TR

TR is the extension used to identify Tome Raider files. On a Palm these files have a .pdb extension and are identified as ToRa files using the application TRPW.

File Format

The file format is highly compressed and most suitable for large reference documents. Most files are encrypted and require a DRM key.

The source files use standard HTML construction but several html tags have been defined for unique usage in this format. These include:

• <new> This is the cornerstone of the TR file. The New tag defines new sections within the file. It is all that is needed to turn any text file into a TomeRaider file. <new> tag defines start of the pages.
• <CATDEF> ... </CATDEF> defines the category name
• <META> ... </META> is a tag used to define all of the metadata used in the file format. There are lots of parameters used with this tag.
• <EXPMSG> This tag is used to create the message that displays after the file has been expired. Any text after this tag will be included in the expiration message. When the user tries to view any page after the file has been expired, the actual page is replaced by this message just before display. So, the user sees the expiration message instead of the actual page text.
• <DIEMSG> This tag is similar to EXPMSG. It is used to display a message after the file has died.
• <ENGMSG> This tag is used to create the message that displays for encrypted pages. If the user tries to view an encrypted page without having unlocked the file, this message is displayed instead of the actual page text.
• <expmsg>,<diemsg> and <encmsg> are ignored within the page text. They must be placed in the file header section before the first <new> tag.
• <SELECTION> . </ SELECTION> used to support Query's. This tag must be before the first <new> tag. It precompiles the selection data that will appear when the user queries the selection.
• <catset>. </catset> is used to assign category names for each subject.

TR3

There is a new advanced format for TR files. TomeRaider 2 files have the *.tr extension, opposed to the more advanced TomeRaider 3 files which have the *.tr3 extension.

TomeRaider 2 files can be read in older versions of TomeRaider or they can be converted to TomeRaider 3 files for free using TomeRaider Windows.

You cannot view TR2 files in TomeRaider 3 on Palm or PPC. They will need to be upgraded (free) in TomeRaider Windows. Some TR2 files have formatting issues which means they cannot be upgraded. In such a case the original author of the TR2 file will need to be contacted so the the file can be regenerated in TR3 format.

Obtaining Content

http://www.tomeraider.com/ - The Tome Raider web site has both software and eBooks for this format.