Before I begin, apologies if this is in the wrong place. There are just so many forums in this place so it's hard to pinpoint exactly where to post something. If it's in the wrong place, please move it.
Anyway, through experimentation and the need for an easy way to convert fanfics to Kindle-ready eBooks, I have found an extremely easy way to convert them while having a working table of contents and chapter skip using the 5-way controller. I'd like to share this method with all of you, because I'm nice like that.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
-Calibre, an excellent program that I'm sure you all know about.
-Microsoft Word 2007 [
May work with other word processors that have similar capabilities. I have not tested any others.]
-A Kindle and USB cord.
WHAT TO DO:
1. First, find a story you want to convert to eBook form. If you have trouble finding one, and are a fan of science fiction, allow me to recommend
Rockman: The Robot War, by Ben Roberts. You don't even need to be familiar with the source to enjoy this.
2. Next, open up Word and immediately save the document as a Web Page.
3. Use the "Heading 1" style to type the title of the story, then hit enter and type "By [Author Name]" ((This is optional, but I like having things perfect. Using Heading 1 gives you a title page that doesn't count as a chapter location.))
4. Hit "enter" again after typing the author name, then switch to the "Heading 2" style. Type the chapter name and press Enter.
5. Copy all the text you want to have in that chapter and paste it.
6. Hit enter and repeat steps 4-6 until all your chapters are done. Don't forget to save periodically!
7. Open up Calibre.
8. Import the HTML file you've made.
9. Edit the Meta Information to your heart's content.
10. Click on "Convert eBook".
11. In the Look And Feel section, I normally click "Remove Spacing Between Paragraphs", which presses the paragraphs together and adds indentations. However, you may do whatever you like best.
These next two steps are really important!
12. Under the "Table of Contents" section, change the links and chapter threshold numbers to something much higher than the chapters in the books.
13. Click on the little wand next to "Level 1 TOC (Xpath Expression). In the dropdown menu that says "Match HTML tags with name", select "h2". This will tell Calibre that any "Heading 2" titles will be turned into Chapter links.
14. Under "MOBI Output", type in a title for the TOC.
15. Convert it!
16. When it's done converting, plug your Kindle in, send the book to the device, and you're done!
Again, apologies if this is in the wrong place or has been done before. I have just found it incredibly useful and much better than going to notepad and typing "<p>" and "</p>" at the end of every paragraph.
I hope this helps!
