Quote:
Originally Posted by SUeMichele
Thanks for the reply, theducks.
So . . . what's the point of using Sigil if I can't go from .doc to .mobi or other formats? I don't get it.
Isn't there a *simple* program that will convert from various word processing formats to various ebook formats? There *must* be something, somewhere! This seems like a lot of converting going on until I get where I want to go. Not to say I haven't done that in the past (app 1 only has this format, and my stuff is there, but in order to get it to app 2, I have to go through 2 others in between, and each one introduces its own glitches, but when you're desperate, you're desperate), I just don't think that's the best use of my time as a writer. I don't get paid for all the time it takes me to get from one format to another.
Are there any writers around here who might have suggestions? You can get some great writing apps and great script apps, each of which have excellent writing and editing features (cards, corkboards, organization, etc.), but they don't seem to export into anything useful as far as ebooks go. I really shouldn't be writing in one place, converting to something else to import, then edit each format of ebook, exporting it for upload. It's actually painful just to think about. There has to be a better way!
Right? <She said, hopefully.>
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As Serpentine wrote, Sigil is not a "conversion program." There aren't any silver bullet, one-stop-shop, word-processing all-in-one conversion programs out there. The closest you can get would be Jutoh, which is "Word-like," but based on odt. It's not free. Nor is Scrivener, another writing program which has export to both mobi and epub--at least, it does for this 5 minutes. What will happen once KindleGen2 is out is anyone's guess.
As to why you, or anyone else, would be better off with Sigil? For those of us in the business, or who want to make a professional-quality ePUB, really, it's the only game in town, period. Nothing else really comes close, and I know, I've used them all. Not Scrivener, not Jutoh, not Bookbin, and CERTAINLY not any browser-based program comes close.
You are probably best off with Calibre, which works reasonably well on a multitiude of formats, for your own personal reading library and fanfic and something like Jutoh for heavier lifting (for distribution), the latter of which is closest to a word-processing-conversion experience. Some like Atlantis Word Processor, which has an export-to-ePUB plugin. My company uses NoteTabPro to clean up the html and then we use Sigil to make ePUBs, which we then transform, after some tweaking, with KindleGen for MOBI's for Kindle. If absolutely needed by the client, we'll do an LRF using Calibre.
HTH.
Hitch