Splasm Software Discussions

I just completed importing and building a 30 CD (60 lectures) audio course (30 hours altogether). Importing worked great and the m4b build was unbelievable fast (certainly compared to Audiobook Build V1). I also found the program to be robust. I was checking on the CD info while importing track and that caused an error but did not crash the program. Restarted the import and everything was fine. Another, time the computer went to sleep when importing track so an error was reported that the CD could not be ejected. No problem, no crash, no loss of data.

However, I can suggest a couple simple upgrades, especially for large imports.

Have auto-backup or saves. After every CD was imported, I did a "Save" just in case of a program or computer crash (the final file size was 1. 6 GB). Nice if this function ran automatically every 10 or 15 minutes.

Font control for titles. Some of the chapter titles on the CD use Italicized fonts. I would be nice if that could also be done. Nothing fancy but Bold/Italic/Underline would be nice.

BTW Audiobook Builder is a really nice, straightforward, simple program that works. Good work

We're happy to hear you're enjoying Audiobook Builder 2!

Checking on a disc's info in the Finder shouldn't interfere with Audiobook Builder, since it's just asking for the data from each file on the disc and that's all managed by the Mac itself. If you see that again would you reach out to support@splasm.com?

While Audiobook Builder is importing a disc, the screen might dim but the import code tells the Mac it's doing something more or less "critical" that can't be interrupted so actual sleep shouldn't happen. It's set to allow sleep in between discs, however, in case you're not there to insert another disc or end the import session. It could be we've left a little tiny opportunity for sleep right as Audiobook Builder asks for the disc to be ejected. I just threw that on the short list of stuff to investigate for the next update.

By default, Audiobook Builder automatically saves your work after every CD is completely imported. To disable that, or set it to also autosave every X minutes, go to the Audiobook Builder menu, next to the Apple () menu, click Settings... (or Preferences...), and look near the bottom of the window. If it's time to autosave while you're importing a single disc the autosave should happen not long after the disc is completely imported.

The M4B audiobook file format doesn't provide a way to style chapter names - it just gives us a place to store plain text for each chapter stop. We looked at layering styled text over chapter artwork many years ago, though that'd require you to have artwork of some kind or Audiobook Builder to create blank artwork using the background color from your settings, at least by default. We'll make an official feature request for that.

Thanks again for your support, and for sharing your experience and encouragement. Hearing how Audiobook Builder helps you definitely motivates us. Please keep in touch when you need a hand!

_________________
Keith Gugliotto
Primordial Sea Captain
Splasm Software
https://www.splasm.com

Thank for the information regarding the autosave, I did not have it checked.

To bad about the font but not the end of the world.

Keep up the good work

Paul