Good feature - The new .mobi format

rstroud · Post by **rstroud** » Sat Jun 01, 2013 2:15 pm

I am surprised (and maybe not

) that nobody has mentioned the new feature that the most recent update (1.6.5.13) has in regard to ebook production. Atlantis now produces a .mobi file along with the usual .epub document. I think that this represents a nice improvement to Atlantis. I have run a couple of tests with it, and it works well.

The way that Atlantis does this is to incorporate the free Kindlegen utility from Amazon. This is a utility that converts .epub and html files to .mobi. I was already using the Kindlegen utility occasionally as a command-line tool to produce a .mobi file for the Kindle. Most of the time I was using Calibre, another free utility, to do conversions. Naturally, Atlantis is my primary resource for .epub production, because it does such a great job.

It is great to have the .mobi feature incorporated into Atlantis, so that it is not necessary to use the command line to run Kindlegen (it was a bit cumbersome, and I am a guy who did that kind of thing routinely back in the DOS era).

If you do not have a .mobi/Kindle viewer, you can download the free Kindle Previewer at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?i ... 1000765261

It is easy to use and has a nice, crisp appearance. Just as an FYI ... You can also use the Kindle Previewer to view an .epub. It converts the .epub to .mobi by using the Kindlegen utility. I am not going to check this out ... but I think that you automatically install another copy of Kindlegen on your computer when you install the Kindle Previewer. The copy of Kindlegen that Atlantis uses is located in the Atlantis folder.

Post by **Robert** » Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:22 pm

Hi,
Strictly-speaking, Atlantis 1.6.5.13 will automatically produce a MOBI file (with extension “.mobi”) when you save a document as eBook, i.e. as EPUB (with extension “.epub”), only if the "kindlegen.exe" file is present in the home folder of Atlantis (normally "C:\Program Files\Atlantis" or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Atlantis"). However, this "kindlegen.exe" file is not installed natively by Atlantis. If you want Atlantis to automatically create eBooks in the MOBI format along with the EPUB file, you need to place the "kindlegen.exe" file in the home folder of Atlantis yourself. This "kindlegen.exe" file is part of the “kindleGen” utility available at KindleGen. Note that the "kindlegen.exe" file has to be extracted from the downloaded ZIP file. You’ll find all details about conversion to the Kindle format in Atlantis at Converting to Kindle.

The Kindle Previewer is the Amazon own native utility and as such is the best previewer there is for MOBI files. As you noticed, installing the Kindle Previewer on a Windows system automatically installs a copy of “KindleGen.exe” in its own folder. But the copy of “KindleGen.exe” that Atlantis will use when you save a document as eBook must be located in the Atlantis home folder itself. You need to place this copy of “KindleGen.exe” in the Atlantis home folder yourself manually, independently of the copy installed by the Kindle Previewer setup.
Cheers,
Robert

rstroud · Post by **rstroud** » Sun Jun 02, 2013 3:37 am

Yes, quite correct. My mistake.

I forgot momentarily that I had had to perform a manual installation of the Kindlegen utility into the Atlantis folder. It is easy, though. It is just a matter of putting the .exe file into the folder. And then you are ready to go.