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About Rocket eBook
   Technical Details
   A History of Publishing
   Using the Rocket eBook
   Maintaining Your eBook

RocketWriter
   About the RocketWriter
   Creating From a File
   Creating From a Website
   Image Design
   Reading a RocketEdition
   Getting Comfortable
   Using Reference Features
   Building Up Your Library
   Managing Your Library

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   User's Guide

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Building Up Your Library

Using your Rocket eBook™ system, your computer becomes your personal, electronic library, containing RocketEditions for you to check out and read. The RocketLibrarian manages the RocketEditions in your library, just as a librarian would at your public library.

To start up the RocketLibrarian on your computer:

  1. Go to your Windows Start menu.
  2. Select Programs.
  3. Click on RocketLibrarian.

    The RocketLibrarian software starts up on your computer. The screen displays the list of RocketEditions in your library and gives you access to the RocketLibrarian menu selections. The Title menu can also be posted just by clicking the right mouse button.

    Notice the message areas at the bottom of the RocketLibrarian window. RocketLibrarian uses these areas to communicate with you. For example, the message area at the right lets you know whether or not the RocketLibrarian detected your Rocket eBook in the docking cradle. Other helpful messages also appear in the bottom area, and they are updated as you use the RocketLibrarian.

The RocketLibrarian's Title menu lets you perform tasks that relate to a particular RocketEdition. Once you select a RocketEdition, you can send it to your Rocket eBook, contribute it to the Rocket-Library.com web site, remove it from your library, or export it to a file. You can also create a new RocketEdition from a document of your own and have it added to your library. The Properties item on the Titles menu shows you details about the selected RocketEdition.

The Online menu lets you perform tasks that relate to the Internet. Once you establish your network connection as you normally do, you can use the Online menu to launch your Internet Browser and register your Rocket eBook, update your software, or connect to the Customer Support web site.

The Settings menu lets you change some settings for the RocketLibrarian itself, or for your Rocket eBook.

Finally, you can use the Help menu to bring up information on using the Rocket eBook, or to find out what version of the RocketLibrarian this is.

Three large buttons beneath the menus let you do some frequently-used tasks quickly. You can use these buttons to send a title to your Rocket eBook, to use RocketWriter to create a new RocketEdition from your own document, or to contribute one of your RocketEditions to the Rocket-Library.com web site.

Buying a RocketEdition™

RocketEditions are electronic versions of books created specifically for the Rocket eBook. Just as there are hardback editions and paperback editions, now there are RocketEditions. You can buy a RocketEdition by going to any online retailer that offers RocketEditions for purchase.

In order to buy a RocketEdition, you must have a registered Rocket eBook. The RocketID and password you received during registration identifies your Rocket eBook, and any RocketEdition you purchase is specially coded for that unit only.

To buy a RocketEdition:

1.  Open the Internet browser on your computer.
2.  Go to an online bookstore that sells RocketEditions.
3.  Click on any of the books offered at the site that are identified as RocketEditions or marked with the Rocket eBook logo.
4.  Follow the directions for purchase provided by the online bookstore.
5.  Enter your RocketID if requested during the purchase.

If you don't remember your RocketID, you can find it in the About Rocket eBook window on your Rocket eBook. Tap the Bookshelf icon on the Rocket eBook to open this window.

NOTE: If the bookseller does not request your RocketID, your bookseller account must use the same name and email address as your Rocket Account (this information was recorded when you registered your Rocket eBook).

When the purchase transaction is complete, the bookseller provides you with the Internet Browser URL that you'll use to pick up your purchase. You can choose to download your purchase now or to do so at a later time.

Getting Free Titles

You can also get RocketEdition titles free from the Rocket-Library.com web site. Follow the instructions on the site for downloading RocketEditions.

Viewing your RocketEditions List

You can display all of the RocketEditions in your computer library, simply by opening the RocketLibrarian. See Building Up Your Library if you need to find out how. When the RocketLibrarian screen appears, it lists the contents of your library, along with other information about each RocketEdition such as author, book size and RocketID. If there are multiple authors, the name the publishers have chosen to list first will be displayed. Book size indicates the size (in kilobytes) of the RocketEdition. RocketID identifies the owner of the Rocket eBook that is authorized to read this RocketEdition.

The RocketLibrarian display also gives you an indication if any of the RocketEditions is missing from the hard disk. In this case, a marker will appear in the "not on disk" column, denoted by a disk with a red X through it. The display also can show you whether the RocketEdition is present on the Rocket eBook when it's in the docking cradle. This is indicated by a green eBook marker in the "On eBook" column. Finally, the display shows you whether markups have been saved for the RocketEdition. This is indicated by a check in the "Markups" column.

NOTE: Every time the RocketLibrarian is running and the Rocket eBook is in the docking cradle, the RocketLibrarian software checks to see what's on your Rocket eBook. If you want, you can have it automatically update title information and save whatever markups are present on your Rocket eBook.

Sending RocketEditions to Your Rocket eBook

When you’re ready to read a RocketEdition, you must send it to your Rocket eBook. To do this:

  1. Make sure your Rocket eBook is sitting in its cradle and the cradle is connected to the PC.
    If you're using an infrared connection instead of the cradle, make sure the infrared ports are properly aligned.
  2. Open the RocketLibrarian on your computer
  3. Click on the RocketEdition(s) you want to send to the Rocket eBook.
  4. Click on the large Send Title button.

    (Alternatively, you could select Send to Rocket eBook on the Title menu.)

    While the RocketEdition is being sent to the Rocket eBook, a status window appears on the Rocket eBook screen. The status message tells you that a file is being received. Your book is ready for viewing when this window disappears.

NOTE: If you encounter problems sending RocketEditions to your Rocket eBook, your computer may be having difficulty keeping up at the higher communications speed. If you think this might be the case, try limiting it to a slower speed.

To set a slower communications speed,
  1. Select Settings from the RocketLibrarian menu bar.
  2. Choose RocketLibrarian.
  3. Click on the check box labeled "Use slower communications speed."
  4. Click on OK.

    Your computer and the Rocket eBook will now communicate at the slower speed of 57.6 kbps. This should eliminate any problems you may have experienced when sending RocketEditions. If communications problems persist, please check our Support web site by clicking on the RocketLibrarian's Online menu and selecting Customer Support.

    Publishing Your Own Documents

    If you'd like, you can publish your own documents so they can be read on a Rocket eBook. If your document is a file or a web page that uses either simple HTML or text, you can use the RocketLibrarian's RocketWriter to convert it to a RocketEdition. Unlike the RocketEditions you purchase, the RocketEditions you create are not encrypted, so they can be read on any Rocket eBook.

    If your document uses HTML and contains links or images, these will be included in the RocketEdition you create. However, there are limitations to the formatting tags that the Rocket eBook supports, so you may want to make some changes to get your RocketEdition's appearance as you want it. For even more information on creating your own RocketEditions, you can refer to the www.rocket-ebook.com web site. Look for information on designing RocketEditions after clicking on Rocket Support and then on Troubleshooting Help.

    NOTE: Due to the current limitations of the Rocket eBook, (4 MB total memory), the RocketLibrarian limits the size of any RocketEdition it creates to 3 MB.

    Creating a RocketEdition from a File

    In order to create a RocketEdition, the file you want to convert to a RocketEdition must already exist either as a text file or an HTML file. Once the file (or set of files) is in this form, you can start creating your RocketEdition.

    To create a RocketEdition from files on your local hard drive:

     

    1.  Start up the RocketLibrarian on your computer.
    2.  Click on the large RocketWriter button.

    (Alternatively, you could select Import From File on the Title menu.)

    A dialog box appears to let you select the file.
    3.  Select the file type of the files you want to convert.

    The file type could be personal documents (html, htm, or txt) or RocketEditions (rb).
    4.  Find the file you want to convert and enter the name.

    The RocketLibrarian prompts you to enter a name for the title and an author. Note that both name and author are optional, as described in Import Options. If your title has links or images, you can choose to import them by checking the appropriate check boxes.
    5.  Select OK.

    The file is now converted to a RocketEdition and added to your library. After the conversion completes, you can send it to your Rocket eBook, or export it to share with someone else.
     

    Creating a RocketEdition from a Web Page

    The RocketLibrarian is not an Internet Browser, so you need to find out the URL ahead of time. Also, if you include images and links, the conversion may take longer, since more files need to be converted.

    To create a RocketEdition from an Internet Web Page:

     

    1.  Start up the RocketLibrarian on your computer.
    2.  Select Title from the RocketLibrarian menu bar.
    3.  Select Import From URL.
    4.  Enter the URL that you found using your web browser.

    The RocketLibrarian prompts you to enter a name for the title and an author. Note that both name and author are optional, as described in Import Options. If your title has links or images, you can choose to import them by checking the appropriate check boxes.
    5.  Select OK.

    The file is now converted to a RocketEdition and added to your library. After the conversion completes, you can send it to your Rocket eBook, or export it to share with someone else.
     

    Note that the RocketLibrarian also supports drag & drop operations. You can drag a document file or URL from your browser into the RocketLibrarian, and it will start the process of converting it to a RocketEdition.

    Import Options

    When an import starts, you are presented with the following options:

    Document title: The title of the document to be created. If not specified and the document is an HTML page, the title will be extracted from the <TITLE> tag. If the tag is not present, the document will be titled "<untitled>".

    Document author: The author of the document to be created. If not specified and the document is an HTML page, the author name will be extracted from the meta tag <META NAME="Author">. If the tag is not present, the author will be "<unknown>".

    Include Images: If this option is checked, the RocketLibrarian will convert images in the original HTML page into black & white images and add them to the RocketEdition. If this option is not checked, the contents of the ALT attribute of the <IMG> tag will be used instead (or "[Image]" if the ALT attribute is not present).

    Follow Links: If this option is checked, the RocketLibrarian will follow links in the original HTML page and include the linked pages in the RocketEdition. The Rocket Librarian only follows links to pages that are in the same folder as the main document, or any subfolders of that folder.

    HTML Limitations

    If you are publishing an HTML document, you need to be aware of certain limitations that will affect the appearance of the RocketEdition you are creating:

    Frames: The Rocket eBook does not currently support frames, so make sure to use the URL for the internal frame you want to convert instead of the main page. To find the internal frame's URL:

     

      If you are using Netscape Communicator, go to the web site, point to the frame you want and click the right mouse button. Select Open Frame in New Window. Then drag and drop the URL of the frame into RocketLibrarian.

      If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to the web site, point to the frame you want and click the right mouse button. Select Properties. Copy the URL of frame displayed in the Address field. Then go to RocketLibrarian, select Import from URL under the Title menu, and paste the URL you copied.

    Tables: The Rocket eBook currently does not support tables. Depending on how the table was created, the table content may be formatted with line breaks between cells. Remember that cells in table are defined row by row, so that's the order they'll appear on the Rocket eBook.

    Style Sheets: Style sheets are not supported.

    Forms: Forms are not supported, so the various input fields (edit fields, text areas or buttons) will not be displayed in the Rocket eBook.

    Scripts: Embedded scripts (e.g. JavaScript) are not supported.

    Images: Images in the most popular formats are automatically converted; however, the Rocket eBook only supports black and white images without any levels of gray. Images with many colors or shades will not convert well.

    Links: Internal links are automatically maintained. External links are included in the resulting document if the Follow Links option is selected. Note that the RocketLibrarian only follows links to pages that are in the same folder as the main document, or any subfolders of that folder. If a link is not maintained there will be no visual clue that there was once link at that location.

    Multiple pages: When the Follow Links option is enabled, the RocketLibrarian includes locally linked pages in the RocketEdition it's creating. Be careful in selecting the initial page: a URL like "http://www.mywebsite.com/" will cause the RocketLibrarian to try to download the full web site. In this case, the operation will take a very long time and the generated document will be quite large. Note that the operation can be interrupted, and the result will be a RocketEdition containing all the files downloaded up to the point the operation was cancelled.

    Local documents: When creating a RocketEdition from a document on the local hard drive, make sure all the required files (images, local links) are in the same directory as the main document, or you should specify a (local) URL for the addressed objects. A good test: if you can read your document with a regular web browser, links and images should also be accessible to the RocketLibrarian when creating the RocketEdition.

    SSL: secure pages (SSL) are not supported. However, you can save the HTML page from the web browser and import it as a file.


 
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