More eBook software
The page provides introduction and links to more detail topics on eBook software.
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[edit] Overview
When most people think of eBook software they immediately think of software that can be used to read eBooks. This is certainly a large category of software available for eBooks. However equally popular software are the ones used to create eBooks in the first place. This includes specific Book authoring software and Conversion software. If you are dealing with a particular format there may be tools and utilities listed in the specific format page. However, there can also be more specialized software for specific tasks.
[edit] Library management
Once a person has a large collections of eBooks they often need some may to keep track of the collection. This is talked about in the article on Personal Library management.
Many reading programs also offer some form of library management, however even general purpose spreadsheets are often used to keep track of your home collection. These include Microsoft Excel, Open Office, and others. A more general database program can also be used. Kobo eReader, for example, provides the SQLite database program.
There is also an online way to keep track of you home library from LibraryThing. They allow you to enter your own library and find others with similar tastes. They also compare and catalog your items and fill in most catalog data by only entering an ISBN number. You can also read reviews and enter them yourself. Shelfari offers similar functionality. Both show reviews as well.
Book Crawler is an iOS application to manage your eBooks. Having a portable app to manage your books can keep you from buying a book you already own!
All My Books is a personal ebook organizer software for Windows. The program can lookup ebook details from Amazon or other web sources.
[edit] Study programs
Providing software to help the user study books goes beyond just the reading experience. Leading the way in this area is Bible study software. The name is a bit of a misnomer as this software can generally be used with eBooks that are not Bibles.
NOOKstudy is a free eTextbook application from Barnes and Noble that provides a suite of digital study tools including textbooks. It is available for Windows and MacOS X.
The Kno is a free eTextbook application for iPads. They sell textbooks on the site.
[edit] Children
Kids have special needs when it comes to eBook Reading. See EBook reading for children which addresses the needs and provides solutions including specialized hardware, software, and eBooks.
[edit] Utilities
Some programs are designed to help with eBooks but are not used generally used alone to create eBooks or are not specifically aimed at eBooks.
- OCR, optical character recognition can be used to convert an image of text into actual electronic text. This image could be a scan or perhaps a PDF file. Once converted into text the results can be used to produce an eBook.
- PostScript is a programming language specifically designed to create well formated printable pages. Tools exist to use this in the production of eBooks.
- Mono Project - This is an environment that creates a way to use or even create Windows .NET framework applications on MacOS X and Linux. Some of the eBook utilities are written using the Windows .NET framework, C# for example.
- AutoUnbreak - free software to remove extraneous line breaks from TXT or formatted documents.
