book so far I have just deleted can't get them right.

Jan Krohn said:

Whyndell Grizzard said:

I appreciate your efforts but I can't get the hang of this- every book so far I have just deleted can't get them right.

Please wait for the auto scroll function. It will make things much easier. It will hopefully be complete within a week.

Don't get me wrong- its a good app- but for what I do- its not working. I'll keep trying- so keep updating it.

Can I get a quick understanding of the legality of converting Kindle books to Logos?  I tried looking for information regarding this.  I am sure it has already come up but I can't find the information.

Thanks

Thanks alabama24

JT (alabama24) said:

You can, for example, make a personal copy of a compact disc as a backup. This isn't that.  

Has a court said there is a legal difference in making a personal copy of a cd and an electronic book?  Is that a fact that this isn't that?