Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Kindle Skills - Calibre - Opening Files

August 10, 2010 Cindy O'Neal
If Calibre can open your book file or personal file... that is, if you can see it from within Calibre as part of your list of Calibre books, you no longer need the original file. Tuck it away in a safe place for backup if you like. Calibre has created its own copy in a Calibre Library folder. You can use this with Calibre as your main organizing folder if you like.

Files Calibre will open:
EPub Books (.epub)
LRF Books (.lrf)
HTML Books (.htm, .html, .xhtm, .xhaml)
LIT Books (.lit)
MOBI Books (.mobi, .prc, .azw)
Topax books (.tpz, .azw1)
Text books (.txt, .rtf)
PDF Books (.pdf)
Comics (.cbz, .cbr, .cbc)
Archives (.zip, .rar)

The thing to remember is, if Calibre can "open" the book, it can also convert it to a nice Kindle format for you. This can be a Text file (.txt only) or any of the MOBI formats (.mobi, .prc, .azw). Forget the archive files (.zip or .rar). Although they are listed, they should be considered folders with compressed files inside. If the c ompressed file inside is something Calibre can not "read," you won't be able to view it within Calibre or have Calibre convert it. I don't know why these file types are listed, unless the Calibre folks want you to know Calibre can open compressed files to view book files inside.

Ask Mrs. Wizard:
Please send me a personal email (mrswizard@mrswizard.com) if you have any questions. I answer all my emails and am more than happy to help any time I can. Your questions mean a lot to me, and may even inspire an article that will help others and make this a more valuable resource to anyone who reads it.