Document (.docx) to .epub

[firemouz]

Hello,

i have an Word Document and want to convert it into an epub file for my kobo glo. This is no problem with calibre. But at the moment my Word Document is in the standard us-letter size - and much too big (paper size). Now i want to set the size into the same size as the epub books have - so i can see in Word how it will look like in my ebook reader after i have converted it. My kobo glo has a 758 x 1024 px display.

What have i to do in the page setup ? Which Margins and which paper size are correct ?

Thanks in advance,
firemouz
(sorry for my bad english...)

[itimpi]

That will not help you much as the font size used will change according to use preferences as will things like margins. All you can reasonably do is make sure that the text reflows well as the user changes any of these.

[BetterRed]

@firemouz, as itimpi says, paper size is irrelevant

In Word don't use tabs, and don't use blank lines to create vertical space - use paragraph formatting and/or Word's Styles instead

Also don't insert any page or section markers.

And try saving the file as Web Page Filtered in Word rather than docx and then getting Calibre to convert the HTML to Epub (Calibre will put the HTML in a zip when you add it, but don't let that worry you). HTMLZ, as its known, can often produce better results.

BR

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

And try saving the file as Web Page Filtered in Word rather than docx and then getting Calibre to convert the HTML to Epub (Calibre will put the HTML in a zip when you add it, but don't let that worry you). HTMLZ, as its known, can often produce better results.

Or he can try converting both the .docx and the html and see which comes out better. But to convert the .docx you need to install the DOCX Input plugin first via Preferences - Plugins.

[styler001]

I was stoked when I saw that Calibre would now convert from DOCX files to EPUB format. I was previously using MS Office 2010, and saving as "web page, filtered" took mere seconds to complete. When I "upgraded" to Office 2013, this now takes MANY MINUTES (sometimes 10, 15 or more minutes) to save the same file in the same format.

I would like to save my Word files in DOCX format since my files look like they'll generally only take up half the size of saving in DOC format, so I can use less space backing them up, too.

The problem is, when I run the conversion from DOCX to EPUB, Calibre doesn't recognize the tabs at the beginning of paragraphs. Did I do something wrong? Shouldn't tabs be recognized? I'm guessing that an auto-indent will probably be recognized, but I'm in the long-time habit of using tabs.

[itimpi]

No - tabs do not get recognised as a way of indenting. As you mentioned the correct way to do this is using the indent feature of word or using a specific style.

EBook formats are assumed to be re-flowable so you should always assume that tabs will be ignored for formatting purposes. Another thing that gets ignored is layout using multiple spaces.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by styler001

I was stoked when I saw that Calibre would now convert from DOCX files to EPUB format. I was previously using MS Office 2010, and saving as "web page, filtered" took mere seconds to complete. When I "upgraded" to Office 2013, this now takes MANY MINUTES (sometimes 10, 15 or more minutes) to save the same file in the same format.

I would like to save my Word files in DOCX format since my files look like they'll generally only take up half the size of saving in DOC format, so I can use less space backing them up, too.

The problem is, when I run the conversion from DOCX to EPUB, Calibre doesn't recognize the tabs at the beginning of paragraphs. Did I do something wrong? Shouldn't tabs be recognized? I'm guessing that an auto-indent will probably be recognized, but I'm in the long-time habit of using tabs.

I've learnt to avoid the use of tabs for horizontal spacing and extra paragraphs for vertical spacing, like the plague. So much so that before I save a document I seek out & deal with tabs (^t) and blank paragraphs (^p^p).

I make use of Word's template facility and styles - 10 minutes of learning made life a lot easier. There are a lots of templates you can download for free.

The simplest place to start maybe is to change your Normal paragraph style - see attachment.

BR

[styler001]

Thanks for the quick replies and tips.

One question, now that you mention avoiding ^p^p. I've got text such as the following, using the dots as a break:

Blah blah blah.^p
^p
• • • • • • (this is centered)^p
^p
Blah blah blah.

What would be the "proper" or "accepted" way to handle that?

Or this, because this is how I like my chapters starting off...

CHAPTER 1^p
^p
^p
^p
^p
Blah blah blah, etc., etc., etc.

Thanks again. You guys are great!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by styler001

Thanks for the quick replies and tips.

One question, now that you mention avoiding ^p^p. I've got text such as the following, using the dots as a break:



What would be the "proper" or "accepted" way to handle that?

Or this, because this is how I like me chapters starting off...



Thanks again. You guys are great!

This is how I would do what you want to do

I would use Heading 1 Style for Chapter headings - assuming each line is 6 points, 4x6=24 so I would adjust the Paragraph section of Heading 1 Style to put 24pt gap after the Text

BTW Ctl/Alt/1 will style the current paragraph as Heading 1.

I don't use softbreaks much, when I do I just type '* * * * * *' followed by ctrl/e to centre.

But if I wanted to do something as you want to do I would probably create a macro. First you need to Show the Developer tab. Then you need to Record the Macro. If were me I'd assign it to a shortcut eg Alt/Shift/S.

The macro would 'type your six dots', and then edit the paragraph to centre the text and put 12 points before and after the paragraph.

It might take you a little bit of time to create the macro, if you haven't used them previously - but once you 'get the hang of it' you'll curse yourself for not taking the time earlier.

Here's a list of keyboard shortcuts for Word 2010 - http://www.shortcutworld.com/en/win/Word_2010.html

Addenda

An easier way for your softbreak is to create a Word Quick Part - you create a softbreak as you want to have it (the six dots, centred with 12 points before and after) - select it and put it in Words Quick Part (Auto Text) gallery

And here's how to give a Quick Part a Keyboard shortcut

Much easier than using macros

Calibre and Word have one thing in common - there's usually more than one way to achieve the same result

BR

[styler001]

Wow. For you all, that's probably not much. But, to me, that's a wealth of information. I appreciate your help. I'm definitely going to need to experiment with this stuff.

Thanks.