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Tango Mike · 08-07-2011, 09:48 AM

I'm relatively new to Calibre and formatting my novel as an ebook, and have both mobi and epub files looking very good, but...

I'm using page breaks between chapters so that each one begins on a new page because that seems to be the most common ebook format. I've been told not to use multiple hard returns to space chapter headings down from the top of the page or to add space between the chapter heading and the first paragraph of the chapter. I'm doing that with styles in MS Word. This has created two issues with my current ebook versions.

First, with no control over how a reader will choose to view the book, I can't prevent situations in which a few words or lines of text at the end of a chapter appear at the top of the last page, leaving mostly blank space before the beginning of the next chapter. That seems to be something I have to accept if I want to use page breaks between chapters.

But if I were to eliminate the page breaks and use only the style function in Word to add space above and below my chapter headings, readers would still get a visual differentiation for chapter ends and starts, and I'd avoid the possibility of mostly empty last pages of chapters.

I don't know how common that is, and I'd like to hear what you think of that as a tactic for altering the appearance of the novel on the e-reader.

Second issue: two chapter transitions in my current mobi version when viewed on my Kindle for Mac have a completely blank page between the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. I don't have a Kindle, so I can't determine if that would be the case on the reader itself. I've checked the source Word file for an extra hard return that shouldn't be there, or an extra page break, and have found none. Has anyone encountered this or a similar problem and found a solution?

I'd appreciate any comments on these two issues. Thanks in advance for your time.

08-07-2011, 09:48 AM	#1
Tango Mike Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 20 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: none	Need help/opinions with formatting I'm relatively new to Calibre and formatting my novel as an ebook, and have both mobi and epub files looking very good, but... I'm using page breaks between chapters so that each one begins on a new page because that seems to be the most common ebook format. I've been told not to use multiple hard returns to space chapter headings down from the top of the page or to add space between the chapter heading and the first paragraph of the chapter. I'm doing that with styles in MS Word. This has created two issues with my current ebook versions. First, with no control over how a reader will choose to view the book, I can't prevent situations in which a few words or lines of text at the end of a chapter appear at the top of the last page, leaving mostly blank space before the beginning of the next chapter. That seems to be something I have to accept if I want to use page breaks between chapters. But if I were to eliminate the page breaks and use only the style function in Word to add space above and below my chapter headings, readers would still get a visual differentiation for chapter ends and starts, and I'd avoid the possibility of mostly empty last pages of chapters. I don't know how common that is, and I'd like to hear what you think of that as a tactic for altering the appearance of the novel on the e-reader. Second issue: two chapter transitions in my current mobi version when viewed on my Kindle for Mac have a completely blank page between the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. I don't have a Kindle, so I can't determine if that would be the case on the reader itself. I've checked the source Word file for an extra hard return that shouldn't be there, or an extra page break, and have found none. Has anyone encountered this or a similar problem and found a solution? I'd appreciate any comments on these two issues. Thanks in advance for your time.