[ib1]

chiming in-

All are welcome to advise on where im going wrong and what i might do.

i have a similar issue/ question. i am formatting my books before epublishing through an aggregator.

my intent is to get my file perfectly clean and simple.. so that when the aggregator converts to the other formats- there are no issues.

there are no graphics or font preferences or any formatting other than chapter headings.. simple simple.
ALL I WANT IS BARE BONES so as not to complicate any conversions.. no need for odd fonts or images or even indentation if thats an issue.

the files are clean when i send to the proofer but the proofer uses word so i get back a .doc

open in code view- i have absolutely no clue as to what im seeing. .. but theres a lot of duplicate code entries.

on one book i somehow had a stylesheet to check against after flight crew.. the check returned with a hundreds red error entries.. not of which i comprehend.

i have tried to put a stylesheet in and got lost-- so i am sheetless.. nor do i have any idea what stylesheet to use.

the file usually checks in flight crew with
(image/cover) "This resource is present in the OPF <manifest>, but it's not reachable (it's unused).
content.opf - The <language> element is missing.
content.opf - The <title> element is missing.

this is on the clean original txt file.. much worse from a .doc

ive read the threads i could find here and it seems that the gap lay somewhere between "use the tidy if you dont know code" and "read the user guide"
i used the tidy.. the .doc file still looks like a minefield compared to what it looked like when i opened from txt.

any help appreciated!!

edit: i guess what im hoping for is a cheat.. like opening the word file in notepad and cut and pasting into sigil to shake off the dirty..
but im just fantasizing.. no idea what might be plausible -- ALL of this is magic to me : )