There are a couple of things going on here.  I'm going to gloss over the

technical stuff first, as you asked, but there are some 'catches' in the

process you'll need to keep in mind, and I'll cover them at the end.  I'll

also assume you have a Windows PC.

The normal process of downloading an ebook has a couple of steps.  The

first one is that the download site creates a small file of information

about the ebook.  This file has a suffix of .ascm.  The download site then

interacts with your computer to activate ADE, which reads that file, finds

the ebook and downloads it onto your computer in .epub (or.pdf for those

types of ebooks) format.  ADE then can manage the ebook, opening it so you

can read it on your computer, or transferring it to your ereader.  The

.ascm file disappears as soon as ADE has started the download.

The next step in the process is to hook up your ereader to your computer,

make sure it's recognized by the computer, and transfer the ebook to it

using ADE.  That's done simply, by dragging and dropping the ebook from ADE

to the ereader.

Now, for the 'catches'.  The first one is that you should have registered

with Adobe when you downloaded and installed ADE.  Next, your ereader needs

to be registered with SONY and you should use the same user ID for that

registration as you used for ADE because ADE looks at the registration

information of your ereader.  Using the same ID makes it very simple and

works 99.9% of the time.

Next, SONY ereader registration includes downloading and installing the

Reader Library.  If that's not on your computer, then you will have

problems with transfers.  ADE doesn't use this library, but apparently the

SONY ereaders check for it when they attach to your computer.

The next catch is that some ereaders are not supported by ADE.  Although

it's in the list of supported devices, ADE seems to have problems with

the SONY PRS-T1 when doing a transfer.

The process for hooking up and doing transfers is pretty simple, but needs

to be followed in order: attach the ereader first and power it up if it

doesn't do that itself when you plug it in.  Make sure that the computer

recognizes the ereader and has given it a drive letter.  Then, start ADE.

If all is well, ADE will show the ereader as an item in the Bookshelf

section of the Library view screen - that's the left hand side of the

screen.  You can click and hold your cursor on the title you want to

transfer, then drag it to your ereader and drop it.  Repeat as desired.

When you're done with the transfers, you need to detach the ereader

LOGICALLY from your computer first.  That means going down to the right

hand corner of the START bar at the bottom of your screen, finding the

little icon that looks like a small computer, and clicking on it.  Then,

click on the drive letter assigned to your ereader.  Once that's done, you

can close ADE, but DON'T disconnect your ereader physically from the

computer yet.  Most of them tell you that they're processing new content or

words to that effect.  Wait until that stops and then you can disconnect it.

I hope this helps.

To your other question: since ADE can do the transfers, I don't know why

you transfer an ebook from ADE to your Calibre library.  If the ebook is

already in the ADE library as an .epub, then there's no way that Calibre

would see it as an .ascm file.  Calibre itself is the same kind of program

as ADE, so you could use it with download sites in a similar way as I

describe above, and bypass ADE altogether if that works better for you with

your T1.  Also, you can always go back to the SONY website and get your

ebooks from SONY.

======================

Quite clear, and very useful.  Because what you said means that the .ascm

file did not go through the download process using ADE.

I'm not as clear on the process you used, so let me assume that it went

something like this:

You logged onto Gutenberg and found an ebook to download, then selected the

format for the ebook (.epub) and pressed the button.  What should have

happened is that Gutenberg.org would begin the download, and during that

process, you would get a Windows screen that asked you whether you wanted

to OPEN or SAVE the file.  If you chose SAVE, then Gutenberg should have

initiated the download and opened ADE, which would use the .ascm file to

find the ebook, then download it to the ADE library as an .epub.

So, let's do a little detective work.  Pick the name of one of the ebooks

that seem to be messed up.  Open ADE and look at the Library view and see

if that ebook shows up.  If it does, then put your cursor on the small

arrow next to the ebook's name, and pick 'Item Info' from the drop-down

box.  The information will include the address of the ebook on your

computer, and the ebook's format type.  If everything worked correctly, the

ebook will be in the Digital Editions libraries, and the name will have the

.epub extension.

If the ebook doesn't appear in ADE's Library view, then ADE did not convert

the ebook during the download process.  There could be several reasons for

this, including a bad definition file (.ascm file) or a missed connection

between the download site and your copy of ADE.  If the problem involves

more than one ebook, there's a chance that your copy of ADE isn't

registered properly, and the download site is unable to open it.

Let's start there, because these are the 'normal' problem situations....