Help with indents when converting docx to epub

[MJParker]

First of all, just discovered Calibre and it has already fixed most of my issues. Thank you. One issue left.

Converting from Docx to publish into Apple iBooks. The indents in the output (ePub) file are about twice as deep as in the input file. How do I reduce them? There is an option that removes spaces between paras, and allows control of the indent, and that does allow me to set the right indent, but then my para spacing is incorrect. Is there a way to control the indent feature? Thank you.

[retiredbiker]

To do what you want you absolutely have to use paragraph styles in your docx document. Using the toolbar for formatting, and just hitting Enter or Shift-Enter for spacing just won't do it. Take the tab key off the keyboard and throw it away. Learn how to use styles, then develop custom styles that have the appearance and spacing you want, and most of this problem will go away. The settings in the paragraph styles will become styling elements in the html inside the epub. So do all your indents and spacing in the styles.

With Writer you can make a template with your ebook styles, and either use the template to start a new work, or copy the styles into another document. I'm sure Word has something similar. So you don't have to invent the styles over and over again, after working to get them just right.

Another good practice: in Word (or Writer or whatever), adjust your manuscript page size and font size to what you want to see on the reader. Try to make the page you are editing look like what you will see on the device. You don't have to write the whole book this way, but it will quickly test the settings you are using for how they will work on a small screen. What looks good on letter or A4 can quickly become horrible on an e-reader.

[Quoth]

What retiredbiker says! ^^^^^^^

We use LO Writer in odt mode, but Save As "docx". Never re-open the docx in LO Writer. MS Word 2007 and later is similar, but only edit docx.

The epub looks just like the wordprocessor screen (I use a small page size so I can have a better idea of headings and images.

Paragraph Styles. Do not set line heights for ebook source, leave at default "single blank" or else the epub will have a line height that can't be changed by user.

We do use direct styling ONLY for italics, bold and bold italics that are part of a paragraph. No other direct style.
The paragraph styles map 1:1 to CSS. If the paragraph and other styles are correct the epub HTML and CSS is perfect.

In Calibre select embed fonts, subset fonts, line height = 0 and also Tablet for page setting (leaves images unchanged) as well as 5 pt margins. 0 is too small for some readers. Kindles have a larger minimum margin anyway.

I ONLY use A4 for documents I want to print as A4. It also makes it more pleasant to edit to have a smaller page size. I use 420 pt x 560 pt and 15 pt margins for all pages on all ebooks and only one page style and no setting of Page Style on insert page break before for ebooks.

When the ebook is fully proofed a copy is used for paper editions. All page styles must match printer's page size (306 x 505 pt for a mass market or pocket book) but you can have multiple page styles (front matter, main default page with headers, footers page numbers, a chapter first page, end papers). In that case all page breaks use a named style (in paragraph styles) with a named next page style in the page styles.