line breaks in EPUB

skunkworks · 06-25-2023, 04:33 AM

When converting a DOCX to EPUB, several sentences which are okay in Word produce line breaks in the EPUB.

Word:
Arriving in San Francisco we were transported to the Victorian home we had arranged to rent in Pacific Heights located high on a hill overlooking the city. We were entranced by the sparkling waters of the bay and I remarked it wouldn’t be surprising if someday they figured out how to build a bridge across there.
Invigorated by the view we arose early next day to admire the beauty of the area.

Date: April 18, 1906. Time: A little past 5:00 AM.

“Well, Fran, my dear, here we are in our thirty-eighth year together and we’re both awake bright and early. How would you like to celebrate today?”
“Oh, Matt, it doesn’t seem possible we’ve been together that long. We’ve certainly had some wonderful times. It seems to me like every day is a celebration.”
“Me, too. I thought maybe we might…”
“Did you feel that? It felt like...”
“Something’s shaking...”
“What’s that rumbling noise? Sounds like...”

(Editor's note: At 5:12 AM on April 18, 1906 San Francisco was struck by a devastating earthquake.)

We were startled, frightened, and bewildered.

EPUB:
Arriving in San Francisco we were transported to the Victorian home we had arranged to rent in Pacific Heights located high on a hill overlooking the city. We were entranced by the sparkling waters of the bay and I remarked it wouldn’t be surprising if someday they figured out how to build a bridge across there.
Invigorated by the view we arose early next day to admire the beauty of the area.

Date: April 18, 1906. Time: A little past 5:00 AM.

“Well, Fran, my dear, here we are in our thirty-eighth year together and we’re both awake bright and early. How would you like to celebrate today?”

“Oh, Matt, it doesn’t seem possible we’ve been together that long. We’ve certainly had some wonderful times. It seems to me like every day is a celebration.”

“Me, too. I thought maybe we might…”

“Did you feel that? It felt like...”

“Something’s shaking...”

“What’s that rumbling noise? Sounds like...”

(Editor's note: At 5:12 AM on April 18, 1906 San Francisco was struck by a devastating earthquake.)

We were startled, frightened, and bewildered.

*****

Spoiler:

Quoth · 06-25-2023, 07:27 AM

Check your MS Word Styles. Make sure no direct formatting.

Also no headers, footers, page numbers or automatic hyphenation (all those are only for paper / PDF export)

No inches or cm. Only pt (or em if your version of Word supports it. 1em = 12 pt for ebooks, but not for paper!).

Make sure on your dialogue that each part equals one paragraph. Do not use Shift Enter or similar, but just enter. A "shift enter" may translate to a 

Should be
Arriving in San Francisco we were transported to the Victorian home we had arranged to rent in Pacific Heights located high on a hill overlooking the city. We were entranced by the sparkling waters of the bay and I remarked it wouldn’t be surprising if someday they figured out how to build a bridge across there.
“Something’s shaking...”
“What’s that rumbling noise? Sounds like...”

Don't enter blank lines to space, instead have a paragraph style that adds non-zero top (& optionally bottom) margins.

Have the regular body text style for narration and dialogue have a first-line-indent value. A paragraph style for after a heading or scene break can have a zero first line indent margin.

Don't set any line-spacing

JSWolf · 06-25-2023, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

Check your MS Word Styles. Make sure no direct formatting.

Also no headers, footers, page numbers or automatic hyphenation (all those are only for paper / PDF export)

No inches or cm. Only pt (or em if your version of Word supports it. 1em = 12 pt for ebooks, but not for paper!).

Make sure on your dialogue that each part equals one paragraph. Do not use Shift Enter or similar, but just enter. A "shift enter" may translate to a 

Should be
Arriving in San Francisco we were transported to the Victorian home we had arranged to rent in Pacific Heights located high on a hill overlooking the city. We were entranced by the sparkling waters of the bay and I remarked it wouldn’t be surprising if someday they figured out how to build a bridge across there.
“Something’s shaking...”
“What’s that rumbling noise? Sounds like...”

Don't enter blank lines to space, instead have a paragraph style that adds non-zero top (& optionally bottom) margins.

Have the regular body text style for narration and dialogue have a first-line-indent value. A paragraph style for after a heading or scene break can have a zero first line indent margin.

Don't set any line-spacing

Actually...

Should be
Arriving in San Francisco we were transported to the Victorian home we had arranged to rent in Pacific Heights located high on a hill overlooking the city. We were entranced by the sparkling waters of the bay and I remarked it wouldn’t be surprising if someday they figured out how to build a bridge across there.
“Something’s shaking...”
“What’s that rumbling noise? Sounds like...”

With the style for p in CSS such as...

Code:

p {
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  text-indent: 1.2em;
}

Quoth · 06-25-2023, 04:38 PM

or
.somebody {
margin-top: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
text-indent: 1.2em;
}

I didn't bother putting example CSS because it's automatically created to match the docx paragraph style.

No need to edit any CSS or HTML for any text or heading if the docx is correct.

JSWolf · 06-25-2023, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

or
.somebody {
margin-top: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
text-indent: 1.2em;
}

I didn't bother putting example CSS because it's automatically created to match the docx paragraph style.

No need to edit any CSS or HTML for any text or heading if the docx is correct.

It's a simple fix. I don't like .

I prefer the default paragraph format to be .

skunkworks · 06-25-2023, 07:38 PM

Thank you, Quoth and JSWolf! I'll study your tips and give it a go. Much appreciated!

skunkworks · 06-25-2023, 08:23 PM

Update: For some odd reason, the troublesome paragraphs, although formatted the same as others in Word, had a different class block. Changing it from 20 to 13 did the trick.

Thanks again!

Quoth · 06-26-2023, 06:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's a simple fix. I don't like .

I prefer the default paragraph format to be .

But you are mostly editing existing ebooks. Creating ebooks from Word or LO Writer via docx shouldn't involve any ebook editing at all, except maybe image classes that need % and auto properties rather than absolute pixels.

JSWolf · 06-26-2023, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

But you are mostly editing existing ebooks. Creating ebooks from Word or LO Writer via docx shouldn't involve any ebook editing at all, except maybe image classes that need % and auto properties rather than absolute pixels.

If the ePub from the DOCX has then yes it should be edited to remove the class.

06-25-2023, 04:33 AM	#1
skunkworks Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2023 Device: none	line breaks in EPUB When converting a DOCX to EPUB, several sentences which are okay in Word produce line breaks in the EPUB. Word: Arriving in San Francisco we were transported to the Victorian home we had arranged to rent in Pacific Heights located high on a hill overlooking the city. We were entranced by the sparkling waters of the bay and I remarked it wouldn’t be surprising if someday they figured out how to build a bridge across there. Invigorated by the view we arose early next day to admire the beauty of the area. Date: April 18, 1906. Time: A little past 5:00 AM. “Well, Fran, my dear, here we are in our thirty-eighth year together and we’re both awake bright and early. How would you like to celebrate today?” “Oh, Matt, it doesn’t seem possible we’ve been together that long. We’ve certainly had some wonderful times. It seems to me like every day is a celebration.” “Me, too. I thought maybe we might…” “Did you feel that? It felt like...” “Something’s shaking...” “What’s that rumbling noise? Sounds like...” (Editor's note: At 5:12 AM on April 18, 1906 San Francisco was struck by a devastating earthquake.) We were startled, frightened, and bewildered. EPUB: Arriving in San Francisco we were transported to the Victorian home we had arranged to rent in Pacific Heights located high on a hill overlooking the city. We were entranced by the sparkling waters of the bay and I remarked it wouldn’t be surprising if someday they figured out how to build a bridge across there. Invigorated by the view we arose early next day to admire the beauty of the area. Date: April 18, 1906. Time: A little past 5:00 AM. “Well, Fran, my dear, here we are in our thirty-eighth year together and we’re both awake bright and early. How would you like to celebrate today?” “Oh, Matt, it doesn’t seem possible we’ve been together that long. We’ve certainly had some wonderful times. It seems to me like every day is a celebration.” “Me, too. I thought maybe we might…” “Did you feel that? It felt like...” “Something’s shaking...” “What’s that rumbling noise? Sounds like...” (Editor's note: At 5:12 AM on April 18, 1906 San Francisco was struck by a devastating earthquake.) We were startled, frightened, and bewildered. *** Spoiler*: No conversion options have been changed. Conversion log: Convert book 1 of 1 (ebookD2D) Conversion options changed from defaults: verbose: 2 output_profile: 'generic_eink' read_metadata_from_opf: 'C:\\Users\\Owner\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\calibre_5 ec2affu\\g91qejnm.opf' Resolved conversion options calibre version: 6.19.1 {'asciiize': False, 'author_sort': None, 'authors': None, 'base_font_size': 0.0, 'book_producer': None, 'change_justification': 'original', 'chapter': "//[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., " "'\\s((chapter\|book\|section\|part)\\s+)\|((prolog\|p rologue\|epilogue)(\\s+\|$))', " "'i')) or @class = 'chapter']", 'chapter_mark': 'pagebreak', 'comments': None, 'cover': None, 'debug_pipeline': None, 'dehyphenate': True, 'delete_blank_paragraphs': True, 'disable_font_rescaling': False, 'docx_inline_subsup': False, 'docx_no_cover': False, 'docx_no_pagebreaks_between_notes': False, 'dont_split_on_page_breaks': False, 'duplicate_links_in_toc': False, 'embed_all_fonts': False, 'embed_font_family': None, 'enable_heuristics': False, 'epub_flatten': False, 'epub_inline_toc': False, 'epub_max_image_size': 'none', 'epub_toc_at_end': False, 'epub_version': '2', 'expand_css': False, 'extra_css': None, 'extract_to': None, 'filter_css': '', 'fix_indents': True, 'flow_size': 260, 'font_size_mapping': None, 'format_scene_breaks': True, 'html_unwrap_factor': 0.4, 'input_encoding': None, 'input_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.InputProfile object at 0x000001FBEE649EA0>, 'insert_blank_line': False, 'insert_blank_line_size': 0.5, 'insert_metadata': False, 'isbn': None, 'italicize_common_cases': True, 'keep_ligatures': False, 'language': None, 'level1_toc': None, 'level2_toc': None, 'level3_toc': None, 'line_height': 0.0, 'linearize_tables': False, 'margin_bottom': 5.0, 'margin_left': 5.0, 'margin_right': 5.0, 'margin_top': 5.0, 'markup_chapter_headings': True, 'max_toc_links': 50, 'minimum_line_height': 120.0, 'no_chapters_in_toc': False, 'no_default_epub_cover': False, 'no_inline_navbars': False, 'no_svg_cover': False, 'output_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.GenericEink object at 0x000001FBEE64A1A0>, 'page_breaks_before': '/', 'prefer_metadata_cover': False, 'preserve_cover_aspect_ratio': False, 'pretty_print': True, 'pubdate': None, 'publisher': None, 'rating': None, 'read_metadata_from_opf': 'C:\\Users\\Owner\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\calibre_5 ec2affu\\g91qejnm.opf', 'remove_fake_margins': True, 'remove_first_image': False, 'remove_paragraph_spacing': False, 'remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size': 1.5, 'renumber_headings': True, 'replace_scene_breaks': '', 'search_replace': '[]', 'series': None, 'series_index': None, 'smarten_punctuation': False, 'sr1_replace': None, 'sr1_search': None, 'sr2_replace': None, 'sr2_search': None, 'sr3_replace': None, 'sr3_search': None, 'start_reading_at': None, 'subset_embedded_fonts': False, 'tags': None, 'timestamp': None, 'title': None, 'title_sort': None, 'toc_filter': None, 'toc_threshold': 6, 'toc_title': None, 'transform_css_rules': '[]', 'transform_html_rules': '[]', 'unsmarten_punctuation': False, 'unwrap_lines': True, 'use_auto_toc': False, 'verbose': 2} InputFormatPlugin: DOCX Input running on C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Temp\calibre_5ec2affu \dr3o8txt.docx Converting Word markup to HTML Converting styles to CSS Cleaning up redundant markup generated by Word Generating Table of Contents from headings Parsing all content... Parsing docx.css ... Parsing index.html ... Initial parse failed, using more forgiving parsers Parsing index.html as HTML Reading TOC from NCX... Merging user specified metadata... Detecting structure... Detected chapter: Chapter 1 Detected chapter: Chapter 2 Detected chapter: Chapter 3 Detected chapter: Chapter 4 Detected chapter: Chapter 5 Detected chapter: Chapter 6 Detected chapter: Chapter 7 Detected chapter: Chapter 8 Detected chapter: Chapter 9 Detected chapter: Chapter 10 Detected chapter: Chapter 11 Detected chapter: Chapter 12 Detected chapter: Chapter 13 Detected chapter: Chapter 14 Detected chapter: Chapter 15 Detected chapter: Chapter 16 Detected chapter: Chapter 17 Detected chapter: Chapter 18 Detected chapter: Chapter 19 Detected chapter: Chapter 20 Detected chapter: Chapter 21 Detected chapter: Epilogue Flattening CSS and remapping font sizes... Source base font size is 14.00000pt Removing fake margins... Found 1322 items of level: p_1 Found 22 items of level: div_1 p_1 left margin stats: Counter({'0': 1322}) p_1 right margin stats: Counter({'0': 1322}) div_1 left margin stats: Counter() div_1 right margin stats: Counter() Cleaning up manifest... Trimming unused files from manifest... Creating EPUB Output... Splitting markup on page breaks and flow limits, if any... Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_0 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_1 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_2 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_3 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_4 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_5 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_6 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_7 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_8 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_9 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_10 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_11 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_12 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_13 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_14 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_15 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_16 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_17 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_18 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_19 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_20 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_21 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_22 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_23 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_24 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_25 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_26 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_27 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_28 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_29 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_30 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_31 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_32 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_33 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_34 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_35 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_36 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_37 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_38 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_39 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_40 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_41 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_42 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_43 Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_44 Looking for large trees in index.html... No large trees found Split into 24 parts Generating default cover Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_002.html#id_Toc525564898 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_003.html#id_Toc525564899 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_004.html#id_Toc525564900 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_005.html#id_Toc525564901 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_006.html#id_Toc525564902 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_007.html#id_Toc525564903 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_008.html#id_Toc525564904 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_009.html#id_Toc525564905 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_010.html#id_Toc525564906 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_011.html#id_Toc525564907 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_012.html#id_Toc525564908 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_013.html#id_Toc525564909 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_014.html#id_Toc525564910 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_015.html#id_Toc525564911 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_016.html#id_Toc525564912 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_017.html#id_Toc525564913 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_018.html#id_Toc525564914 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_019.html#id_Toc525564915 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_020.html#id_Toc525564916 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_021.html#id_Toc525564917 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_022.html#id_Toc525564918 Removing anchor from TOC href: index_split_023.html#id_Toc525564919 EPUB output written to C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Temp\calibre_5ec2affu \o5_tp31y.epub Last edited by theducks; 06-25-2023 at 09:27 AM. Reason: Please Spoiler Log files*

06-25-2023, 07:27 AM	#2
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,016 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Check your MS Word Styles. Make sure no direct formatting. Also no headers, footers, page numbers or automatic hyphenation (all those are only for paper / PDF export) No inches or cm. Only pt (or em if your version of Word supports it. 1em = 12 pt for ebooks, but not for paper!). Make sure on your dialogue that each part equals one paragraph. Do not use Shift Enter or similar, but just enter. A "shift enter" may translate to a <br /> Should be <p class="some-body">Arriving in San Francisco we were transported to the Victorian home we had arranged to rent in Pacific Heights located high on a hill overlooking the city. We were entranced by the sparkling waters of the bay and I remarked it wouldn’t be surprising if someday they figured out how to build a bridge across there.</p> <p class="some-body">“Something’s shaking...”</p> <p class="some-body">“What’s that rumbling noise? Sounds like...”</p> Don't enter blank lines to space, instead have a paragraph style that adds non-zero top (& optionally bottom) margins. Have the regular body text style for narration and dialogue have a first-line-indent value. A paragraph style for after a heading or scene break can have a zero first line indent margin. Don't set any line-spacing Last edited by Quoth; 06-25-2023 at 07:36 AM.

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06-25-2023, 04:38 PM	#4
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,016 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	or .somebody { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent: 1.2em; } I didn't bother putting example CSS because it's automatically created to match the docx paragraph style. No need to edit any CSS or HTML for any text or heading if the docx is correct.

06-25-2023, 07:38 PM	#6
skunkworks Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2023 Device: none	Thank you, Quoth and JSWolf! I'll study your tips and give it a go. Much appreciated!

06-25-2023, 08:23 PM	#7
skunkworks Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2023 Device: none	Update: For some odd reason, the troublesome paragraphs, although formatted the same as others in Word, had a different class block. Changing it from 20 to 13 did the trick. Thanks again!

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