[skypilotpete]

I am just beginning the process of learning to create an ebook. I am creating it from the ground up, and have experimented with:
- starting in Word, converting to rtf and then to epub using Calibre
- starting in Word, converting to HTML and then to epub
- creating the document directly as an HTML file, using MS Frontpage 2003, and then converting to EPUB.

I need to use tables to display some complex information effectively, and whichever method I use to create the epub, the tables created by Calibre include a lot of white space within the table around the text, as if Calibre has introduced cell padding. The original html documents definitely have no cell padding, and the tables hug the text tightly when viewed in IE and Firefox.

I have looked at the css file created by Calibre, but my knowledge of CSS is extremely minimal and I can't follow what Calibre has done. It seems to have put left and right padding in all of the cells (which I have removed) but I can't see anything that is obviously causing padding above and below the text in each cell.

I have looked through the preferences in Calibre and can't find anything that controls how tables are formatted.

Can any kind person please help me with this?

I am using Calibre 0.7.5.0, Windows 7 64