OK, I've been learning to use the program ebook2cw, by Fabian Kurz, DJ1YFK, to make Mp3 Morse Code files of Project Gutenberg etexts. It's been a bit confusing, so I want to share what I've found. Before we start, I use Ubuntu 9.10, because it's free. Sorry if you're trying to use something else, but Fabian has been kind enough to retain the same format throughout the supported systems.
First, if you download the binary file, you should put it in a directory and be able to run it by typing the following (using alice30.txt, Alice in Wonderland from Gutenberg.org):
./ebook2cw -w 21 -e 7 -o alice- alice30.txt
This will make several files of over an hour long each at 7 words per minute and a character speed of 21 words per minute, split everywhere the file says, "CHAPTER". To cancel the program running, press CTRL-C. The QRQ (increase speed by 1WPM every "x" minutes) function errors when you try to use the -e option, since the QRQ speed can surpass the Farnsworth speed (if you try running it with the full text of Alice, the eventual speed is something like 1800WPM!).
If that doesn't work, you might need to change the permission for it like so:
sudo chmod +x ebook2cw
You'll have to enter your password, then run the previous command.
So...Since my average time to listen to CW (and my...what?...attention span) runs about 20 minutes, I wanted to find out how make a file 20 minutes long. This would also allow me to make use of the QRQ function without hitting 42wpm. Can't be done currently within the program, but "We have the technology!"
Find out how many lines and words the program has using the "Tools>Document statistics" plugin for the default text editor (gedit). After a bit of pre-editing by removing bad characters and extra spaces,we get 27341 words and 3537 lines. This gives us an average of 7.73 words per line. If we want a 20 minute file, increasing 1 word per minute every 5 minutes (which is the -Q 5 option), beginning at 7wpm, then we will end up at 11wpm. Our average wpm then becomes 9wpm, for 20 minutes, is 180 words. Divide by 7.73 words per line, and we get 23.28 lines per file. Round up to 25 to account for an extra line or so and to make things easy.
Now, we can insert CHAPTER (the default break point) every 25 lines to get 20 minute files. A minute here and there isn't going to hurt, so we can put in the breaks at the end of a paragraph. Apparently the QRQ sets the timer based off the original word count at the original speed instead of clock time, so my files went up to 20wpm in 20 minutes, but that's ok. We can still set it manually in the text file.
What if we get bored with 9wpm? Let's add some extras into the mix. ebook2cw is pretty powerful, as it can even read stuff within the file itself. If we write w8 (make sure it's lower case) after the chapter heading (or the one we added 25 lines later), it will begin the speed setting at 8wpm, and give us an average speed of 10wpm, or 26 lines every 20 minutes. Although this is rather tedious to count out so many lines, it allows more fine control over our code practice, and we can do high speed jumps from 10wpm to 20wpm and back again within the same file. N0HFF has a wonderful free ebook on learning the code, "The Art and Skill of Radiotelegraphy" . Check it out for some great hints on setting up your practice sessions.
