FLAG

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Has anyone used the Fanfiction Lightweight Automated Grabber (FLAG)?

How does it compare to Graffer and Fanfiction Downloader in terms of ease of use and the appearance of the finished e-book?

I use Calibre to put .epub files on my Sony PRS-505 if that makes a difference.

Comments

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

I'm interested to hear this as well. I've only used Fanfiction Downloader when I need it, but prefer when authors provide ready-made PDFs.

A random question for you, since I use a Sony as well, why do you prefer the .epub format over PDFs? Just curious.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

A random question for you, since I use a Sony as well, why do you prefer the .epub format over PDFs?

I just don't like the way PDFs look, and they're very difficult to edit if there's something wrong. EPUBs look cleaner to me, and I can quickly edit them in Sigil if the formatting is wonky.

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for responding :D I just got in the habit of PDF-ing everything I read, so I never explored other formats thoroughly. I should, though.

[mremre.livejournal.com]

Also, PDFs take more 'processing' when displaying on my PRS-505 (aka battery and time). And depending on how the PDF was originally formatted, pages, spaces, paragraphs, font sizes, etc all come out a little bit off. And resizing on the fly is a PAIN.

IMHO epubs make far, far better ebooks. PDF is for when I want a deadtree printout.

Never used FLAG so I have nothing to say there. Is there a compelling reason you are switching to FLAG, like FFDownloader not supporting the archives you use? No need to install new if you don't have to, after all! For my part, I will always reconvert epub in Calibre so my CSS stylesheets kick in, so I don't actually care what the various archives declare to be 'epubs'--I'll fix them when I get them, and a PDF won't let me do that.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Is there a compelling reason you are switching to FLAG

I don't know that I am switching to FLAG. I just heard about it for the first time the other day. I don't like Graffer, and ever since the last update, the e-books produced by FF Downloader have had some odd formatting issues. I've been having to edit them in Sigil. I'm willing to keep doing that if I have to, but if FLAG is easy to use and outputs a nice looking e-book, that would save me some effort.

[amalthia]

I tried it when it first came out but ultimately I decided to continue to use Calibre to create my own ebooks. I liked having control over the style elements.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I don't do anything too bananas with the formatting. I don't mind my fic looking like fic. I only poke around with the formatting if something goes terribly wrong during conversion, like the fic where a line break got inserted before every italicized word for some reason (that's never happened to me before, and I've put a lot of fic on my Reader).

[amalthia]

have you tried fanfiction downloader? I use that program if I have a choice.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I've been using FF Downloader for years, but ever since the last update, the stories have had wonky formatting and have looked kind of ugly. That's why I was hoping there was something better out there. I tried Graffer, but I didn't like the program interface.

[josieb1.livejournal.com]

I rely on simple copy and paste onto a word doc, then save as RTF and convert into MOBI (I have a Kindle) using Calibre. I always convert PDFs in Calbre to MOBI and if I hate the way it looks on my Kindle then I convert the PDF to RTF then go in and edit the new RTF and convert that to MOBI.

I haven't used FLAG but when I use Fanfic downloader I get fed up with author comments between chapters, so for me I'll stick with copy and paste, I get a cleaner ebook that way.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I hate copying and pasting. I'll take an ugly e-book over that just for all the time it saves.

[haikitteh.livejournal.com]

I like it a lot. I've actually switched to FLAG for multi-chapter stories from ff.net. I like it a bit better than Fanfiction Downloader: the chapter headings and linked TOC are a little nicer. Also since the update, she's added little details like the original link to the story, and the date it was first posted and last updated.

The only downside to it for me is that I can't replace the title page with a picture of my own choosing in calibre. But that's a small price to pay for a nicely-formatted ebook.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Why can't Calibre replace the title page? Once you have the file, you'd think you'd be able to edit it any way you want.

[haikitteh.livejournal.com]

I truly do not know. I've never had a problem replacing the title page on any other ebook I've made, only on the ones made with FLAG.

FLAG, Calibre & cover art

[sharakhtoo.livejournal.com]

I don't usually replace the cover, I usually remove it, and I didn't have any trouble using the "remove" cover button. Maybe if you remove the cover and then add a new one? (I've only used FLAG once, so my situation might be a fluke.)

Oh, you're totally right. Oh well.

[sharakhtoo.livejournal.com]

When I removed the cover in Calibre, it showed it as gone, but once it's on my reader, there it is. (You probably tried that already anyway. ::grin::)

Re: Oh, you're totally right. Oh well.

[haikitteh.livejournal.com]

Oh that sucks. I was actually going to try your solution, but now I won't bother.

Hit and Run comment

[reppu.livejournal.com]

I use FLAG all the time for Fanficton.net stories. I like that you don't have to download it and that it creates a great table of contents for you. I've never used the other two programs that you've mentioned, but if you want something quick and easy, FLAG is it. Plus with Calibre's Kindle Collections, I can bulk-add new fanfic to my Kindle and it saves me a bunch of time. FLAG has been so good to me that I haven't found a reason to use anything else.

Re: Hit and Run comment

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it's worth trying then.

[valkyrie4clex.livejournal.com]

I just went to FFNET and downloaded @ 10 stories. FLAG seems to be as fast as fanfiction downloader. I actually liked FLAG better because I DL fic as PDF's and the PDF's from FLAG don't have all the extra lines of code that show up in pdf's from fanfiction dl'er. in between the chapters. I will be using it in the future.
Thanks for asking about it because I hadn'y heard of it before. I guess when i have something that is working I don't go hunting for something better.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I had never heard of it before either, but I was at a con Memorial Day weekend and someone there mentioned it. Sounds like it's worth trying.