Converting from Word Perfect to epub

[PhishStyx]

I'm potentially interested in creating epub books from Word Perfect documents. What would be involved in doing so? Could I simply press a button and convert the file? Would I need to cut and paste into Sigil, then edit the document more?

I've done many PDF's in Word Perfect and worked with Quark XPress some, but I've never created an epub file.

[Valloric]

I'd suggest you download Sigil 0.2.0RC4 and then read the manual.

After that, export your documents to HTML from Word Perfect and then import that HTML into Sigil.

[PhishStyx]

Would I be better off creating the document in Word Perfect as HTML or exporting it? WP (to my eye) creates a lot of unnecessary code in it's HTML documents, but starting them as HTML would remove a step in the process.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by PhishStyx

Would I be better off creating the document in Word Perfect as HTML or exporting it? WP (to my eye) creates a lot of unnecessary code in it's HTML documents, but starting them as HTML would remove a step in the process.

I've never used WP, but the cleaner the original HTML, the better.

[PhishStyx]

Ok, I've downloaded and installed Sigil 0.2.0rc4. Some of my work is likely to have tables, and some of those could turn out to be fairly complex. I don't immediately see a means of creating tables, however. What am I missing?

[st_albert]

Unfortunately, tables are not something that the epub format handles well, in my experience. You may have to convert the tables to graphics (i.e. a "screenshot" of the table, in the worst case) and then insert the graphic into the epub. Other, wiser, users may have better ideas.

I sympathize.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by PhishStyx

Ok, I've downloaded and installed Sigil 0.2.0rc4. Some of my work is likely to have tables, and some of those could turn out to be fairly complex. I don't immediately see a means of creating tables, however. What am I missing?

There's no WYSIWYG way to create tables in Sigil. In general, they're probably not going to work the way you want them with epub. There's the fact that the screens are small, and that the current Reading Systems don't handle them well.

You should honestly avoid them.

[PhishStyx]

Originally Posted by Valloric

There's no WYSIWYG way to create tables in Sigil. In general, they're probably not going to work the way you want them with epub. There's the fact that the screens are small, and that the current Reading Systems don't handle them well.

You should honestly avoid them.

That's difficult to do for rpg books. There are just too many places where tables are essential tools for conveying a bunch of comparative information in relatively short space.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by PhishStyx

That's difficult to do for rpg books. There are just too many places where tables are essential tools for conveying a bunch of comparative information in relatively short space.

Then be prepared that those tables will not look good on small screens. And with ADE messing up table renderings, it's even harder to make them look good.

[Sabardeyn]

The epub standard, as it exists currently, is very specific to fictional stories. Features that are common in other types of books (poetry, textbooks, charts, etc) are simply not adequately supported at this time. Hopefully, as the epub standard matures, these issues will be addressed.

Unfortunately, RPGs are one of the book types that are very seriously handicapped by the current standard. Tables are not available. Images can be used but their zoom rate can be altered - all of which is hardware/software specific. So what is correct for one is wrong for another. Their is almost no universal way to handle things at the moment. Tabs are effectively useless simply because the viewer's screen and font size is going to cause differences in how the text is displayed.

This leaves you with two possibilities. Either maintain a PDF edition, or offer an "Epub & Other" edition. All of the reflowable text is in the epub with references (links perhaps?) to either HTML or PDF pages for the tables. It's neither perfect or pretty, but it should work.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Sabardeyn

The epub standard, as it exists currently, is very specific to fictional stories. Features that are common in other types of books (poetry, textbooks, charts, etc) are simply not adequately supported at this time. Hopefully, as the epub standard matures, these issues will be addressed.

Unfortunately, RPGs are one of the book types that are very seriously handicapped by the current standard. Tables are not available. Images can be used but their zoom rate can be altered - all of which is hardware/software specific. So what is correct for one is wrong for another. Their is almost no universal way to handle things at the moment. Tabs are effectively useless simply because the viewer's screen and font size is going to cause differences in how the text is displayed.

This leaves you with two possibilities. Either maintain a PDF edition, or offer an "Epub & Other" edition. All of the reflowable text is in the epub with references (links perhaps?) to either HTML or PDF pages for the tables. It's neither perfect or pretty, but it should work.

The ePUB standards are not specific to fiction books. They do support tables and have no problem with image zooming in so far as the standard goes. Most of the complaints you raise are specific to the current crop of Readers, not to the standard itself.

Dale