Help:Books/Feedback/Archives/2012/February

Adobe won't print PDF of book

I created an 89 page book by choosing an entire category (rather than individual pages) and then downloaded it into a SeaMonkey 2.7 tab (on Windows XP with latest service pack and updates). All of the pages for the book display correctly on my video screen so I know that Adobe can render the pages correctly.

I then tried to print the book using the Adobe Print function inside the SeaMonkey tab (the first Adobe icon "Click to print this PDF file ..."). Adobe printed the first 3 pages completely and correctly, and then popped up the message

 "Adobe Reader:  The document could not be printed.  (OK)"

followed by

 "Adobe Reader:  There were no pages selected to print.  (OK)"

even though "All (pages)" was selected during the Print dialogue AND the first three pages were printed. No other information or error code was displayed. Adobe does not offer a Help drop-down list so I can't tell you which version of Adobe is running, but a dir from the root for acro*/adob*.com/exe found AcroRd32.exe (which runs Acrobat Reader 9.5.0) and AdobeARM.exe (which immediately stops when run).

I made a second attempt to print and this time Adobe printed 46 pages and then popped up the same two messages, AND THEN when I clicked OK on the second message it printed pages 47 and 48 and then an error page saying

 ERROR: syntaxerror
 OFFENDING COMMAND: (text from the book)
 STACK:

No information was shown for the stack. The printer is a Lexmark E260d (an E260 with a duplexer) which contains PostScript Level 3 (plus PCL 6). I opened the PDF in a text editor but it is compressed so I cannot look for something that might cause the error.

Now I had pages 1-48, so I tried to print starting at page 49. I again got the two popup messages, and when I clicked OK on them there was an error page printed with a different "offending command" and some parameters:

 ERROR: syntaxerror
 OFFENDING COMMAND: xs
 STACK:
 [2.66394 4 2.66394 2.224 2 4 4 0 ]
 ((4): 445)

The first parameter line looks like PostScript to me. I don't know what the second parameter line is.

Next I downloaded the file to my hard drive so I could print it outside of SeaMonkey. File size is 5,291,149 bytes. I then opened it with Adobe Reader 9 (Help > About says 9.5.0) and attempted to print pages 49-89. I again got the same two pop-up messages, but nothing was printed - neither book pages nor error message pages.

SeaMonkey doesn't seem to be the problem since Adobe can display the pages while inside SeaMonkey. And Adobe doesn't seem to be the problem because it can display the pages (although its cryptic error messages are useless). The Lexmark E260d PostScript processor may be buggy. Or perhaps there is a level incompatibility between the Wikpedia Book code and the Lexmark PostScript interpreter. The PDF file header is "%PDF-1.4" if that helps.

Can anyone help with this?

- Is Acrobat Reader 9.5.0 buggy, or have compatibility problems with Wikipedia Book PDFs that cause the popup messages when printing?
- Is there a way to decompress the PostScript file for a human search-and-review of the book PDF so I can look at pages 46-49 to see if there is something obvious?
- Does the book PDF file header i.d. of "%PDF-1.4" correspond to PostScript Level 3?
- Is there a utility which can determine what PostScript command in the book PDF is causing the Lexmark syntax error?

- Peter, Los Angeles California, 71.106.222.207, 2012feb02-th 1012pm PST

You could try using the free FoxIt PDF reader (which is available for XP) instead of Adobe Reader. Recent Runes (talk) 01:31, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

No Title or Contents pages with .odt output format

There is no Title or Contents page in the .odt output version of a book. Both pages are in the PDF version but you can't use the PDF Contents page with a .odt book because the page numbers are different.

How do you get the Title and Contents pages to appear in the .odt version?

- Peter, Los Angeles California, 71.106.222.207, 2012feb02-th 1012pm PST

I have the same problem. I thought it was G-docs error but i guess not.

--Bud (talk) 04:31, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Log IN And Personal Books

On the logged In screen there should be a clear directional icon menu leading the person directly to all their books. This link should also be included at the top, with My talk, etc.

Chapters

In the book, it appears that chapters are only effective if created at the beginning of the entries and then pages are created inside them. 

You can not from my experience drag and drop an already created page into a new chapter. This is not an effective mechanism for those of us that tend to organise on the fly.

Saving

It is not as intuitive as some of you may think to contemplate needing to save your book. Even though there are instructions in the beginners instructions, I have only learned the fragility of the books after loosing several listings to the ethers.

--Fredwage (talk) 18:32, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Utterly Limited

A significant effort needs to be focused on the Books/ saving features. Once saved, the current mechanism does not reccognise the book, and has started over in what will eventually become yet another book to protect my current work. Neither of these is readily available. They only way I have found to get at previously created and saved books is through MY PREFERENCES.

Fredwage--Fredwage (talk) 13:57, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

The only way to get the mechanism to activate to add pages is click on the Book listing in the side menu, then click that you want to work on current list you have created. This is awkward, cumbersome.

Additionally The current mechanism will only allow you to add to the most current book you have created. I have now four saved books some with completely different themes but the mechanism will only let me add to the one intitled Insulation. This is not that handy.--Fredwage (talk) 18:11, 27 February 2012 (UTC)fredwage

Is anyone monitoring these comments? It does not seem like it--Fredwage (talk) 19:07, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

I do review these comments but I don't know much about how the book creator is supposed to work. This link displays all the books you've saved, so it might help to bookmark that. When I go to one of those books and click the "Edit" at the top of the page, I see a list of Wikipedia article names in a very simple format. So if these were my books, I'd soon give up on the non-intuitive "Book creator" interface and start editing those pages directly. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:34, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

The .odt book output format text size cannot be changed

I downloaded an 89 page Wikipedia Book in .odt format and the text point size was 12 pt. I can't figure out a way to reduce the point size to something a little smaller (like 10 pt). If I skip over the first heading and Ctrl-Shift-End beginning at the first paragraph then 1) only part of the book is marked so you have to mark every section in the entire book, AND 2) the subsequent headings are also marked so if I select "10 pt" then the headings are also reduced to 10 pt.

Anybody know how to mark and change just the text?

- Peter, Los Angeles California, 71.106.222.207, 2012feb02-th 1012pm PST

Try changing the style "TextBody" in the document. In OpenOffice, there's a combo box at the top right of the document. If you click the text of an heading, you'll see "Heading1" in that box. If you click the section text, you'll see "TextBody". If you click the button which is next to the box (at the left), a window will appear, listing the styles. Right-click the style, then choose "Edit". --LoStrangolatore (talk) 13:39, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Math formulas are not properly rendered in ODT

The formula is too narrow and therefore unreadable. Example, download as ODT, then look at page 198, section "Higher K-theory" >> "The +-construction". I have OpenOffice.org 3.3.0. --LoStrangolatore (talk) 13:46, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Book deletes constantly

EVERYTIME one leaves the book creator for even a few minutes, when one tries to return to the project, ALL the pages are gone. EVERY SINGLE TIME. This has been a problem since you first initiated this project. It's annoying. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.252.78.181 (talk) 11:00, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

To save books permanently, you have to register an account and then become "confirmed". I don't know why the book creator was set up to requires this. Most accounts become confirmed automatically by making ten edits and waiting for four days, but it is also possible to ask at Wikipedia:Requests for permissions. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:21, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

openZIM book output format isn't in Wikipedia

There is no Wikipedia page for openZIM.

How do you view and print a Wikipedia Book using this format? I can't get PDF or .odt to work, but perhaps I'll be successful with openZIM.

- Peter, Los Angeles California, 71.106.222.207, 2012feb02-th 1012pm PST

Moved from Help talk:Books/for experts

Where's the print link?

The Identifying problems section says, "The most efficient way to identify problems is to go on the individual articles of your book and view the article as a PDF (click "Download as PDF" in the "print/export" box on the left hand side of your screen, towards the bottom)." I don't see a print/export box or link anywhere on my screen. Banaticus (talk) 07:44, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

If you're using the default "Vector" skin, the toolbar at the left should have sub-sections "Interaction", "Toolbox" and "Print/export". If you expand the "Print/export" sub-section there should be three options including "Download as PDF". If you're using a different skin, post it here and I'll switch to it temporarily and have a look. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:10, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Moved from Help talk:Books/FAQ

OpenOffice format?

I see that this page says the .PDF and printed formats comply with license requirements. But what about Open Document format books? 69.251.180.224 (talk) 04:52, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

You cannot open books created on Wikipedia with this format. Abhijay (☎ Talk) (✐ Deeds) 11:50, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

? Of course you can.--Prosfilaes (talk) 04:36, 27 February 2012 (UTC)