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Quoth · 12-30-2018, 09:33 AM

A screen shot would have told nothing more except I wasn't making it up.

The only sensible "content creation" tool to write is a wordprocessor. The output has to be PDF for POD and ms .doc or .docx to upload to Amazon. Only Google Books requires ePub upload for Google Play, though they seem to prefer PDF, which is stupid. Paper requires absolute measurements. Amazon & Smashwords when creating from the MS Word file leave the formatting much as it is. So it's important when "proofing" PDF and eBook that in both cases something sensible is happening. Also I do proof reading / edit notes on the Kobo. My Beta readers all use Kindles, either old ones (Mobi) or newer ones (AZW, publisher fonts supported). The text body is designed such that any common serif font ought to be OK, that there is no extra space between body text paragraphs as they use a first line indent. Headings, dividers, subheadings, Preambles, captions quotations etc may use different rules and before and/or after paragraph spacing. The only important aspect with them is Centre, Left, Right or Full justification (works on old kindles with Mobi if done correctly) and that the font size might be different (mostly OK). The non-body paragraph spacing is different for Paper and eBook. I save As with _eb.odt for eBook after Paper version is edited and only edit the Paper version. It's a quick job to change the Contents to have no page numbers, delete Header & Footer and edit paragraph styles to suit eBook (more restricted spacing at start of chapters).
Years ago before I had Calibre I used MobiCreator on windows to make .mobi ebooks. I'd edit in MS Word 2002, import to OpenOffice Writer and save as HTML (because the Mobicreator .doc import does this anyway and MS HTML export is ghastly), open the HTML in an HTML WYSISWYG editor like Webexpress, make any small changes. Do global ones in Notepad++ using regex. Import to Mobicreator.
I gave up Windows & MS Word entirely two years ago.
I have Sigil and other ebook tools. I'm not interested in editing or crafting eBooks. Only interested conversion from odt (Linux version of Calibre doesn't read .doc unlike Windows version) automatically to mobi, azw and epub for my own proof annotations (saved more than cost of two Kobo H2O in paper & toner, also faster to put corrections in). Also to give copies to beta readers and have an idea how it might look for people buying from Amazon, Smashwords or Smashwords distribution.

Anyway, Calibre is great on Linux and was great on XP. The drivers and plug-ins are appreciated. None of it is obvious for even experienced users coming to the "system" fresh. It's awkward too when you move OS or install on an additional laptop that I can easily archive and restore the titles, but having all the same plug-ins and drivers with all the same settings seems awkward.
Also things seem to unexpectedly change. Was it the firmware on a Reader? All the other models / brands seem OK? Or a Calibre update, or driver, or plug-in, or a setting or even the Linux Desktop? There are very many settings.
Also most OS, Software , HW it's now nearly impossible to contact anyone. Or get more than a Lawyer sanitised Marketing reply from an offshore call centre. MS doesn't even listen to the feedback on the Insider program.

I'm not making any definitive suggestions as to how anything should be changed. Just suggesting that only I personally didn't understand the significance of what I was reading on descriptions, dialogue text and the tool tip hover text.

Sometimes it seems that stuff works differently to last week and you have to change a setting you didn't change ever, or changed it so long ago. I noticed last night after reloading around 1000 books as ePubs instead of kepubs SOME epubs were ignoring the Kobo GUI user setting for Line Spacing. Obviously too tight for accented capitals on a line below descenders. Calibre had 120% minimum line spacing. I tried ALL the options in paragraph style in LibreOffice Writer (no effect). Only setting the minimum line spacing to 0 in Calibre allowed the GUI on the Kobo to increase the line spacing. Obviously while 120% is typical, it's not enough for some combinations of fonts, accented capitals and descenders. Puzzling as I'm sure I used to be able to vary line spacing on the Kobo on ALL the books before. Also "Minimum Line spacing" option sets a line spacing in the body css which the Kobo seems to regard as a fixed line spacing of 120% (or whatever you set it to), ignoring user GUI control.
Overall page L & R margin is adjustable and the same default on the Kobo GUI, no matter what the LibreOffice .odt or MS Word .doc page margins, headers & footers are.

EPub, AZW and Mobi creation by myself is ONLY for private use.

12-30-2018, 09:33 AM	#43
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,431 Karma: 107078855 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	A screen shot would have told nothing more except I wasn't making it up. The only sensible "content creation" tool to write is a wordprocessor. The output has to be PDF for POD and ms .doc or .docx to upload to Amazon. Only Google Books requires ePub upload for Google Play, though they seem to prefer PDF, which is stupid. Paper requires absolute measurements. Amazon & Smashwords when creating from the MS Word file leave the formatting much as it is. So it's important when "proofing" PDF and eBook that in both cases something sensible is happening. Also I do proof reading / edit notes on the Kobo. My Beta readers all use Kindles, either old ones (Mobi) or newer ones (AZW, publisher fonts supported). The text body is designed such that any common serif font ought to be OK, that there is no extra space between body text paragraphs as they use a first line indent. Headings, dividers, subheadings, Preambles, captions quotations etc may use different rules and before and/or after paragraph spacing. The only important aspect with them is Centre, Left, Right or Full justification (works on old kindles with Mobi if done correctly) and that the font size might be different (mostly OK). The non-body paragraph spacing is different for Paper and eBook. I save As with _eb.odt for eBook after Paper version is edited and only edit the Paper version. It's a quick job to change the Contents to have no page numbers, delete Header & Footer and edit paragraph styles to suit eBook (more restricted spacing at start of chapters). Years ago before I had Calibre I used MobiCreator on windows to make .mobi ebooks. I'd edit in MS Word 2002, import to OpenOffice Writer and save as HTML (because the Mobicreator .doc import does this anyway and MS HTML export is ghastly), open the HTML in an HTML WYSISWYG editor like Webexpress, make any small changes. Do global ones in Notepad++ using regex. Import to Mobicreator. I gave up Windows & MS Word entirely two years ago. I have Sigil and other ebook tools. I'm not interested in editing or crafting eBooks. Only interested conversion from odt (Linux version of Calibre doesn't read .doc unlike Windows version) automatically to mobi, azw and epub for my own proof annotations (saved more than cost of two Kobo H2O in paper & toner, also faster to put corrections in). Also to give copies to beta readers and have an idea how it might look for people buying from Amazon, Smashwords or Smashwords distribution. Anyway, Calibre is great on Linux and was great on XP. The drivers and plug-ins are appreciated. None of it is obvious for even experienced users coming to the "system" fresh. It's awkward too when you move OS or install on an additional laptop that I can easily archive and restore the titles, but having all the same plug-ins and drivers with all the same settings seems awkward. Also things seem to unexpectedly change. Was it the firmware on a Reader? All the other models / brands seem OK? Or a Calibre update, or driver, or plug-in, or a setting or even the Linux Desktop? There are very many settings. Also most OS, Software , HW it's now nearly impossible to contact anyone. Or get more than a Lawyer sanitised Marketing reply from an offshore call centre. MS doesn't even listen to the feedback on the Insider program. I'm not making any definitive suggestions as to how anything should be changed. Just suggesting that only I personally didn't understand the significance of what I was reading on descriptions, dialogue text and the tool tip hover text. Sometimes it seems that stuff works differently to last week and you have to change a setting you didn't change ever, or changed it so long ago. I noticed last night after reloading around 1000 books as ePubs instead of kepubs SOME epubs were ignoring the Kobo GUI user setting for Line Spacing. Obviously too tight for accented capitals on a line below descenders. Calibre had 120% minimum line spacing. I tried ALL the options in paragraph style in LibreOffice Writer (no effect). Only setting the minimum line spacing to 0 in Calibre allowed the GUI on the Kobo to increase the line spacing. Obviously while 120% is typical, it's not enough for some combinations of fonts, accented capitals and descenders. Puzzling as I'm sure I used to be able to vary line spacing on the Kobo on ALL the books before. Also "Minimum Line spacing" option sets a line spacing in the body css which the Kobo seems to regard as a fixed line spacing of 120% (or whatever you set it to), ignoring user GUI control. Overall page L & R margin is adjustable and the same default on the Kobo GUI, no matter what the LibreOffice .odt or MS Word .doc page margins, headers & footers are. EPub, AZW and Mobi creation by myself is ONLY for private use.