SR4 Light converts Shadowrun's pdf (and possibly non SR pdf too) into light HTML files while keeping most of the formatting. This allows you to access quickly to any page of a SR book on your PDA/Smartphone/DS/PSP or any kind of mobile device that can run a webbrowser.

You can get it here

I've only tested it on my own PDA (a Tapwave Zodiac) with SR4 corebook and Augmentation and without the images. It works quite fine but the result may be different on other devices. Please give me your feedback.

Before asking questions, be sure to read the readme file.

UPDATED!

- Lot of bug fixed
- Removed the frames
- Supports the links in the table of contents
- Supports Augmentation (and probably other books too)

In the actual state, it's not really user-friendly. Be sure to read the readme file before using it

Bitchin' idea. I'd be installing this, but trying to read documents on my phone's screen just makes me angry.

Is anyone actually using this? Just to know if I have to bother creating a user-friendlier version or not.

Thanks to this I can read Augmentation on the bus to and back from work. Except for a problem with the first page of each chapter (after the short story) which becomes quite unreadable, it's working perfectly!

But my PDA has a large screen so I can fit a whole text column in landscape mode. I guess the experience might not be that good on devices with smaller screen (and I'm not sure that all mobile phone browser can browse pages loaded on the device itself).

Hi

Yes just downloading it to use, will post results.

Ash

I'll give this a try tonight. Sounds promising.

I'd like to try it, having trouble figuring it out though

Feel free to ask any question if you need help.

Well, I've installed the Activeperl....though I have no idea how to make it work from there. It's just software I've never seen before is all.

You just have to install it and then forget about it.
It will be called automatically by the convert.bat file to interpret the .pl script.

Got It!

I am now viewing the HTML conversion on my PSP!

So, is the layout and displaying ok?

It looked pretty good after I adjusted the Text size. It leaves gaps where the pictures use to be, but it is very legible. The way it hotlinks the index is nice too.

It's better than what I was doing, converting the PDF to JPG and then viewing it. I'll have to tinker around with it and see about converting the other books too.

Cool.
About the gaps, that's exactly the idea : to keep the exact same layout, so that if you have a visual memory you can easily find a reference in HTML/PDF if you remember where it was in the other.
You might also be able to keep the images by adding -i (I think) to the pdf2html command line but I haven't tested it and I'm not sure it will work.

Hmm....I got it to convert SR4.....but it came out pretty funky.

What exactly did you get?
It is able to convert SR4 without any problems (for me at least).
The steps are given in the readme files (but maybe I forgot something).

Anyway, I'll try to add a user interface so that you can convert other books without having to edit the files.

My biggest problem besides the missing words....was that the links somehow ended up under the text and I couldn't navigate between pages

Just tried it with Arsenal's PDF and it seems to be working ok without touching anything (except for the name of the PDF in the .bat and .pl files, of course.). It's not perfect (it still has problems with the page after each chapter opening story, and the chapter titles and page number made their way back in) but it's good enough for me to read in the train.

Hmm, Im having a lot of the same problems I had when I was copy and pasting into word. Some of the words have gaps in the middle. I guess it still is quite nice. Also, why doesnt it complile every page into 1 .html file? its kind of annoying having to exit out and load a new file. I will try it soon on my Treo.

If you use the files starting with d, most gaps should have disappeared.
It doesn't compile everything into 1 file to keep the layout of each page, make it easier to navigate inside pages and also make it faster to load/draw each page.
You don't need to exit and load a new file, you can use the arrows and "menu" link at the beginning of each page.

Actually some equipment tables are removed in the process.. I'll try to fix that.

EDIT: Well I can't. It looks like they used some images instead of text...
Too bad, I wanted to program something to extract the data of the tables to easily export gear into the character generators.

This looks great will have to get it when I get home. Then see if I can get it to run on my Ipod Touch. Means I can have my books for reference at work.

Same here if i can get it to run ill never need to hijack the pc just to look up one rule again

P.s if you've got the email client just email your self them to a gmail account a free and easy way to look at it it will download any atachments.

man im wanting to check this out
ive been wanting to read my pdfs on my psp
but since sony refuses to add pdf capability...
grrr

Let me know if it works.
I know the interface isn't very user-friendly, let me know if you have any problem.

Hrm, bit of hit and miss with it. It does the first processing of augmentation but can't seem to make the other HTMLs just first draft. I gave up as it'd be a chore to put them on the Touch as no direct connection ¬¬

@Dumori: Yea I do the same thing atm with the PDFs but it doesn't like doing the zoom function properly. I tested it with the first draft of the htmls but the way it works with the indexing won't work with Gmail as they aren't held together.

Do you have Perl installed on your computer? If so, is it in your path environnement variable? (To check the Path environment variable in Windows right click on "my computer" choose properties then choose the "advanced" tab. Click on the "Environment Variables" button. In the system variables, there should be a "Path" Item. If Perl's directory isn't there, add it (make sure to use a ; to separate it from the other paths)).

It seems to work with Unwired, just change all reference to Aug (or Arse) to Un (if you renamed the pdf file to Un.pdf)... Same bug with the first page of each chapter (I should try to correct it one day), but other than that it looks ok.

Oops! Looks like I spoke too soon. I've got glitches with some pages that get incorrectly numbered. I'll try to sort his out asap.

Well, actually it works fine.
Looks like my Bluetooth just glitched when sending the files.

I'm trying it out on my Windows Mobile Device. For some reason the formatted pages appear with the text running down the side of the screen instead of left and right

Weird... I take it you're using Pocket Explorer, right?
Which book are you trying to read? Does it display correctly on your computer?

I'm trying it with the basic book. I'll say you if it runs good in htc touch and in n95. This weekend would be my reference books

Sorry for my english

it returns an error in the line where you choose the index pages.

this is my line

if($page > 09 && $page < 14) {

And the error is:
"ilegal octal digit '9' at..."

Remove the "0".