Kindle pages vs. MS Word pages...

[joecap]

I have been taking many of my writings from Word and converting them to mobi using Caliber so I can read them on my Kindle. It generally goes pretty well...I create my Table of Contents in Word, save as HTML, and I can convert to MOBI just fine, my Kindle reads it, and the TOC works ok in Kindle too.

I want the pages in Kindle to mimic exactly how they appear on Word, page by page...

I know this is not quite possible, since the amount of text appearing per page on the Kindle depends on how big your fonts are. I have noticed that Kindle displays about 43 characters per line, and I find that if creating a Word doc, if I use Calibra font size 21, it does about the same thing. This should give me a pretty good approximation how it will translate over.

I guess my biggest question is how the pages in Word translate to Kindle. What I am wanting is for me to set up my pages in Word just the way I like them, with the spacing all correct, and the succession of pages in Word to equal exactly how the pages appear on the Kindle.

For example, if I am at a specific page in word, and I want to insert an image, I will normally keep hitting enter on Word until I get down to a brand new page, and slap the image there, so it appears all by itself on the page.

Sometimes it does that, and sometimes it doesn't. I am just fishing for thoughts, I guess...Thanks!

[susan_cassidy]

Kindles do not have pages, per se. It is all one continuous stream of data. You can insert a special page break html tag (<mbp:pagebreak/>), to force a new screen, but that's all (requires you to edit interim HTML before conversion to final .mobi file).

[frabjous]

Why don't you just set the page size in Word to the size of your Kindle screen, and then export to PDF?

[joecap]

Hey, susan, I tried that, but the tag you gave me doesn't seem to do anything...

frabjous...I have actually done that as well...exporting to PDF, and that actually has some advantages...since a pdf file is more of an IMAGE file than a document, I can control exactly how each page looks...I can use any kind of font, AND Kindle actually numbers them as real pages.

The only downside, besides the size of the file, is that I cannot do a clickable table of contents. Also, I notice that in order to NOT make the page too small to read, I must only use about half of my available page space in word.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[frabjous]

PDFs are not image files in any interesting sense, though of course they do have fixed page layouts.

Originally Posted by joecap

The only downside, besides the size of the file, is that I cannot do a clickable table of contents.

Nonsense. I don't know how to do it in Word, since I don't use Word (or any of M$'s other lousy products), but you can certainly do clickable Table of Contents in a PDF.

Look at the ones I created here, including the ebook and iphone sized ones.

Also, I notice that in order to NOT make the page too small to read, I must only use about half of my available page space in word.

This is why I suggested that you change the page size in Word to the size of the Kindle screen, which is of course much smaller than the default paper size for Word. You can also increase the font size for more or less the same effect.

[joecap]

Thanks, Frab. Saving as pdf file in word preserved my TOC, and the links work in acrobat reader, but not from within Kindle. I guess I can't have it all...

[DMSmillie]

@frabjous: as far as I know, the Kindle PDF viewer doesn't yet have the ability to recognise or activate links within a PDF. So while the PDF itself might have a fully functional TOC, those links don't work when it's viewed on a Kindle.

@joecap: Susan's suggested use of the <mbpagebreak/> tag will certainly work - I've used it successfully myself - but you have to edit the HTML code directly to insert it, after saving your Word doc as HTML, and before converting it to MOBI format.

I'd suggest, though, that for best results, you need to shift your focus a little, away from trying to replicate your Word doc layout exactly, and towards getting the best result given the different nature of ebooks compared to print docs. For example, if I understand you correctly, you currently use lots of blank lines, inserted using the ENTER key, to position something at the start of the next page - that can really only work successfully when you are working with a fixed size medium like sheets of paper. Much better to use the "Insert - Page Break" command instead. Similarly, if you currently use the ENTER key to create extra blank space between certain paragraphs, instead, use the Format - Paragraph command and specify the amount of blank space you want in the "Space before" or "Space after" settings. When converting Word docs to HTML and ebook formats, simple blank lines inserted using the ENTER key will mostly be ignored, whereas "page breaks" and paragraph formatting stands a much better chance of carrying over into the converted format.

Try amending the way your Word docs are formatted, getting rid of all those blank lines and replacing them with page breaks or paragraph formatting as appropriate, then save as "Web Page, Filtered" and try converting that to MOBI format.

An alternative route, if these MOBI files are just for your own use, would be to amend the Word doc formatting as suggested, then use Mobipocket Creator to convert the Word doc itself (make sure you save it as a .doc file, not .docx) to MOBI format (it'll create a .prc file - that's simply another type of MOBI file and can be loaded directly onto your Kindle without any problem).

(Edit to add: grrrrr! I cannot for the life of me get this forum to display the mobipocket pagebreak code correctly - it insists on converting the "colon p" into a smiley! I even used the entity code for a colon to try and get it to display correctly and it did when I previewed the post, but not, it seems, here in the final version! Bah!)

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

grrrrr! I cannot for the life of me get this forum to display the mobipocket pagebreak code correctly - it insists on converting the "colon p" into a smiley!

Go to the Advanced interface and check the "disable smileys" box (or whatever it is called). Note: it might not be available in the mobile site.

[DMSmillie]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Go to the Advanced interface and check the "disable smileys" box (or whatever it is called).

No other way of doing it? Ah well... thank you Jellby - at least I know what's required - now just need to try and remember to do that next time.

[Jellby]

Well, there's the noparse tag, let's see if it works:

<mbp:pagebreak/>

It does

More info here.

[DMSmillie]

Ohhhhh!

Heh... mea culpa! I always read manuals and FAQs, but on this occasion I didn't. Thanks for the pointer, Jellby!

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

Heh... mea culpa! I always read manuals and FAQs, but on this occasion I didn't.

No, it's not your fault, it's not easy to find that page

Go to FAQ, at the bottom of the screen.
Click on "Reading and Posting Messages"
Click on "Posting New Messages"
Read the whole framed text, until you reach the "click here", and click there.

Not what I'd call intuitive

[DMSmillie]

Heh... I see what you mean!

Well, I know where that page is now, and will be sure to check there if I run into any other snags like trying to get things like <mbp:pagebreak/> (Yayyy! ) to display properly, without necessarily having to switch smileys off for the whole post. Much appreciated!

[joecap]

Thanks, Donna, all your help is much appreciated!

[DMSmillie]

No problem joecap - you're very welcome. Hope you manage to get Kindle versions of your docs that work for you both in visual appearance and functionality.