MSWord to Epub Help! 2day Calibre Veteran:)!!!!

[lionscourt]

I am a self publishing author that is converting my MSWord2007 document into epub format for digital publishing. I changed my Word document to 5.5 x 8.5 for publishing of a 6x9 book then used Calibre (just downloaded a few days ago) to convert. As a result the margins on my epub book looks good but page alignment is off badly. Chapters start half way down the page and at times there are large spaces between paragraphs (few). I have no experience in this html editor thing (but am willing to learn it).

I just want to be able to type a page in MsWord and have it equal a page in Epub format on Calibre. I'm pretty sure the issue lies with the format in MsWord but maybe Calibre has a way to address this too? Any help or links as i continue to search forum would be appreciated!

[BetterRed]

@lionscourt - where are you seeing effects such as "Chapters start half way down the page" and large gaps between paragraphs. If in the calibre viewer click the scroll icon top right corner.

I think that will solve your paging problem. Generally speaking, EPUB is NOT a paged format, its a continuous flow format.

If you are converting the output of Word, then the best format to use as input is DOCX. You can also import the DOCX into the Editor, apparently this should 'preserve' word style names in the css names. Speaking for myself it makes little difference, conversion is simpler (press C) and I rarely edit the EPUB, preferring instead to do all editing in the original DOCX.

My golden rule with Word is to avoid use of tabs and empty paragraphs to achieve horizontal and vertical spacing/alignment, I always use formatting and styles. That goes for any document, whether its a book or a letter.

BR

[dickloraine]

First, no need to set any specific page sizes, since epub is reflow able text.
As BetterRed has said, the quality of your epub depends on the quality of your word file. As a rule: do anything with styles. Never ever format anything directly. This is even more important for headers.
If you plan to write more books, it would be worth the trouble to make a template for writing and use this for all books.
If you write fiction this should be easy. Non fiction with tables, images, diagrams etc. is very difficult. I assume you write fiction?
When you have your word document done, there are many ways to make an epub.
You could use calibre, as you did. That is okay, but you should nonetheless take a look at the stylesheet with the editor. There you could make adjustments to the formating. But all or most styles are now just named calibrex, making this a little bit tricky.
If you made a template and plan to use this for many books, a more manual way may be preferred. Either use toxxaris word addin or make it per hand. That is not that difficult. Feel free to ask for more advice, if you want to go that direction. A typical novel is not difficult to convert and you need to know just very basic css and html, most could be just copy pasted or is as easy as font-size: 1em or text-align: justify.

[lionscourt]

Gentleman thanX for the hints on how to proceed. For now, I have left all headers empty. I have used Chapter headings but just as part of the text. I also have epigraphs before each chapter heading (which is not in heading or footer). Yes, I am a fiction writer (an urban fantasy) and simply want the best ereader experience possible, which to me, means something that 'looks like a book' with chapter headings separate from the previous page and page numbers(????).
Though this book is the first in a trilogy, I do think it's necessary to do a template. Once i figure the best dimensions, i will save a template.
So, as of now, my primary goal will will be to convert my word 'doc' to docX then format again....

--so dickL, i will also follow up on your idea of it being a scrollable doc. In that case, I would remove all the spacing i did for 'end of chapters' and chapter headings.

--keep in mind, I don't understand yet how to edit that html page on Calibre...looks like a foreign language to me.

--i forgot to mention that i have another reason for figuring out how to line up the pages; i have a title page, and dedication page, and copyright page, which lend itself to the 'feel' of a real book. I just want to be able to align those pages properly.

[PeterT]

I think I'd beg to differ. The best eBook experience is NOT looking like a book. The two formats are totally different.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I think I'd beg to differ. The best eBook experience is NOT looking like a book. The two formats are totally different.

+1

ebooks are used on postage stamp sized displays all the way up to 70" HDTV screens (I have had a book up on my 32", but why would I really want to read for more than a few minutes, serious neck crick issues)

As soon as you force a specific look and feel, you cause issues for all the other device sizes.

Just let it flow normal.

BTW if you use a file per section, the flow might just put 2 small sections side by side on a 2 up display

[dickloraine]

I didn't mean the spacing of your headings, but that the size of your page is irrelevant. Since ebooks are read on very different sizes of displays, the reader makes the pages. Think of an ebook more as a website, which happens to have pages.
That said, yes, you should not make space in your text with void paragraphs. Just use styles. If you don't know anything about styles, google for a guide. It is easy and helps enormous.
So, for example: Your epigraphs get a style named "epigraph". That style has for example margins left and right. Then comes your heading, with a heading style (maybe do this the other was around). The first paragraph of your chapter gets it's own style, that has no indent. The normal paragraphs get the standard style, with indent. New scenes get their own style also, with no indent an a margin above.

Please keep in mind, that calibre tries to maintain the formating of these styles, but you should control this and maybe edit the css yourself.

Now a few personal opinions:
Please, keep it simple. No embedded font (only exception could be for chapter headings and if you absolutely need it for special glyphs. As few css as possible. Word often makes to much fine control, hence my recommendation to edit the css. Do something fancy only, if you know, what you are doing. People love their eReaders, because they can read in the font and size they like. That said, you could do some nice things regarding spacing around headers or use fleurons as szene breakers etc.

[dickloraine]

Oh, and by the way, you can force a new page with css or by having each chapter as his own file inside the epub. And you could do this automatically in word too, if you change the formating of your headings to do a page break before. And finaly: since each ereader renders pages differently, page numbers inside the text are a very bad idea Let the ereader do the work.

[dickloraine]

A last thought: We talk about styles, but don't think about them as if they were just that. Instead treat them as a semantic context to your text. Formating is just the last step to show the reader what semantic content the text has. Just give anything that has a specific meaning a style. How far you go in this is up to you, some people only use italics for inner speaking others may use a style for it (which they the format a italic). No need to do this, since the convention is widely known, but an example, how to think about styles.

[BetterRed]

I suggest epigraphs be put after the chapter heading. If the ereader can't or is configured not to flip to a 'new page' at start of chapter, it will then be obvious they are apposite to the new chapter rather than a reflection on the previous chapter.

Added : it's my opinion that in fiction at least, bold, italic, capitals etc for emphasis or context should be avoided within the body of the text. Phrasing, punctuation and paragraphing should be enough, no need to spoon feed readers, they should have to do some work, learn use their imaginations etc.

BR

[eschwartz]

I will third the motion to do everything with styles.

Something to keep in mind -- you can always touch up the code of the book in calibre's Edit Book tool. If you plan on doing that, you will want to learn basic HTML+CSS.
A valuable resource is Pablo's EPub_Tutorial in the MR Wiki.

[lionscourt]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@lionscourt -
If you are converting the output of Word, then the best format to use as input is DOCX. You can also import the DOCX into the Editor, apparently this should 'preserve' word style names in the css names. Speaking for myself it makes little difference, conversion is simpler (press C) and I rarely edit the EPUB, preferring instead to do all editing in the original DOCX.
BR

Thanks for the great start. Using DocX solved all of the conversion problems I was seeing in the Epub version on Calibre. I should be able to manipulate text now in the beginning of the DocX now to simulate the beginning of a real book; ie...cover page, title page, dedication, copyright....story. and yes, i understand, the media is 'scrollable' which i why i said simulate only.
Knowing Calibre accepted DocX was a good key.

[PeterT]

I feel you would be far better served by separating the creation / conversion into two distinct operations.

First, completing your masterpiece in Word, but ONLY the actual text of the book itself.

Then, convert what you have into an ePub format. (Hopefully breaking the story into multiple files at chapter breaks).

Finally, using a tool more designed for handling ePubs add in the entities like cover page / title page / dedication / copyright etc.

You would also gain from the experience of other, more skilled ePub creators by moving to the dedicated ePub format sub-forum, and of other authors in the Writer's Corner sub-forum.

[JSWolf]

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