Is there a program to convert Palm ebook files to txt.

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I am looking for a program, Xp based, that will extract a Palm ebook
and convert it to a text file. Is there such a program?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

All I know is that they all have a *.pdb extension. eg: Around the
World in 80 Days.pdb

On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 10:43:27 +0000 (UTC), nobody@noknown.domain (Jan
Kalin) wrote:

>In article <r2hs91pr375tm52ci0c64mga9vohvhdnad@4ax.com>, noone@nowhere.com
>wrote:
>>I am looking for a program, Xp based, that will extract a Palm ebook
>>and convert it to a text file. Is there such a program?
>
>The answer is: it depends on the ebook format. Some are proprietary (iSilo
>comes to mind), some, like DOC (no connecion to M$ Word) are open and
>converters exist.
>
>What format are you talking about? If you don't know, do you know with
>which reader is it supposed to be read?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

<noone@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:fvgu9112q2fa0i8stp3rvv7ssp9ag8t613@4ax.com...
> All I know is that they all have a *.pdb extension. eg: Around the
> World in 80 Days.pdb
>
> On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 10:43:27 +0000 (UTC), nobody@noknown.domain (Jan
> Kalin) wrote:
>
>>In article <r2hs91pr375tm52ci0c64mga9vohvhdnad@4ax.com>, noone@nowhere.com
>>wrote:
>>>I am looking for a program, Xp based, that will extract a Palm ebook
>>>and convert it to a text file. Is there such a program?
>>
>>The answer is: it depends on the ebook format. Some are proprietary (iSilo
>>comes to mind), some, like DOC (no connecion to M$ Word) are open and
>>converters exist.
>>
>>What format are you talking about? If you don't know, do you know with
>>which reader is it supposed to be read?
>


There are sites that identify file types and give advice on relevant
programs. filext.com comes to mind, and a web search would seem to be
something worth trying.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

In article <fvgu9112q2fa0i8stp3rvv7ssp9ag8t613@4ax.com>, noone@nowhere.com
wrote:
>All I know is that they all have a *.pdb extension. eg: Around the
>World in 80 Days.pdb

Ah, I suspect it's DOC format (the most popular open source format for
Palms). You can use Doc Reader, a Windows application to read Palm
DOC-formatted files and unencrypted Peanut Press files* on the PC, to
check if it's a DOC file (it won't open other files). You can also save
contents as text. You can find the application at
http://mpickering.homeip.net/phpwi [...] /DocReader

To others replying in this thread: in PalmOS world there are only two
extensions, PRC that is used for applications and PDB that is used for
data/databases. The actual type of data in a PDB file is determined by
"Creator ID", a 4 byte value inside the file itself, and *not* by file
extension. Thus a .pdb file can contain anything, from Excel data to
addressbook and text documents so it makes no sense to look for a "pdb to
text converter".

There is, however, a way to find out the PDB format. Open a PDB file with
a notepad. Somewhere around column 65 on the first line there should be 8
letters, e.g., "TEXtREAd". The second part, i.e., "REAd" is the Creator
ID, in this case it means that it's a DOC document.

But then, as other poster has said, there are programs for the PocketPC
that can read PalmOS DOC files.

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