Quote:
Originally Posted by jray9242
I am tired of using Word and how it messes up the format of my eBook. I can export to Open Office and keep the current format but is it worth the effort.
Is Open Office better to use for writing my book? If so why?
I really need to understand the benefits of using Open Office and if there are templates for us creating eBooks and well as Paper books.
Thank you.
Jim
|
Speaking honestly,
that makes no sense. Word versus OO versus Atlantis versus whatever is irrelevant. Word isn't "messing up" the format of your eBook--if it is, that's because you're trying to do something that isn't supported in eBooks, or you aren't using Styles and headings.
Bluntly, there's no such thing as a perfectly-exported ePUB from a word-processor, unless the book is EXTREMELY simple. Plain headings, either left-aligned or centered, and relatively plain body text with simple, basic paragraphs. The moment you get "fancier" than that--embedded fonts, fleurons, etc., you have to dive into the HTML to make it come out "right."
So, it's not Word that isn't doing the job. You either need to dive into the HTML and CSS, or you need to change what you're doing in the eBook.
If you want to post an example of what's being "messed up" someone here can
probably tell you how to fix it, but
it's not Word that's messing it up.
I see these posts all the time, as if there's some magic word-processor that will always export some perfect eBook, no matter how badly or incorrectly the intended book is typed, but that's a Holy Graily Unicorn that doesn't exist. To get a viable, usable ePUB from a word-processor isn't hard; it simply takes a few hours of effort in learning how to properly use Styles and Headings. I can clean up almost any Word file (I am a big fan of Toxaris' Tools for the job) and export it to HTML, open it in Sigil and have a
near-perfect eBook,
especially for fiction or simple non-fiction.
I've used OO and LO and Atlantis and Word Perfect and Word and Bob's Big Word Processor and the results are always the same. Sure, people have their preferences, but the reality is, as in all things computer, Garbage In, Garbage Out. None does a hugely better job than the others, and really, I oughta know. (My company has formatted >4,000 eBooks.) Tex2002ans also knows his stuff.
And templates really have
nothing to do with any of this. To me, it sounds as though you type something in your word processor, perhaps using TABS, or multiple spaces, or columns, and don't understand that those things don't exist in eBooks.
Hitch