Newbie: ePubCheck

[CharlieKelly]

Hello,

I create a document in MS-WORD 2010 that contains many equations and diagrams.

I processed the WORD file via MobiPocket Creator.

I processed this output through Calibre for conversion to ePub.

I passed the ePub output from Calibre for validation at: http://threepress.org/document/epub-validate/

The output from the validation had many errors such as:

ERROR: Mathematics of Sudoku and Magic Squares - Charles Kelly.zip/Mathematics of Sudoku and Magic Squares.html(14): element "style" missing required attribute "type"

ERROR: Mathematics of Sudoku and Magic Squares - Charles Kelly.zip/Mathematics of Sudoku and Magic Squares.html(580): attribute "link" not allowed here; expected attribute "class", "dir", "id", "style", "title" or "xml:lang"

ERROR: Mathematics of Sudoku and Magic Squares - Charles Kelly.zip/Mathematics of Sudoku and Magic Squares.html(580): attribute "vlink" not allowed here; expected attribute "class", "dir", "id", "style", "title" or "xml:lang"

I'm a newbie at both Calibre and electronic publishing.

I will appreciate suggestions on either of better process for converting MS-WORD documents to ePub format, or suggestions to improve the process that I am using.

In advance, thanks for your help.

Charlie

[JSWolf]

Using Mobipocket in any step to go to ePub is going to cause issues.

Using Word is also going to cause yourself work.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by CharlieKelly

I'm a newbie at both Calibre and electronic publishing.

I will appreciate suggestions on either of better process for converting MS-WORD documents to ePub format, or suggestions to improve the process that I am using.

Charlie

A lot depends on what knowledge you already have, and how much you want some program to do the work for you or how much you want to do things 'by hand' yourself.

If you have some knowledge of XHTML and CSS then using say Sigil or Notepad2 to markup your text and then packaging that into an ePub is very satisfying and, in my opinion, most likely to give you best results.

If you don't have much knowledge of XHTML and CSS or want some program to do it all for you then you might like to try something like Atlantis, a $50 word processor which can read doc and docx files, and save them as an ePub. They guarantee that the resulting ePub will validate. Without seeing your text I have no idea how successful Atlantis or any other program will be in managing the formulae and symbols you use.

There are several helpful threads in the sticky section of this forum.

[Toxaris]

For equations and formulas I use this site. It produces SVG code which most readers supports. It can be scaled equal to the font-size.

[NASCARaddicted]

from my experience, most errors that appear at an epub check are caused by the basic html file, not the css or something similar. Even if you convert a document with a program like calibe, this errors will remain.

Here is how I do it: I convert all the documents to html (when it comes to word, just export or save it as html). Then I edit this html file with an editor like Notepad ++. Once I finished it, I use an html Validator to check if the html file is xhtml 1.1 valid. I recommend Total Validator http://www.totalvalidator.com/ - it is free and you can download a small offline version, so you don't have to be online to check.

The Total Validator will give you the results in your browser (I guess this is similar to the epub check you used). Just make sure to set it to xhtml 1.1.

In the beginning, I had a truckload full of errors. When I began with epub, I was a total novice with html code, so I used the opening p tag without a closing p tag and the other way round ... and just to add this: just because of this errors, the final epub looked weired. Sometimes, lines were cut off on the border of the display. With a valid xhtml 1.1 file, this will not happen

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by NASCARaddicted

I recommend Total Validator http://www.totalvalidator.com/ - it is free and you can download a small offline version, so you don't have to be online to check.

The Total Validator will give you the results in your browser (I guess this is similar to the epub check you used). Just make sure to set it to xhtml 1.1.

Thanks for the reference. I normally use A Real Validator, by Liam Quinn, but I'll have a look at this one.

[josefcarel]

Hello CharlieKelly
Im just finished to make my book with the best option, in my opinion, you can do, PAGES. Im talking about this simple application in iwork 09 that have the option to export to the ePub format. I make use of a simple template for pages, changing the Chapters names, sections and body text to my own texts. I just copied one by one my chapters including the cover at the first page. My book is 422 pages but after the inspection with epubcheck 1.0.5 I get a "no errors" message. It is very simple to do. I hope this can be for your help.