Turning Palm Doc files (.pdb) into straight text files.

I use a program called MakeDoc 8 to convert eBooks in Palm Doc format (.pdb) into straight text files or changing text files to Palm Doc. I prefer the text format because I often use screen readers to listen to text files.

Here is how you do it.  

1st: Download the MakeDoc8 program from Memoware. Go to the following page, scroll down to the MakeDoc8 link, and press it:
http://www.memoware.com/mw.cgi/?screen=help_create

2nd: Installing MAKEDOC8.EXE:

Save the program to someplace in your executable path. Depending on your setup such directories as C:\DOS or C:\WINDOWS or C:\ or C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND are possible. It might help to copy the makedoc.exe file into the same directory on your computer that the .pdb or .prc file is in. Then, open up a DOS window and type this:

MAKEDOC.EXE -d WHATEVER.PDB NEWFILE.TXT where "WHATEVER.PDB" is the name of your DOC .pdb file and "NEWFILE.TXT" is the name you want the new unconverted Text file to have.

3rd: Converting Palm Doc to text format:

You may want to convert a PALM DOC file to a DOS text format:

Start a DOS session and change to the directory containing your PALM DOC format file.

Determine the name given to your file. Under Windows 3.x this is the same as the name originally used for the file when it was installed (e.g. recipe.TXT).

Under Windows 95/NT, it may be named using the title given to the document (e.g. 'My recipe.pdb').

Enter at the DOS prompt: MAKEDOC -d recipe.PDB recipe.TXT

This should result in a new file (recipe.TXT) in the same subdirectory as the original recipe.PDB file.

Let me add that when I tried it I typed makedoc8.exe because that was the name of the program, and that's what worked for me.

One other thing i did just to make it easier was rename the pdb file to an eight-letter file.

4th: Converting text files to DOC format:

For this example we will be converting 'My recipe' from a file named recipe.TXT

Start a DOS session and change to the directory containing the document to be converted into DOC format. Note that only human readable files are appropriate for conversion. This includes source code, web page HTML, lists, Windows notepad type documents and others. Documents saved by high end programs such as Word, WordPerfect, and others however cannot be read by DOC readers. If you must convert such a document it must first be saved as text.

Enter at the DOS prompt: MAKEDOC recipe.TXT recipe.PDB "My recipe"

For faster editing you may prepare the document without compression by entering:
MAKEDOC -n recipe.TXT recipe.PDB "My recipe"

Run the standard Palm Application Installer program and select the newly created recipe.PDB file for installation. After the next Hot-Sync, the recipe file should appear on your Doc reader's list of files.