Quote:
Originally Posted by willus
For the purpose of re-formatting (potentially eventually into mobi/e-pub) so they are easier to read with an e-book. I've attached example PDFs and related thumbnails from (a) the PDF, (b) the PDF loaded into MS Word, and (c) a re-formatted version of the PDF in MS Word. For each case, I loaded the PDF directly into MS Word (subscription version of Office 365 Home), then did nothing but a 30-second re-format by changing the margins. No editing.
1. Computer-generated, fairly complex layout--two columns, inset graphics/tables.
2. Scanned from a book.
In both cases, I can quickly get to a very readable solution with minimal editing work.
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Well, we view things differently. I don't know how you make your eBooks; I can't speak to that.
But--and we've tested this, more than once--when we need to take a PDF to "Word," the cleaner result is pretty much always via Abbyy. Yes, the amount of work sucks, and all that, but at least what I get out, directly into Word, isn't quite as disastrous, under the skin, as the "open PDF in Word" method.
I mean...pehaps you mean that you take the resulting Word file and you clean it up, and then export it to HTML. When I take the 2-col PDF that you've so kindly provided as a sample, put it into Word 2016, and export that result to HTML, it ain't pretty.
At my company, we have a visual that we give to our clients; we tell them that their books/projects are like icebergs. They and their readers all look at the part that's above the waterline. We are simply concerned with what's below the waterline. When I view the part below the waterline in these files--particularly the more-complex example--I'm reasonably sure that I'd get a cleaner result if it had run through Abbyy.
Now, as I've said here more than once, different courses for different horses. Everybody has their OWN way of getting to Point X. And everybody's Point X is different, too. There's only one place that has any "jurisdiction" over our work, and that's the IDPF's ePUBcheck. And even then...well, we all know that tune.
If this works for you, I think that's great. I received a half-disastrous FICTION book (yes, simple fiction) from a major agency, this past summer, that they'd tried to do by this method, for one of their author clients. I'd have thought that if this worked smoothly, they wouldn't have needed us, but...{shrug}. Who knows?
Like I said...different horses. Glad it's working for you. For whatever reason, I don't think it really works for us.
Hitch