MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - formatting problem when converting RTF to mobi

A Lurker · 11-25-2012, 08:31 AM

DoctorOhh,

I appreciate your lengthy reply, but unfortunately most of what you wrote is incorrect. You seem to have misunderstood my problem and mischaracterized some of Calibre's functions.

1.) I am not trying to fine tune the editing in Calibre. Quite the opposite. I fine tune the editing in .rtf file. However, once I import it into Calibre, Calibre over-rides my formatting and tries to impose its own. (I described that format as "blog formatting". I don't claim that is an official term. It's my way of explaining that Calibre is deleting my tabs and inserting line spaces, so that the resulting text looks less like a conventional book and more like modern Internet formatting. You refer to it as XHTML.)

2.) You wrote Calibre "doesn't insert tabs". That is 100% incorrect. Calibre automatically deletes the original tabs in my document. When I check the box to "remove line spaces" it then tries to re-insert its own tabs. Unfortunately, Calibre is "dumb" and sticks a tab after every paragraph mark, even if there was no tab in the original. For example, Calibre inserts its own tabs in chapter titles, making them off-center.

3.) You wrote: "If you don't want your paragraphs to be indented or remain unchanged fix your indent value according to the tooltip on hover."

As you noted earlier, this setting is for wholesale changes to the document, not fine tuning. Thus, if set the indent value to zero ALL of the tabs in the document disappear... But I don't want ALL of them to disappear. I want to keep the original tabs in the document, and delete the new tabs the Calibre inserted on its own. This cannot be done as your described.

4.) You wrote: "The blog format you refer to is XHTML and every conversion passes through this format en-route to its final format... As previously explained every conversion passes through the XHTML format regardless of what options you choose... Essentially that is calibre's default."

Yes, I understand this. This makes it impossible to keep the orginal formatting of the original document.

5.) Perphas I'm not articulate enough to describe this with words, so please, please, please go back and see my second post where I use an actual example: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...29&postcount=2

Here is what you will see:

a.) If I simply convert the .rtf or Webpage-filtered file to .mobi without modifying any "Look and Feel preferences", then Calibre will delete all of my tabs and insert lines between my paragraph (i.e. XHTML). But I do not want that -- I want my text to look like a traditional book, not a blog.

b.) So let's say I check the box to "remove line spaces". As you point out, Calibre will still begin by converting it to XHTML, inserting lines between paragraphs and deleting my tabs, but then it will subsequently reverse the process, deleting the line spaces and inserting its own tabs (which is what I meant when I said it's converting the document twice).

Unfortunately, Calibre inserts its very own tabs after every paragrap mark, so that a chapter title, which should be centered, is now off-centered, pushed slightly to the right. Also certain paragraphs (such as those that begin a chapter) are then indented, which was not the case in the original format.

c.) If I check the box to remove line spaces and reduce the indent value to zero, then I have one continuous document with no tabs and no spaces, where all the text runs together. It's unreadable

If this still isn't clear, I can e-mail you short examples.

11-25-2012, 08:31 AM	#6
A Lurker Connoisseur Posts: 84 Karma: 335288 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Kindle	DoctorOhh, I appreciate your lengthy reply, but unfortunately most of what you wrote is incorrect. You seem to have misunderstood my problem and mischaracterized some of Calibre's functions. 1.) I am not trying to fine tune the editing in Calibre. Quite the opposite. I fine tune the editing in .rtf file. However, once I import it into Calibre, Calibre over-rides my formatting and tries to impose its own. (I described that format as "blog formatting". I don't claim that is an official term. It's my way of explaining that Calibre is deleting my tabs and inserting line spaces, so that the resulting text looks less like a conventional book and more like modern Internet formatting. You refer to it as XHTML.) 2.) You wrote Calibre "doesn't insert tabs". That is 100% incorrect. Calibre automatically deletes the original tabs in my document. When I check the box to "remove line spaces" it then tries to re-insert its own tabs. Unfortunately, Calibre is "dumb" and sticks a tab after every paragraph mark, even if there was no tab in the original. For example, Calibre inserts its own tabs in chapter titles, making them off-center. 3.) You wrote: "If you don't want your paragraphs to be indented or remain unchanged fix your indent value according to the tooltip on hover." As you noted earlier, this setting is for wholesale changes to the document, not fine tuning. Thus, if set the indent value to zero ALL of the tabs in the document disappear... But I don't want ALL of them to disappear. I want to keep the original tabs in the document, and delete the new tabs the Calibre inserted on its own. This cannot be done as your described. 4.) You wrote: "The blog format you refer to is XHTML and every conversion passes through this format en-route to its final format... As previously explained every conversion passes through the XHTML format regardless of what options you choose... Essentially that is calibre's default." Yes, I understand this. This makes it impossible to keep the orginal formatting of the original document. 5.) Perphas I'm not articulate enough to describe this with words, so please, please, please go back and see my second post where I use an actual example: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...29&postcount=2 Here is what you will see: a.) If I simply convert the .rtf or Webpage-filtered file to .mobi without modifying any "Look and Feel preferences", then Calibre will delete all of my tabs and insert lines between my paragraph (i.e. XHTML). But I do not want that -- I want my text to look like a traditional book, not a blog. b.) So let's say I check the box to "remove line spaces". As you point out, Calibre will still begin by converting it to XHTML, inserting lines between paragraphs and deleting my tabs, but then it will subsequently reverse the process, deleting the line spaces and inserting its own tabs (which is what I meant when I said it's converting the document twice). Unfortunately, Calibre inserts its very own tabs after every paragrap mark, so that a chapter title, which should be centered, is now off-centered, pushed slightly to the right. Also certain paragraphs (such as those that begin a chapter) are then indented, which was not the case in the original format. c.) If I check the box to remove line spaces and reduce the indent value to zero, then I have one continuous document with no tabs and no spaces, where all the text runs together. It's unreadable If this still isn't clear, I can e-mail you short examples. Last edited by A Lurker; 11-25-2012 at 08:42 AM.