Exporting from Kindle Create?

[slowsmile]

William:

I think that the gist here is that there isn't any way to recover the text editing done in KC, back into a Word file. When you unzip the archive, it's the original Word file that's in there.

Do you know of ANY (easy) way to extract the final text of the revised Word file? I mean...if I had to, I would

take the kpf
convert it to ePUB (Calibre);
open that in Sigil;
Combine/merge the HTML files;
Save.
Unzip the resulting ePUB,
grab the HTML file, and,
Finally, open that in Word (and save as docx).


I mean...that's a long way around, but generally, it should work (although you'd end up with Calibre interpretations of your styles, but you could reformat the Word file).

Do you see any reason that that can't work?

Hitch

If you're talking about recovering the master files from a KPF file, then your recovery needs will be different depending on whether you are trying to recover the master files for a reflowable ebook or paperbook or whether you are trying to recover your master docs for a KPF file for a fixed format ebook. These recovery methods are really essential to avoid calamity if you accidentally delete your master files in error.

So in my next post, I'll describe, in detail, how to recover your work from a KPF file for a reflowable ebook or paperback book. Then, in the post after that, I'll describe how to do it for a fixed format KPF file.

[slowsmile]

@Hitch...

Recovery from a KPF File Derived from a Reflowable ebook or Paperback Book Only

The simplest and quickest way to recover your master Word doc and master KCB project file from a KPF file is to do it in the following way:

1. Use a zip compression application like WinRAR or 7-Zip to open your KPF file as a zip archive.
2. Extract all files and folders in the archive to a new folder.
3. In the new folder, save and rename the "book.docx" file to another safe file location on your computer. The "book.docx" file is your master Word doc that you originally created and loaded into Kindle Create.
4. In the new folder you should also see another file called "book.kcb". That's the master KCB project file that you originally used in Kindle Create to create your uploaded ebook or paperback book.
5. Double-click on the "book.kcb" file and it should open in Kindle Create. This is the final version of your master file that you originally used to create your final KPF file for upload to KDP.
6. After making any changes required in Kindle Create, you can save the KC doc as a KPF file for upload if you wish. As well, you should also ensure that you rename and save your new master KCB project folder to a safe and unforgettable location together with the original master Word doc.

Just to also explain and emphasize that the master KCB file is the most important file to save because it contains both the Word formatting as well as the finishing touches that you added in Kindle Create. But the master Word doc only holds the Word formatting and none of the KC formatting. So the KCB file is the essential master file if you want to fix a problem or update your currently published ebook or book because it should contain ALL the current text, layout and formatting of your published book/ebook. In other words, the Word doc isn't really the file you want to recover -- the key file that you really need, for complete recovery, is the KCB project file.

Please also have a look look at the link below. It will help you to understand what I've just described above. The image is just a jpeg showing the innards of a KPF as a zip file.

KPF as a ZIP File

[slowsmile]

Recovery from a KPF File Derived from a Fixed Format eBook

If you opened up a fixed format KPF file as a zip file(as described above) then you will also get a book.docx and book.kcb file. Unfortunately, if you opened the book.docx in Word then all you would get is a "fixed format" Word doc where every page will contain a full jpeg image of the page text. So that's no good for text recovery. So the only way to recover your fixed format ebook is by recovering your book(as a Word doc) from the original PDF file that you loaded into KC. It's also worth noting, for fixed format ebooks created in Kindle Create, that the most important master file to save is the original Word doc because the book.kcb project file just contains images of all pages -- so you can't make any significant changes to the text, styling or layout using the KCB file.

Essentially there are only three ways that you can recover your Word doc from a PDF file and the choice is yours. These options are described below:

Use Adobe Acrobat DC to convert your PDF file to Word doc Format
Adobe Acrobat DC is a paid-for cloud application with a powerful PDF to Word conversion option. You can also directly edit your PDF file using Adobe Acrobat DC. Using this option you can directly convert your PDF file to Word doc format easily.

"Nuking" the book text in the PDF File
This method involves doing the following:
1. Upload your PDF file to the PDFOnline website and convert your PDF file to Word doc format.
2. Download your new Word doc and save it to your desktop.
3. Open your new Word doc in MS Word or LibreOffice Writer.
4. Select and copy all the book text in your Word doc by using Ctl-A and then Ctl-C.
5. Open the Notepad text editor and just paste all your book text directly into the editor using Ctl-V. When you do this in Notepad it automatically removes all the formatting and styling from the book text. This is also sometimes referred to as "nuking" all the styles.
6. Now select and copy all the unstyled book text in Notepad by using Ctl-A and Ctl-C.
7. Then paste the book text into a blank MS Word document or blank LibreOffice Writer document using Ctl-V.
8. What you will now have to do is completely reformat and restyle your book text from scratch in MS Word or LibreOffice Writer.

Using PDFOnline to convert your PDF file to Word doc format.
Just upload your PDF file to the PDFOnline website and use their PDF-to-Word converter to convert the PDF file to Word doc format and download the new Word doc to your desktop. Then just open your newly recovered Word doc in MS Word or LibreOffice Writer and check it. Then save and convert your Word doc to a PDF file using MS Word or LW – and ensure that you set "PDF/A" quality in PDF Options before conversion. After carefully checking the PDF file for errors using Adobe Acrobat(free) you can then load the PDF into Kindle Create and eventually save it as both a KCB project file and a KPF upload file – and this time be sure to save your master Word doc somewhere safe!! When I tested this PDF recovery method I found that it worked quite well. The only problem that I had in Kindle Create with my test PDF using PDFOnline was that one of my ebook images wasn't centered in the generated Word doc after conversion. But I was quickly able to re-center the image in MS Word and convert it to PDF for loading into Kindle Create without any problems. This is perhaps the fastest and cheapest way to recover your Word doc from a PDF file.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by slowsmile

@Hitch...

Recovery from a KPF File Derived from a Reflowable ebook or Paperback Book Only

The simplest and quickest way to recover your master Word doc and master KCB project file from a KPF file is to do it in the following way:

1. Use a zip compression application like WinRAR or 7-Zip to open your KPF file as a zip archive.
2. Extract all files and folders in the archive to a new folder.
3. In the new folder, save and rename the "book.docx" file to another safe file location on your computer. The "book.docx" file is your master Word doc that you originally created and loaded into Kindle Create.
4. In the new folder you should also see another file called "book.kcb". That's the master KCB project file that you originally used in Kindle Create to create your uploaded ebook or paperback book.
5. Double-click on the "book.kcb" file and it should open in Kindle Create. This is the final version of your master file that you originally used to create your final KPF file for upload to KDP.
6. After making any changes required in Kindle Create, you can save the KC doc as a KPF file for upload if you wish. As well, you should also ensure that you rename and save your new master KCB project folder to a safe and unforgettable location together with the original master Word doc.

Just to also explain and emphasize that the master KCB file is the most important file to save because it contains both the Word formatting as well as the finishing touches that you added in Kindle Create. But the master Word doc only holds the Word formatting and none of the KC formatting. So the KCB file is the essential master file if you want to fix a problem or update your currently published ebook or book because it should contain ALL the current text, layout and formatting of your published book/ebook. In other words, the Word doc isn't really the file you want to recover -- the key file that you really need, for complete recovery, is the KCB project file.

Please also have a look look at the link below. It will help you to understand what I've just described above. The image is just a jpeg showing the innards of a KPF as a zip file.

KPF as a ZIP File

William:

No, we were talking about getting a new/updated Word file that contains ALL the tweaks, edits and changes made by the user in KC. :-)

Hitch

[slowsmile]

@Hitch...

"No, we were talking about getting a new/updated Word file that contains ALL the tweaks, edits and changes made by the user in KC. :-)"

When you recover the KCB project file from the KPF file for a reflowable ebook or paperback book, as I've already said, you will get all the tweaks, edits and changes. Here's what I said:

So the KCB file is the essential master file if you want to fix a problem or update your currently published ebook or book because it should contain ALL the current text, layout and formatting of your published book/ebook. In other words, the Word doc isn't really the file you want to recover -- the key file that you really need, for complete recovery, is the KCB project file.

And, if we're talking about a fixed format KPF file then the key files you need will be the master Word doc or the PDF file that you loaded into Kindle Create. That Word doc and PDF will contain most, if not all, of the formatting and styling data for your published book because you cannot do any editing or styling for fixed format in KC.

Another problem is that many people still seem to also have a knee-jerk belief that they must always recover a Word doc when using KC because they believe, for all the wrong reasons, that a Word doc is always the main master file. That thinking is probably caused because that certainly used to be the case that if you created a Word doc or mobi for upload, the main master file was always the Word doc. And then when people switched to using Kindle Create, they still think that the Word doc is the main master file. And that's wrong. Don't forget that we're dealing with KFX here, which is a totally different barrel of kippers from a dual mobi. People really need to get out of that knee-jerk mindset that the Word doc is always the main master file for KPF recovery because that's just plain wrong for Kindle Create. And as I've already mentioned, if you recover a Word doc from your KPF file it will only ever give you a partial recovery which will not contain any edits or changes made using Kindle Create.

And I honestly think that the only way that you will be able to convince yourself or really even understand it is to test and check it out for yourself, which is what I did.

I'm also quite surprised at your refusal to have anything to do with generating KPF files for upload at your shop. Why do I say this?? Because I see that as a missed business opportunity for you. It takes a tenth the time to produce an ebook or book using Kindle Create than using the normal epub and InDesign route for producing ebooks and books. And you could even charge a cheaper price for conversion to KPF for customer upload to KDP which is bound to attract more business to your shop. I also understand your main criticism that you cannot test KPF files properly on Kindle ereaders. But I find that KP3 is pretty accurate for testing. And I'm not really talking about the best possible format or the quality of ebooks here - the best format for ebooks/books is still epub/ID without question. I'm just talking about providing an extra service or choice for your customers. I'm just saying that if a customer comes to you and asks or insists that you format his/her Word doc as a KPF file as an ebook or book then why not? The user base for Kindle Create is growing fast -- which also means that more people will be having problems with KC. And if you provided lower cost conversions to KPF format your profits would likely also go up too(because conversion from Word doc to KPF is much faster than the epub/ID route). What's more you are a Kindle recommended professional formatter so it would also probably please and impress the Kindle folks that you are also providing conversions to KPF as a service as well, which is one more string to your bow. And if you introduce Word conversions to KPF format then you would be providing a service that no other professional formatter would ever think of doing. In other words you would be one of the first professional formatters to capture what I see as a rapidly growing niche market. That's why I see this as a great business opportunity for you and your shop.