Kindle Paperwhite .doc conversion?

[maltar7]

Hello everyone,

I would like to convert a book I have in Microsoft Word to my Kindle Paperwhite. Originally, the book was a PDF, so I converted the PDF file with "Calibre" into a Mobi and AZW file' for my Kindle. However, in either file format the structure of all the text was randomly in the centre, in particular, the line spacing isn’t accurate on my Kindle. In fact, my guess is each line was about 2.pt away from the next sentence using the default settings in Calibre, the only option I changed was the Output profile to the Kindle Paperwhite.

Lings, Martin. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. Cambridge. The Islamic Text Society. 1991. Print.

Could you please advise me about converting the book to my Kindle Paperwhite?

Thank you

[Sabardeyn]

There is another, very recent discussion about converting PDF to Mobi to EPUB (required to strip some of the extra scripting inside). I believe BetterRed (might be 1 R) was the user posting what she had to do and why. You might want to do an Advanced Search for posts from her about PDF in the last week within the Calibre section of the forums.

However, in general, PDF is perhaps the absolute worst source document you could have since it doesn't convert well.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by maltar7

Hello everyone,

Could you please advise me about converting the book to my Kindle Paperwhite?

Thank you

@maltar7 - try this

Firstly you need to get rid of tabs and empty paragraphs from your Word document version of the book, use styles and paragraph formatting to get the document looking 'nice' in Word.

If you are using Word 2007/2010/2013 save the document to a DOCX (ie the default format).

But if you have an older version of Word that's OK, save your document as a .DOC. And download a copy of the Free version of Doxillion from NCH Software and use it to convert the .DOC to DOCX.

Now add your DOCX file to the Book in calibre, now convert the DOCX to AZW3.

Converting PDF's to e-book formats is problematic but if you have the text in Word that's a very good start, the support for DOCX is a recent addition to calibre and it is very good.

Let us know how you get on - happy to answer follow-up questions.

@Sabardeyn - thanks for the ack

BR

[maltar7]

Originally Posted by Sabardeyn

There is another, very recent discussion about converting PDF to Mobi to EPUB (required to strip some of the extra scripting inside). I believe BetterRed (might be 1 R) was the user posting what she had to do and why. You might want to do an Advanced Search for posts from her about PDF in the last week within the Calibre section of the forums.

However, in general, PDF is perhaps the absolute worst source document you could have since it doesn't convert well.

Hello Sabardeyn,

I have search for users "BetterRed" or "1 R" in the forums to find the exact thread you're talking about from last week and saw a mixture of results by her.

Could you please link to where you read about her particular discussion?

P.S I’m aware of the fact PDF isn’t ideal for my Kindle and therefore I chose to export the PDF into a Microsoft Word file using Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Thank you

[maltar7]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Firstly you need to get rid of tabs and empty paragraphs from your Word document version of the book, use styles and paragraph formatting to get the document looking 'nice' in Word.

Now add your DOCX file to the Book in calibre, now convert the DOCX to AZW3.

Converting PDF's to e-book formats is problematic but if you have the text in Word that's a very good start, the support for DOCX is a recent addition to calibre and it is very good.

Let us know how you get on - happy to answer follow-up questions.

Hello BetterRed,

What styles and paragraph formatting do you recommend? As I'm converting the PDF file into Microsoft Word for the first time, but as far as I can tell Adobe Acrobat Pro is fairly accurate at keeping the PDF format after looking at the text layout in Microsoft Word.

If you would like to see the look of the Microsoft Word book, I could send you the file through email.

Thank you

[PeterT]

Try this thread for some more thoughts by BetterRed --> https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=212056

Found as a link in this post

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Have a look at this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=212056

BR

from June 24th

[maltar7]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Try this thread for some more thoughts by BetterRed --> https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=212056

Found as a link in this post
from June 24th

Thank you Peter for finding that thread.

I will take a look at "BetterRed's" advice to "fxp33" and make the changes he said to my Microsoft Word document to see the results.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by maltar7

Thank you Peter for finding that thread.

I will take a look at "BetterRed's" advice to "fxp33" and make the changes he said to my Microsoft Word document to see the results.

@maltar put your files (word and PDF) in a ZIP, upload to somewhere and PM me the link here - I'll have a look and reply here if thats OK by you, then it's available to the community.

Re which styles etcL- my starting point on most things is keep it simple, and no unnecessary fancy stuff. From what I can see from the images you posted that's all you need - Normal and a couple of Heading styles.

As I recall fxp33's thread was about dealing with a scanned 19th text, bundled into a PDF - the issue was how to get the text from the images.

What version of Word are you using?

BR

[maltar7]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@maltar put your files (word and PDF) in a ZIP, upload to somewhere and PM me the link here - I'll have a look and reply here if thats OK by you, then it's available to the community.

Re which styles etcL- my starting point on most things is keep it simple, and no unnecessary fancy stuff. From what I can see from the images you posted that's all you need - Normal and a couple of Heading styles.

As I recall fxp33's thread was about dealing with a scanned 19th text, bundled into a PDF - the issue was how to get the text from the images.

What version of Word are you using?

BR

Hello BetterRed,

I would like to as much as you help the community out through posting a link to the book online, but unfortunately legal laws come in between doing so. As copyright laws cover the book and author, I have to adhere to the forum policy whereby a post of the book here through another website is considered as illegal advertising.

I'm using the latest version of Microsoft Office, 2013 and as you said, I'll put simple styles on the entire document to format the text for a nice viewing experience on the Kindle.

P.S Instead, could I perhaps email you the PDF and MS Word book for you to look at?

Thank you

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by maltar7

Hello BetterRed,

P.S Instead, could I perhaps email you the PDF and MS Word book for you to look at?

Thank you

I'll PM you an email addy you can use.

BR

[theducks]

Maltar7

If you hold the copyright, it is your choice how to release the document. (posting a sample chapter or 2 might be advised if you wish to sell the work/rights later)

Forum policy prevents posting of other persons copyrighted material without permission.

[maltar7]

Originally Posted by theducks

Maltar7

If you hold the copyright, it is your choice how to release the document. (posting a sample chapter or 2 might be advised if you wish to sell the work/rights later)

Forum policy prevents posting of other persons copyrighted material without permission.

Hello theducks,

The author "Martin, Lings" fully owns the copyright laws to the book in question. In addition, I'm legally safe to post an excerpt of the book on this site by agreeing to the Fair Use Doctrine of copyright laws.

[BetterRed]

Just for the record - the OP found an alternative source for the book, they had it in plain text, epub, kindle and pdf

BR

[maltar7]

Hello,

In case anyone is wondering, I have after contemplating about the process of formatting decided to not go through with making the book on Word. As when copying the text to Word, moving all lines of the paragraph in order, applying my font style with the size and then looking at the writing to correct possible mistakes would of taken too much effort and time.

I would have liked to read the book on my Kindle, but then I thought about discovering popular books from authors in Islam is worth the experience.

Thank you to everyone for your beneficial advice.