Fun converting Word to epub

DebbyS · 10-08-2011, 09:49 AM

I was able recently to convert an rtf file I'd made to epub. During the process I added the book's cover to the beginning. It all worked well.

However, I have some old books (unavailable in the US) with illustrations that I'd like to epub. I thought I could do the main work this way: OCR to Word (2000), format, stick in jpgs of the art, save as a Word doc, then convert from Word to epub. But Calibre doesn't work with Word.

I checked around on this forum and discovered a question about converting Word to a different language, and in the reply was the mention that Calibre doesn't work with Word -- try converting it to... what was the phrase... simple html? Well, one of the options Word 2000 offers is "web page (htm, html)", so I chose that after I made a document with a bit of formatted text, then just any old jpg, some more text with different font and sizes, and save. Then in the conversion I also added a "cover" picture.

This worked! it made an epub but also a Zip file. I copied the epub to a different location and opened it from there, and it was fine, apparently not needing the Zip file (this is good to know when backing up books to CD). Indeed, I had Calibre delete my "test" but the copied file remained and still opened okay.

The only thing is I'll have to check to make sure the illustrations inserted are on the small side as they did not change size when I asked the font size to change, and they remained the same size when I changed the size of the screen. I used Adobe Digital Editions to view my results.

So, in case anyone was wondering, that's one way to convert a book with pictures to an epub. Hope this is helpful!

itimpi · 10-09-2011, 01:03 AM

The zip file is what Calibre uses to store an HTML format eBook (which internally normally consists of more than one file) and will have been created when you added the HTML file saved from Word.

The ePub file is the ePub format of the book from the conversion to ePub, and as you have found is self-contained.

Manichean · 10-09-2011, 03:27 AM

As a note, while you cannot use Word documents (DOC files), you can use ODT files from OpenOffice.

10-08-2011, 09:49 AM	#1
DebbyS Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 1472692 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Albuquerque, NM Device: Jetbook Lite; Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)	Fun converting Word to epub I was able recently to convert an rtf file I'd made to epub. During the process I added the book's cover to the beginning. It all worked well. However, I have some old books (unavailable in the US) with illustrations that I'd like to epub. I thought I could do the main work this way: OCR to Word (2000), format, stick in jpgs of the art, save as a Word doc, then convert from Word to epub. But Calibre doesn't work with Word. I checked around on this forum and discovered a question about converting Word to a different language, and in the reply was the mention that Calibre doesn't work with Word -- try converting it to... what was the phrase... simple html? Well, one of the options Word 2000 offers is "web page (htm, html)", so I chose that after I made a document with a bit of formatted text, then just any old jpg, some more text with different font and sizes, and save. Then in the conversion I also added a "cover" picture. This worked! it made an epub but also a Zip file. I copied the epub to a different location and opened it from there, and it was fine, apparently not needing the Zip file (this is good to know when backing up books to CD). Indeed, I had Calibre delete my "test" but the copied file remained and still opened okay. The only thing is I'll have to check to make sure the illustrations inserted are on the small side as they did not change size when I asked the font size to change, and they remained the same size when I changed the size of the screen. I used Adobe Digital Editions to view my results. So, in case anyone was wondering, that's one way to convert a book with pictures to an epub. Hope this is helpful!

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10-09-2011, 01:03 AM	#2
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	The zip file is what Calibre uses to store an HTML format eBook (which internally normally consists of more than one file) and will have been created when you added the HTML file saved from Word. The ePub file is the ePub format of the book from the conversion to ePub, and as you have found is self-contained.

10-09-2011, 03:27 AM	#3
Manichean Wizard Posts: 3,130 Karma: 91256 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Device: Cybook Gen3	As a note, while you cannot use Word documents (DOC files), you can use ODT files from OpenOffice.

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