Need to convert an e-book from exe to PDF

[jcarter]

I bought an e-book for $50 and there was no PDF version, its an exe. But sadly NeoOffice went belly up and its the only time its failed me translating Windowz stuff.
Im angry as this book was not cheap and I just know there is a way to convert these old exe files to PDFs. But searching on the net came up with nothing, I typed it into Google many different ways, but no dice.
What a pain! There must be a way, I cant understand why NeoOffice couldnt do it.
Im sure there must be a way?
Jane

[Xairbusdriver]

An "exe" is an 'executable' file, usually a Windows application, although now used in OS X. I've never heard of an "e-book" that expensive! And I've never heard of one being an executable file, either. But what do I know. You might try booting Windows if you have one of the virtual machines.

[jcarter]

Havent got that, and I asked for a refund and got it.
Thanks.
Jane

Oh, I forgot that I have an old Dell, the one I used to run the Xenodream fractal program on.
I wonder if that would work?

I will try it tomorrow, though I will have to charge the battery and fire the little old Dell up. And find its power cord in this messy house,,,,,,,,

Thank you for the idea, will see if it works and post the answer if it does, as Im sure there are other people who need to translate stuff. Though this might be trying to deal with an antique car, more than I really want to deal with.
Its the first time NeoOffice hasnt done what Ive wanted translated.
Jane

[kimmer]

Not to be a nosy parker (with apologies to our very own Parker) ... but what ebook did you buy that cost so much?!?

QUOTE

Its the first time NeoOffice hasnt done what Ive wanted translated.

I don't think there is ANY word processing program that can translate what amounts to an application.

[tacit]

Because an exe file is a true computer program, and not a file format, there is not and never can be a ay to turn an exe file into a PDF. It is quite literally like saying "How can I convert Microsoft Excel to a PDF?" or "How can i convert Grand Theft Auto 3 to a PDF?" The ebook is displayed when the computer program runs; there's no way to tell what content is inside it or how that content is stored.

The best you could do is to take a screen shot of each page, or run something that records what's on your screen while you watch it.

I'm also curious. What was the ebook?

[jcarter]

It is this,
http://www.infinite-art.com/index.about.courses.php
http://www.infinite-art.com/index.purchase.php

UltraFractal was just made for Macs recently, and I have it now. Its pretty amazing, right from the start Ive been making wonderful fractal images.
Janet Parke was the original instructor for it, and she no longer teaches an active class, but she has turned her 3 courses into this e-book and sells it for $50.
She explained to us that she has not turned it into a PDF yet, its 600 pages long and she is afraid people would steal it from her if it was a PDF.
So she gave me a refund.

But I just cant imagine that this cant be made into a PDF, but that shows you what I know about Windowz stuff.

I cannot see what is in it, If I could take screenshots, I certainly would, but its gibberish galore.

I have a Dell, what would happen if I gmailed the exe file over to it, would something there be able to read it?

A classmate has offered to translate it into a PDF for me, I wonder what he would have that would enable him to do that?

Thank you for any help that I can get this doggone book readable!  I would willingly send her a check for the $50 if I could use it.
Jane

[chriskleeman]

Hi Jane,

From what I can see on those links, this "ebook" is actually packaged as a stand-alone Windoze application. So, depending on what version of Windows that old Dell has, it might run on it. There really isn't any information on the purchase link to see which versions of Windows will run it.

And, as previously stated by others in this thread, a ".exe" extension indicates an executable file or program for Windows only, and that's exactly how this "ebook" is packaged. And you cannot run an .exe file on any Mac OS. You could run it if you had Windows installed on your Mac in either Bootcamp, Parallels or VMFusionware, but that's the only way you'd be able to run it on a Mac.

I don't know if Adobe Acrobat would be able to translate the pages into .pdf's, but you'd have to run it in Windows anyway, and it's not cheap.

I can do a lot of stuff "cross-platform" in Parallels, but that does not include running or translating any .exe files, those files are again, only for the Windows environment.

HTH,

CK

[gunug]

QUOTE

I can do a lot of stuff "cross-platform" in Parallels, but that does not include running or translating any .exe files, those files are again, only for the Windows environment.

Chris, are you saying Parallel's won't run a Windows executable?  I kind of thought that was the whole point of it!  

[jcarter]

I found my power cord for my little Dell, and the exe thing downloaded OK I think, I need to ask for a key to unlock it.

But Im a bit leery about it, it seems so unnecessarily complex for just something to read for a class.
I did get the $50 refund, but I am thinking it over before I jump in again.

Im hoping that someone can translate it to a PDF and that I can see it before I pay the $50 again.

Jane

[Xairbusdriver]

I might be inclined to claim "False Advertising" with calling this Windows program an "e-book." It's an application, a program that simply displays things. Basically a huge database that is hopefully cross-indexed. Or maybe nothing more than a dedicated web browser!

Nor will her fear of it being stolen hold any water. Perhaps she has never heard of 'pirated software?' Simply because it is an application or program has nothing to do with being able to copy it and give it away or sell it for $5! Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but I fear her brain may have become rearranged by looking at too many fractals!    

I am going even further out on this limb by suggesting that she paid some company to create the program and somehow decided to call it an "e-book" because she's never seen, used or bought one.

[jcarter]

The UltraFractal program itself was written by a person from Germany I think, I do remember looking at the author info.
Its really a wonderful program, Ive been having a ball with it.

But she did actually write the lessons, as it was an active class several years ago.
Now its self-study, and the book is highly recommended by some of the people who took that class long ago.  Its about 600 pages long.

I dont really need this UltraFractal class, but its so much fun learning how to do these fractals. Though I can say that Ive been doing quite well with them by the tutorials and the videos.

What is the sense of using exe?  

The program Janet used to create the ebooks is called Fast Ebook Compiler
the company who made that program has gone bankrupt from what I just read.

http://www.brothersoft.com/fast-ebook-compiler-121321.html
Is another one that I Googled.

What happened to KISS, keep it simple stupid, they must not know about that.

Its discouraging, as I really wanted the book. But Im leery of trying it on my Dell, and end up having to ask for another refund.

She did say that eventually she will make it into a Kindle book. I could deal with that.
Jane

[Paddy]

As others have noted, an .exe file is simply a Windows executable - a program, not a data file. Windows running under Parallels, VMWare Fusion etc. should be able to run it, unless it requires a particular version of Windows that you don't happen to be running.

Jane - it's a trusted source, so you really don't have much to lose by trying it on your old Dell. What version of Windows is it running? Since the compiler runs on anything from Windows 98 on up, I suspect that the resulting .exe will work as well.

As it says on the purchase page:

QUOTE

The complete set of three courses is packaged as a single, stand-alone Windows program that will run in a browser-like interface on your computer. No other software or e-book reader is required. To read about the courses and see outlines of each, click here.

Please note that at this time the courses do not run on a Mac (except under Windows emulation).

Jim, she (the book creator) didn't ask someone to create a program for her - it's a program that anyone can download in demo mode from a multitude of download sites. It's been abandoned by the developer (intetics.com) from all appearances - hence the demo-only mode now available, though several sites still list a price, but the link to buy it is now broken.

As noted in the description of the fast-ebook-compiler program:

QUOTE

Fast EBook Compiler is a publishing tool used to Create single compressed .exe file from a group of html files. It considers a given folder as a project and wraps all files up including subfolders into one package. Generated e-book doesn't require any installation and uses Internet Explorer installed on the user's PC to show its pages. Most of the features supported in the Internet Explorer are supported by e-books as well, except of those that require to be executed on the server side. You may use all the power of HTML, Flash, JavaScript, etc with no problems.

All this aside - I do find this a most peculiar way to package an e-book, and given that the developer has apparently abandoned the application, I suspect that it wasn't too popular either!

It doesn't require anything fancy from the looks of it, however - it's basically just packaging HTML files. So, it should work on the Dell, assuming it's running at least Windows 98.

[jcarter]

Thats good news! Maybe I will get it after all.
The little Dell is Windows 7.
Gee, if its HTML files, I sure wish I could read it in a browser here on one of my Macs, but it doesnt look like thats possible the way they have it tied up in knots with this exe stuff.

Thank you!
Jane

[chriskleeman]

QUOTE(gunug @ Apr 9 2012, 10:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE

I can do a lot of stuff "cross-platform" in Parallels, but that does not include running or translating any .exe files, those files are again, only for the Windows environment.

Chris, are you saying Parallel's won't run a Windows executable?  I kind of thought that was the whole point of it!

Sorry Gunug, I should have said translating to the "Mac environment"... just to be clear. Yes, I'm running Windows 7 Professional at native speed in Parallels, and it functions just as Micro-slush should, .exe's and everything else!

You can drag and drop files back and forth between the Parallels desktop and the Mac desktop at will... which comes in handy when Lion thinks a .xls file from the Windows desktop is a PPC app.... not perfect by any means! There's a cute function right-clicking on some of these files "Open on Mac" which works great.

Chris

[tacit]

The thing you downloaded is not an ebook, even though it's called an ebook. It is actually a computer program, just like a video game or a word processor or an archive program or a disk-cloning application is a computer program. That's why it can't be changed into a PDF; a computer program can't be made into a PDF.

Computer programs execute instructions when they run. Those instructions might tell the computer to do anything; copy a disk file, or play a game, or connect to a server. This particular program, when it runs, shows you the course content on your screen. But it's still a computer program, not an ebook.

You can run it on a Windows computer or run it in Parallels (Parallels will execute Windows .exe files, that's what it's for). But that won't change it to a PDF.

A lot of people who publish information electronically are afraid of having their content stolen, so they do all sorts of bizarre things to try to keep that from happening. Unfortunately, there aren't any sure-fire ways to do that. Someone could just copy this .exe file and its unlock code and that would be it. One company I know sold encrypted PDF files from its Web site; when you put in your information, it would create the PDF and download it to you. The key to read the PDF was the credit card number, expiration date, and name of the person who bought it. That worked pretty well to stop people from giving copies away!