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Old 05-25-2011, 01:49 PM   #211
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Originally Posted by Michael J Hunt View Post
Hi Dream Writer. So it isn't just me - I'm relieved to hear it.
No, it isn't only you. Those formatting irregularities bother me too. Amazon shouldn't have used that example in their advert, and it's amazing that they didn't scrutinize it more carefully before publishing.

Quote:
One thing you mentioned that I'd like to pick up on, is where you state 'Some people probably don't know how to create the em-dash'. You can count me in on that - I assume you're referring to MicroSoft Word.
It's super-easy to create an em-dash in MS Word. There's a feature called AutoCorrect. I use MS Word 2007, so these instructions apply to that version. To check how your AutoCorrect is set up, click on the circle-thingy in the upper-left corner in Word (called "Office Button"). Click on "Word Options," then "Proofing," "AutoCorrect Options," and "AutoFormat." If you check the box that says "hyphens (--) with dash (—)," then every time you type a word followed by two hyphens in a row and another word, the two hyphens turn into an em-dash automatically.

When I'm working with HTML to create an e-book, I insert this code in the HTML wherever the em-dash appears:

Code:
—
I'm not sure that's always necessary, but I also make similar HTML changes for curly quotes, apostrophes, etc.
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Old 05-25-2011, 02:38 PM   #212
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Windows users can also use the nifty (free!) ``All Chars'' program which emulates the ``COMPOSE'' key on old DEC word processors. Highly recommended:

http://allchars.zwolnet.com/

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Old 05-25-2011, 04:37 PM   #213
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Originally Posted by Michael J Hunt View Post
Hi Dream Writer. So it isn't just me - I'm relieved to hear it. What I find unbelievable, is that a company like Amazon didn't spot that for themselves when they agreed the advert. Talk about compounding an error.

One thing you mentioned that I'd like to pick up on, is where you state 'Some people probably don't know how to create the em-dash'. You can count me in on that - I assume you're referring to MicroSoft Word. How I do it, is copy an em-dash from the text and then paste it where I want it. Alternatively, I pick one out of 'Symbols', then copy it for further use. Cumbersome, I know, but it's far better than having hundreds of en-dashes to convert during editing.

If you know how to activate a consistent em-dash in Word, I'd be delighted if you could let me in on the trick.
Sony has the very same em dash bug in their BBeB parser. Very annoying to be sure. But ADE does not have that bug. To type an em dash in Windows, type alt 0151 (keypad) and you get an em dash. In fact, in ePub that have em dash with spaces, I fix that is it bothers me.
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Old 05-25-2011, 04:38 PM   #214
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Originally Posted by DreamWriter View Post
No, it isn't only you. Those formatting irregularities bother me too. Amazon shouldn't have used that example in their advert, and it's amazing that they didn't scrutinize it more carefully before publishing.


It's super-easy to create an em-dash in MS Word. There's a feature called AutoCorrect. I use MS Word 2007, so these instructions apply to that version. To check how your AutoCorrect is set up, click on the circle-thingy in the upper-left corner in Word (called "Office Button"). Click on "Word Options," then "Proofing," "AutoCorrect Options," and "AutoFormat." If you check the box that says "hyphens (--) with dash (—)," then every time you type a word followed by two hyphens in a row and another word, the two hyphens turn into an em-dash automatically.

When I'm working with HTML to create an e-book, I insert this code in the HTML wherever the em-dash appears:

Code:
—
I'm not sure that's always necessary, but I also make similar HTML changes for curly quotes, apostrophes, etc.
When you use Word for the source document, do you fix the garbage Word inserts when saved as filtered HTML?
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Old 05-25-2011, 08:03 PM   #215
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Originally Posted by JSWolf View Post
When you use Word for the source document, do you fix the garbage Word inserts when saved as filtered HTML?
I have created only one ebook from an MS Word document (my husband's book), but yes, I did fix the HTML code. I also have a separate CSS file. The MS Word-generated HTML is certainly a mess, even when you choose the filtered option!

I created another ebook by adding all the HTML code by hand. It was very time-consuming but rather fun, actually.
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Old 05-26-2011, 04:50 AM   #216
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Amazon/Kindle do no editing at all, Michael (nor do the other ebook retailers). It's up to the publisher to prepare flawless files. That's why your own books with us, for intance, are -- after the full editorial process and thorough proofing by many sets of eyes -- painstakingly prepared at the technical end four times over: for print, and then individually created for all three morst popular digital formats, including Mobi for Kindle. Files are then checked for flaws on several in-house reading platforms BEFORE uploading to retail. When digital formatting is automated or when a for-print PDF (often containing occult errors that don't show in print but do in ebook form) is used for auto-conversion, anomalies will invariably creep in. Bestests. Neil
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Old 05-26-2011, 12:48 PM   #217
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Thanks to everyone for all your helpful advice. The em-dash problem sounds so minor, yet, when you're writing books, the time consumed in overcoming it is considerable.

Thanks for the information about preparing an e-book, Neil.
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Old 05-28-2011, 07:35 AM   #218
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What bothers me is that publishers are using the cost of converting to ebook as justification for not relaxing ebook prices, yet many of them are clearly not doing anything other than OCR (i.e. no humans are proofreading these books).

I'm reading an excellent ebook at the moment that has lots of silly typos. One person in the book has the surname 'Horne' and it alternates between 'Horne' and 'Home' constantly. This is obviously an OCR error.

And like others noted, there are hyphenation issues on most Kindle books I've read to date, all of which should be easily picked up by a human proofreader.
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Old 05-28-2011, 12:06 PM   #219
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If there are large numbers of ludicrous typos, I have a policy of returning the book and asking for my money back. Actions speak. If enough people did this, it would send a pretty clear message.
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Old 05-28-2011, 12:47 PM   #220
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Originally Posted by DreamWriter View Post
I have created only one ebook from an MS Word document (my husband's book), but yes, I did fix the HTML code. I also have a separate CSS file. The MS Word-generated HTML is certainly a mess, even when you choose the filtered option!

I created another ebook by adding all the HTML code by hand. It was very time-consuming but rather fun, actually.
One thing I have done in the past is to create the ePub from the Word sourced HTML and then take the HTML and load it into Bookdesigner. Bookdesigner basically filters out the garbage and then save again as HTML. Take the HTML from BD, copy the chapters and replace then ePub chapters. Then clean up as needed. Sometimes it's a lot less work.
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Old 05-28-2011, 01:22 PM   #221
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The way I would create eBooks is to first create the ePub and get it looking just how I want it. After it's been looked at and proofed and is ready to go, convert that to Mobipocket. You won't have to worry about typos or whatnot creeping in as all that's already been proofed. The next step would be to see how it looks and if it looks good, then that's done.

One problem we have with publishers can be worse then OCR. They sometimes use a PDF source.
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Old 05-28-2011, 02:04 PM   #222
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One thing I have done in the past is to create the ePub from the Word sourced HTML and then take the HTML and load it into Bookdesigner. Bookdesigner basically filters out the garbage and then save again as HTML. Take the HTML from BD, copy the chapters and replace then ePub chapters. Then clean up as needed. Sometimes it's a lot less work.
Thanks for that tip! I've never worked with Bookdesigner. I may try that next time I create an ebook. Cleaning up the MS Word-generated HTML by hand was very time-consuming, but using search and replace did help!
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Old 05-28-2011, 02:11 PM   #223
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Thanks for that tip! I've never worked with Bookdesigner. I may try that next time I create an ebook. Cleaning up the MS Word-generated HTML by hand was very time-consuming, but using search and replace did help!
If you want to do it by hand, notepad++ is very nice. You can load the CSS and all the XML files in separate tabs and use search/replace to search & replace in all the tabs at one go. Also, it supports regex search/replace. It's what I used to do a lot of ePub editing.
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Old 05-28-2011, 02:12 PM   #224
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If there are large numbers of ludicrous typos, I have a policy of returning the book and asking for my money back. Actions speak. If enough people did this, it would send a pretty clear message.
I bought a Kindle book that had atrocious formatting -- truly unreadable. Amazon refunded the money, and I posted my experience as a review. The (self published) author responded with, "Gee, I had been wondering why there were so many returns!"
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