MS Word bullets look great on kindle, what's the problem?

[webnerd]

Hi, I've read numerous posts saying that Word formatted Bullets won't work on a kindle so i have 2 questions

1. I just tried adding a word document with MS Word bullets added to Amazon kdp. Then i used the Amazon preview to view the bullets on different devices, And it looked perfect on All devices except for the kindle DX where the separation between bullet and text was a bit larger, but not bad.
Does this mean that you can upload word formatted bullets on todays (2015) kindle devices? Or is it still a no-go for some reason?

2. If this is not acceptable, will I need to save the Word document as a HTML file and then add bullets like this and then upload HTML file to KDP?

<.ul>
<.li> item 1 <./li>
<.li> item 2 <./li>
<./ul>

thank you very much for the help!

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by webnerd

Hi just wondering: If i wanted to write a book about PHP, HTML or CSS, could i just copy and paste RTF code snippets into a word document and upload it to kindle?

If it looks OK in MS Word and the Kindle Previewer/KindleGen generated MOBI book looks OK on an eInk Kindle, then yes.

However, a better solution would be to generate an epub first with Toxaris's Word ePub add-on. This will allow you edit your book with Sigil or Calibre Editor before compiling it with Kindle Previewer/KindleGen.

Originally Posted by webnerd

Hi what is the best option for math writers with respect to kindle?

IMHO, the best solution would be to convert all complex equations to SVG or PNG images.

Originally Posted by webnerd

Are there any guidelines that tell you how kindle kindle is built to accept mathematical symbols and what it does not accept?

All current Kindle models (Kindle 3 and higher) come with the code2000 fallback font, which contains glyphs for pretty much any mathematical symbol defined in the 2006 Unicode 5.2 standard. For all other symbols you'll need to embed a font.

Originally Posted by webnerd

Hi, I've read numerous posts saying that Word formatted Bullets won't work on a kindle[...]

That depends on the HTML code that Word generates. Kindles support both ordererd and unordered lists. For example, the following HTML code works:

<h4>Unordered list</h4>

  <ul>
    <li>chaos</li>
    <li>mayhem</li>
    <li>pandemonium</li>
  </ul>

  <h4>Ordered list</h4>

  <ol>
    <li>tidiness</li>
    <li>neatness</li>
  </ol>

  <p>Random text between connected list elements.</p>

  <ol start="3">
    <li>orderliness</li>
    <li>trimness</li>
  </ol>

[webnerd]

However, a better solution would be to generate an epub first with Toxaris's Word ePub add-on. This will allow you edit your book with Sigil or Calibre Editor before compiling it with Kindle Previewer/KindleGen.

Nice I'll look into Calibre

All current Kindle models (Kindle 3 and higher) come with the code2000 fallback font, which contains glyphs for pretty much any mathematical symbol defined in the 2006 Unicode 5.2 standard. For all other symbols you'll need to embed a font.

Thank you, I heard that Embedding font's in word for Kindle is a no-go, so i guess checking what math symbols are supported by code2000 is my best bet

That depends on the HTML code that Word generates. Kindles support both ordererd and unordered lists. For example, the following HTML code works:

I see, so different versions of Word generate slightly different results of HTML?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by webnerd

I heard that Embedding font's in word for Kindle is a no-go [...]

You can embed fonts with Calibre or Sigil, however, IIRC, some KDP authors have reported that KDP will occasionally strip certain fonts from valid ePubs.
You shouldn't have to embed any fonts anyway, because Kindles support pretty much any mathematical symbol out of the box.

Originally Posted by webnerd

I see, so different versions of Word generate slightly different results of HTML?

MS Word generally generates lousy HTML code and renders bulleted lists as paragraph tags with lots of spans in them instead of <ul> tags. The Calibre DOCX=>EPUB converter does a much better job.

[webnerd]

You can embed fonts with Calibre or Sigil, however, IIRC, some KDP authors have reported that KDP will occasionally strip certain fonts from valid ePubs.
You shouldn't have to embed any fonts anyway, because Kindles support pretty much any mathematical symbol out of the box.

Nice, however i do find it a bit frustrating that epub CSS constantly changes and i fear that all the CSS text in sigil or calibre will interfear with the creativity of writing. Have you used indesign? Is the HTMl formatting better than with word? If i were to sit down and learn all this, i could imagine buying a professional book designing software like indesign would pay off in the end?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by webnerd

Nice, however i do find it a bit frustrating that epub CSS constantly changes [...]

The CSS doesn't have to change constantly; you could add it once the book is done.

Originally Posted by webnerd

Have you used indesign?

Yes. IMHO, it's not exactly an ideal program for ebook writers.

Originally Posted by webnerd

Is the HTMl formatting better than with word?

It's usually much better than the HTML output from MS Word, though not perfect. There's also a Kindle plugin.

Originally Posted by webnerd

If i were to sit down and learn all this, i could imagine buying a professional book designing software like indesign would pay off in the end?

You might want to look into buying a Wyswig epub editor designed for writers, for example, Jutoh. (You can download a trial version and check it out.)

[Notjohn]

I only upload epubs built in Sigil. To me, getting Word to behave is much more challenging than using html to begin with. I run my Word docs through Word2CleanHtml dot com online, since my Word 2000 is too venerable to work with a plug-in, and it creates terribly bloated html (yes, the html has improved a lot over time; Word 2013 does a pretty good job). My style sheet is shown on notjohnkdp.blogspot.com

The html tag for a bullet is &bull; -- hardly rocket science.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

The html tag for a bullet is &bull; -- hardly rocket science.

IMHO, hard-coding a bullet with &bull; is usually a bad idea, since Kindles support bullet styles in KF8 files and will default to disc bullets in KF7 files.

For example, you could use the following code:

Spoiler:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
  <title></title>
  <style type="text/css">    
	ul.circle {list-style-type: circle;}	
	ul.square {list-style-type: square;}
	ul.latin {list-style-type: lower-latin;}
  </style>
</head>

<body>
  <h3>Bullet styles</h3>

  <h4>Default disc bullet </h4>
  <ul>
    <li>chaos</li>
    <li>mayhem</li>
    <li>pandemonium</li>
  </ul>

  <h4>Circle</h4>
  <ul class="circle">
    <li>chaos</li>
    <li>mayhem</li>
    <li>pandemonium</li>
  </ul>

  <h4>Square</h4>
  <ul class="square">
    <li>chaos</li>
    <li>mayhem</li>
    <li>pandemonium</li>
  </ul>

  <h4>Lower Latin</h4>
  <ul class="latin">
    <li>chaos</li>
    <li>mayhem</li>
    <li>pandemonium</li>
  </ul>
</body>
</html>

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by webnerd

Nice, however i do find it a bit frustrating that epub CSS constantly changes and i fear that all the CSS text in sigil or calibre will interfear with the creativity of writing. Have you used indesign? Is the HTMl formatting better than with word? If i were to sit down and learn all this, i could imagine buying a professional book designing software like indesign would pay off in the end?

Hunh? I don't understand why you think that the CSS text in Sigil or Calibre will "interfear [sic] with the creativity of writing." This makes it sound as if you are drafting in Sigil (or Calibre). As you are not a coder, this is a crap idea. Just write along in Word. If you are smart enough to use Sigil, you can use Word correctly, and generate fairly clean output HTML. Use Word's built in styles faithfully--changing them via the modify option, to whatever you want them to appear as--and you'll be perfectly fine. Output the HTML, and bob's-yer-uncle.

Originally Posted by Doitsu

IMHO, hard-coding a bullet with &bull; is usually a bad idea, since Kindles support bullet styles in KF8 files and will default to disc bullets in KF7 files.

Absolutely, There hasn't been a reason to use the bull code for years. Hell, there wasn't any reason to use it in 2009, if memory serves.

For example, you could use the following code:

Yup, pretty as a picture.

Hitch

[phillipgessert]

Originally Posted by webnerd

Nice, however i do find it a bit frustrating that epub CSS constantly changes and i fear that all the CSS text in sigil or calibre will interfear with the creativity of writing. Have you used indesign? Is the HTMl formatting better than with word? If i were to sit down and learn all this, i could imagine buying a professional book designing software like indesign would pay off in the end?

I would only consider InDesign if you were going to design books for print, and quite a lot of them at that. If you're only buying InDesign in order to occasionally build an ebook, then you're buying a really powerful program for one very narrow purpose, and one it's not particularly good at. Note too that InDesign is not a word processor, few people write book-length materials within it. It's a production and design tool.