Calibre is depressing me

[Holden]

I have just passed from Cybook to Kindle. I am starting using calibre and BEFORE posting any help message I have been reading all the sticky threads

Yet, I am about to give up. This is too much information for me.

I need something clear like Harry's tutorial for Book Designer.

The problem started when I had a bad formatted result, yes, it was a pdf, and I have read that pdf is the worst file to be converted, but this is not the point, The point is that I tried to modify the output format from calibre. I was in search & replace, I wanted to cancel some unwanted part of the text and I couldn't.
Then I wanted cleaner opening pages, and tried to insert a page break (not a line break), and I didn't have a clue.

So, the first VERY STUPID question is: do I use calibre only to convert an already well formatted book, or I can do something during the conversion?

ANd the SECOND STUPID QUESTION: Do I still have have to use Book Designer or some similar software to prepare the original file for calibre and, subsequently, for my kindle?

[Graham]

Presumably you were reading the pdf without conversion on the Cybook, which had excellent pdf capabilities. This may be a stupid question from me, but have you tried copying the pdf without conversion to your Kindle to see if the native pdf capabilities of that allows you to read it adequately?

Graham

[user_none]

Calibre is an automated conversion tool. While it does offer a number of ways to influence the output of a conversion, it is not an editor. If you are giving it poorly formatted input there is only so much calibre can do to produce acceptable output. In this case your best bet is to convert to an easily editable format like EPUB and use a dedicated editing tool like Sigil to clean then convert to your desired format.

[Holden]

Originally Posted by Graham

Presumably you were reading the pdf without conversion on the Cybook, which had excellent pdf capabilities. This may be a stupid question from me, but have you tried copying the pdf without conversion to your Kindle to see if the native pdf capabilities of that allows you to read it adequately?

Graham

Yes, I did, and it was incredibly small.

[Holden]

Originally Posted by user_none

Calibre is an automated conversion tool. While it does offer a number of ways to influence the output of a conversion, it is not an editor. If you are giving it poorly formatted input there is only so much calibre can do to produce acceptable output. In this case your best bet is to convert to an easily editable format like EPUB and use a dedicated editing tool like Sigil to clean then convert to your desired format.

Thanks, I figured it out that I needed an editor.. I have never used SIGIL, but I'm going to give it a try. Thanks to all.

[jjabrams]

Originally Posted by Holden

So, the first VERY STUPID question is: do I use calibre only to convert an already well formatted book, or I can do something during the conversion?

Yes, Calibre is used mostly for converting from one format to another. There are a few options for formatting, but the book should be done (the main exception is that Calibre can add a table of contents quite easily). If your book looks good in another ebook format, then Calibre shouldn't have too many problems converting it.

Originally Posted by Holden

ANd the SECOND STUPID QUESTION: Do I still have have to use Book Designer or some similar software to prepare the original file for calibre and, subsequently, for my kindle?

You can design your book in anything. Since pdf's do not play well with Calibre, try designing your book as an html or word file. Html is the best and a little knowledge will go a long way.

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear."