Page Formatting Problem?

[Feisty]

Hi!

First I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has posted really informative threads here, you guys have been a lifesaver to a non-techie kobo owner! I'm not sure how well I'll be able to explain my current issue, so please bear with me!

I've figured out how to get around the whole font-size issue by editing the .css style sheet, but I'm still having a lot of problems with other formatting issues when I convert other file types to epubs using caliber.

I have a number of books that I downloaded as .txt files (obviously from sites other then the kobo store) which I converted into epubs using caliber. The .txt files are formatted alright when I read them on my computer (left justified, with dialogue spaced properly on different lines), however when I convert them into epubs I get this unreadable block of text. There are paragraph breaks between the chapters but no breaks for dialogue

Original (example):
"You'll never take my kobo from me!", she cried.
"Muwahahaha your e-reader is mine!"
They struggle, blah blah blah. She emerges victorious.
"Teach you to get between a book-geek and her e-reader!"

What I end up with as an epub after conversion in caliber:
"You'll never take my kobo from me!", she cried."Muwahahaha your e-reader is mine!"They struggled, blah blah blah. She emerges victorious."Teach you to get between a book-geek and her e-reader!"

In the caliber conversion box under "TXT Input" I checked the "conserve spaces" box which did conserve the dialogue formatting (new line for different speakers). However when viewing the converted epubs on my computer the lines of text were very long necessitating scrolling back and forth to see everything, and when I transferred the file to my kobo the formatting is correct except that the long lines are simply cut off entirely.

If anyone knows how I can fix this I'd really appreciate it! I've got a ton of good books as .txt files and no way to read them without driving myself crazy!

Thanks in advance!

[artificial]

The "preserve spaces" option preserves strings of text that contain multiple consecutive spaces, in other words it won't achieve the effect that you want!

Have you tried checking the "treat each line as a paragraph" option in Calibre's TXT input dialog instead?

This option will place each line of text in its own paragraph, which is what you want.

If you then wish to remove the margin below each paragraph, in the look/feel options check "remove spacing between paragraphs". This option will also indent each paragraph. This is how most dead tree books are set, as it uses less paper, and is similarly useful for ebooks because you can fit more lines per screen.

[Stinger]

when I transferred the file to my kobo the formatting is correct except that the long lines are simply cut off entirely.

In Preferences->Conversion->Page Setup(tab), select the 'Kobo Reader' as the output profile. You can also do this on a per conversion basis in the conversion settings.


Also take a look HERE regarding Calibre's markdown support, you can do a lot with it if you're willing put in a little time to pre-edit the txt files.

You could also take a look at Sigil (MR Forum), which is a graphical tool to edit epubs. It's features are pretty basic, as it's still a baby project. But you can easily apply H2/3 styles to chapter headings (which will also generate a TOC for you), or fix up formatting and such.


Anyway, Welcome to MobileRead forums

[artificial]

Originally Posted by Feisty

Hi!when I transferred the file to my kobo the formatting is correct except that the long lines are simply cut off entirely.

This is probably related to the fact you checked the "conserve spaces" option ON.

I imagine that option coverts all space characters to a non breaking space (in HTML,   ). This tells the HTML parser (i.e. the kobo eReader) that space characters should not break (wrap). In other words it treats a sentence of text as one long unbroken string.

Because the kobo eReader's ePub viewer does no have a function to scroll left/right it will simply truncate any long string of text when it is wider than the screen.

Unchecking the "conserve spaces" option during the conversion process should fix this problem. And remember, the option you want ON is "treat each line as a paragraph"

[Feisty]

Wow! Thanks artificial, your suggestion worked perfectly and it's such an easy fix! I actually kept the spaces between the paragraphs because I found it easier to read (and no guilt over dead trees) but the "remove spacing between paragraphs" did make it look almost like a real book.

Thanks again!

EDIT
Thanks Stinger for your reply. I did have the Kobo selected as my output profile and it didn't fix the formatting problems unfortunately. I'll check out your other suggestions, though I'm pretty non-tech so I have no idea what "H2/3 styles" or "TOC" are and might get kind of lost...

[asjogren]

I found the best process with TEXT to Mobi (I have a Kindle) was:
1) Import TEXT into word processor (I used Star Office)
2) Save as RFT
3) Import RFT into Calibre
4) Convert to your favorite format

I spent a lot of time with TEXT input into Calibre. My TEXT file had each "line" as a paragraph too. I really needed NO manual changes to get acceptable formatting for the final product.

[artificial]

Originally Posted by Feisty

I have no idea what "H2/3 styles" or "TOC" are and might get kind of lost...

TOC = Table Of Contents
H2, H3, H4, etc = Levels of headings, defined in as HTML tags (an ePub is really just an HTML document). The lower the number, the bigger the heading. e.g. <h1>Heading</h1> is a big heading.

Sigil has a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, so it hides this underlying code from you, and you can edit an ePub in a non-techy way, as if you were editing a document in a word processor.

[Feisty]

Okay, the acronyms make sense now, thanks! And non-tech and non-code both sound lovely to me, I'll check it out!