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srlee309 edited this page Sep 2, 2015 · 5 revisions

This tool creates ebooks based on the information you give it in an excel file. The file contains:

  • Post information
    • Book name
    • Sequence name
    • Title
    • Link
    • Summary description
  • Sequence information
    • Name
    • Summary
  • Book information
    • Name
    • Summary

The only compulsory component is the link to the post.


Descriptions of each of the configurable options are below:

  • Output File Location - this is where the epub file will be saved
  • Input Data - this is where the excel file that you want to use as input can be found. The excel file should be in a specific format. You can see examples in the Examples folder in the github location for the format.
  • Coverpage - this is the location of any html file that you want to use as a cover page. Any image files that this html file uses should be in the same folder.
  • Include comments - this is used to determine whether comments should be included or not
  • Include children comments >= threshold - this determines whether you only want top posts that are greater or equal to the threshold or whether you want to include children posts that are greater or equal to this threshold as well. For example, if the threshold is five then out of the below comments 1 and 3 would be included if this is checked if it is not checked only comment 1 will be.
    • Comment 1 7 points
      • Comment2 3 points
        • Comment 3 5 points
  • Threshold - only comments which have a point score that is greater than or equal to this threshold will be included
  • Include posts parent - if this is checked than comments 1 and 3 below would be included. This is because comment 3 is greater than or equal to the threshold and comment 1 is a parent of this comment. Only parents of comments greater than or equal to the threshold will be included.
    • Comment 1 2 points
      • Comment2 3 points
        • Comment 3 5 points
  • Include posts children - if this is checked than comments 1, 2and 3 below would be included. This is because comment 1 is greater than or equal to the threshold the other comments are children of a comment that is greater than or equal to the threshold.
    • Comment 1 7 points
      • Comment2 3 points
        • Comment 3 5 points

What sites can this tool pull posts from


Do you have some example output of the tool? See the epub files in the examples folder. The example books had the include comments option checked and the threshold was set to 5.


Do you have some example input data that I can use to create epubs? See the xlsx files in the examples folder


Do you have an example cover page that I can use See the lesswrong.html file in the examples folder


How do I create an input file? Copy one of the xlsx files in the examples folder at this github link. Update this file as appropriate. Each row in the first sheet defines a post that will be included in the book, its title, a summary to display for this post and which sequence and book it belongs to. The second and third sheet define the summary to be shown for the sequence and book.


I found a problem with the tool or it is not working. What should I do? Add a description of the issue to the issues in this github


What does “Parent comment not included” mean? An example is when you have Include children comments >= threshold set and threshold at 5. If you had the below comments 1 and 3 would be selected. However, comment 2 would not be shown. When you include children comments there is normally a link to parent comment. However, the parent for comment 2 is not included as its score was less than the threshold. Hence, parent comment below threshold indicates that the parent comment was not included. If you do want to include comment 2, then you should recreate the book with the include children option selected. * * Comment 1 7 points * Comment2 3 points * Comment 3 5 points


Can I just download the jar Download the tool from this dropbox link. Copy the jar and the lib folder and then run.


How can I run the project myself Download the jars in the lib folder in this dropbox link use the code in this github and jars in your favorite IDE and run.

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