Best Formatting for Conversion

[JP91306]

(This isn't a "crisis" question...just a topic for conversation.)

I often create documents which I later convert into Epub/AZW/MOBI formats.

I basically use Word to create the documents.

Has anyone done any research or testing to determine what the best basic settings (page size and format, fonts, etc.) that produce the most dependable and "closest to original" when they are converted?

I have been using 8.5"x11" with .5 margins all around, Calibre or Times at about 10pts, full justified.

This produces "acceptable" outputs but they hardly look like "published" e-books.

Any thoughts?

Thank you.

jp91306

[retiredbiker]

I used to do this all the time (with LibreOffice, not Word), but I found some general simple things that helped quite a lot, at least for my needs.

Use a page size, margins and font in the word processor that gives you, on screen, a good approximation of what you see on your Kindle or Kobo or whatever viewer you use.

Use paragraph styles, not ad hoc formatting, as much as possible. In LO, I have a set of styles for ebook work saved that I can import into a document. I assume you can do the same in Word, but not sure. I came to these style settings by trial and error; as I recall they basically give top and bottom margins for appropriate heading and paragraph spacing (no empty paragraphs for white space!), tiny side margins, left justify for most text, centered chapter titles, and so on. I use them as a start, and change as needed in a given document. No magic, just my preferences, likely different from yours.

At first the tiny page looks strange in a WP document, but once you get used to it, and the styles, you will see your books come out very much as expected. The emulated ereader screen will guide you to formatting that you probably would not do, looking at the letter-size page. For example, chapter headings that look OK on a letter size page I find way too big on my ereader.

And having said that, I still edit most of these in the Calibre editor for fine tuning, like changing the point sizes LO uses to em units.

[BetterRed]

for Word

Especially the use of Styles, and avoidance of tabs or extra spaces for horizontal indents, and blank lines for extra vertical space.

I edit in web layout mode - i.e. continuous flow; I have a couple of 'page layouts' that I can use as guides for a couple of reading devices. For ebooks I use a simple template - i.e. not one based on normal.dotm which has far too much baggage.

BR