Calibre Mobi No Italics

[RICHARD_PARIS]

Hello,

I have a word docx book that I have converted to MOBI for upload to Amazon/Kindle.

My issue is sections of a chapter that are 'italicized' in the word document are not converting as 'italics'.

Suggestions?

Thx

Richard Paris
Author: ONE SWEET RIDE

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by RICHARD_PARIS

Hello,

I have a word docx book that I have converted to MOBI for upload to Amazon/Kindle.

My issue is sections of a chapter that are 'italicized' in the word document are not converting as 'italics'.

Suggestions?

Thx

Richard Paris
Author: ONE SWEET RIDE

I do have a suggestion. Convert the Word document to ePub and then use the Calibre editor to clean up the code. Then once that is done, you can use that as your master for your Amazon eBooks, If you don't see your italics, it's very easy to add them back in to the ePub code.

[Quoth]

^^^^
Yes. Upload epub2 to Amazon is best. Even gives the "Enhanced Typesetting" on KFX downloads!

Also inline bold and italics seem to work most reliably IN a paragraph, rather than a named character style. Using inline super & subscript is OK too. I've found that using named Character Styles for those doesn't seem to work on Mobi conversions from Doc or Docx, using Word or LO Writer (Windows or Linux). Paragraph styles for paragraphs.
Don't use inline fontface, fontsize, alignments, indents, only named paragraph styles. Body text level for everything except headings to appear in a TOC. Only put an Anchor at the start of a paragraph for the manually created hyperlinks on TOC. Edit the Wordprocessor Contents generator to put no tabs, no page numbers and no hyperlinks. Or copy/paste it into notepad to strip it.

I've also found that Mobi and AZW/KF8 is best made from an epub2 in Calibre, that was made from a docx (Word or Writer, but don't edit a docx in Writer, only save as).

If MS Word or LO Writer is used properly with styles, there is no need to do ANY CSS/HTML editing in Calibre. Simply convert the docx. But select Tablet for Page setup if the images are correct.

IN the WP, make sure all page related stuff like snap to grid, register true, left & right pages etc is all off/disabled.

[RICHARD_PARIS]

Thanks.

I've converted my docx file to Epub and the italic segments look good in viewer.

Should I just upload the Epub to Amazon/Kindle and forget about MOBI?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by RICHARD_PARIS

Thanks.

I've converted my docx file to Epub and the italic segments look good in viewer.

Should I just upload the Epub to Amazon/Kindle and forget about MOBI?

You should clean the code. Word conversions can have a lot of rubbish code if you did not properly use styles in Word. This rubbish code might cause a problem. So clean up the code and then upload the ePub to Amazon.

But you'll need to install the epubcheck plugin in Calibre to use in the editor. Your ePub has to validate. And all the rubbish code has to go (if you have such). The Calibre viewer works like a web browser and forgives a lot of errors/mess. So you do have to clean and validate.

[RICHARD_PARIS]

Thanks... I used the required Word Styles like Heading1 and Normal and have gone through and cleaned up all the extraneous bits of code. Made sure all the Page Breaks are good etc.

Contents hyperlinks seem to be working fine.

Looked at the Calibre generated Epub in Kindle Previewer 3 and it seems ok.

NOTE: Just installing EPUB Check.

[Quoth]

Forget about Mobi for Amazon. See though about Kindle Downloads on Smashwords.
Amazon perfectly converts epub2 to old mobi, KF8/AZW and KFX etc. They then deliver according to the customer's selected Kindle eInk model, or Fire, or app and according to if "Whispernet" (Mobile or WiFi) or "Transfer via PC" (which works with many phones, Tablets, MacOS and Linux, not just Windows) is selected.

Smashwords is a little more complicated than Amazon to upload to, but you can use the SAME epub2 as uploaded to Amazon. I put the Amazon ASIN *AND* the Smashwords "free" ISBN on the copyright page. Then that epub2 is distributed to Kobo, Tolino, Barnes&Noble, Apple etc and used for customer epub downloads. A Calibre created "Dual Mobi" from the epub2 works best for the Smashwords upload for Kindle Downloads as then ancient Kindles get the basic mobi and newer kindle owners can select "Publisher" which uses the AZW/KF8 part of the file. If you want PDF and LRF versions too on Smashwords you upload an MS Doc file also (not Docx). Their HTML and Mobireader (PDB) conversions from MS Doc are buggy, as are their mobi and epub, so uploading the epub2 direct and the "dual mobi" made from the epub2 (never direct from docx) in Calibre. This is the only use case I've found for the "so called" dual Mobi. I've tested it on DXG, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle Basic, PW3 and PW4 and it seems OK. It's not twice as big maybe because fonts and images are only in it once? I don't know how it works. You change the default Mobi output settings in Calibre to do it.

You can't upload a Dual Mobi to Amazon. The epub2 is best and gives the "Enhanced Typesetting" in KFX which must be a rendering feature not in AZW/KF8 rendering.

Don't use .doc for Calibre, but docx and only to make an epub2. Make all other conversions from the epub2.