Making your own eBook for iPad ... errr, works, to a point

iPad was toured as ultimate eBook reader. Problem comes when you try to put YOUR documents in iPad. Can you take advantage of iBook reader for reading your Word document, PDF and text file?

The answer is ok ... to a point.

To test, I tried various documents converted using Calibre, a free and so called the most economic way to convert documents into ePub format.

Here's my finding:

• Converting PDF with mostly English text with some illustrators: works great. You can choose bigger font size, and the layout still being preserved (to a point).
  
  
• Converting PDF with mostly photos: you can still read it, but the problem is that you cannot ZOOM into the photos. For comics or photo gallery, this totally ruin the experience. You better look for other PDF viewer solution.
  
  
• Converting PDF with Chinese character: the result was a total mess, but this time I think the blame is on Calibre . It seems like it doesn't reformat Traditional Chinese characters properly. Someone needs to step up to write a tool that works for Chinese community.
  

So there you have it. Sort of working, but not quite. I'll stick with my Tablet PC for a little long while.

One tidbit: it seems like dragged .epub files directly into your iPad device under iTune can BLOW UP iTune. So remember to first put your .epub files in the Books area in your local Libray first, and then drag the ebook from the Books area to your iPad device section.