[Kindle touch]: How to write documents

[imfede]

Hi, i am a student and, as the title suggest, i own a kindle touch (not 3g).
During my classes i'm used to take notes with my pc, but i want to be able to see them on my kindle in a "good" way. now, my question is, which is the easiest way to create a file (an .azw or a .mobi) so that i can create documents that have, for example, a ToC, chapter division, well-formatted pages, custom fonts, text decorations (underline, bold, italic...) and so on?

[miguelos]

save it as html documents, generate epub with SIGIL and convert to mobi with calibre

Once upon a time you could create an HTML file and rename it as a TXT file. The Kindles of old could then read the file and display it as an HTML formatted file. I just tried this with my Kindle Touch and it cannot read the TXT file and does not even see the HTML file. Things change--thanks Amazon.

You can definitely use @miguelos method. There will be a learning curve to embed fonts, but it is doable and you should pick it up fairly quick. If you don't want to use calibre you can use Kindle Previewer to convert the ePub (or HTML) to mobi/KF8. It is better to convert an ePub rather than an HTML file, but you might need to tweak the NCX file a bit.

[susan_cassidy]

You can't embed fonts in a .mobi file. You shouldn't need to, just to do italics, bold, etc.

By the way, notes added with the Kindle will not be visible inline with the text. There will just be an icon that you can click on to view the note.

[dbh2ppa]

Actually, you CAN embed fonts in a mobi (at least a KF8 mobi), and kindlegen will automatically embed them if they are embedded in a source epub.

The way I do it (which takes a bit more time, perhaps) is to take the notes in Sigil, thus ending up with a nicely formated ePub file with a TOC, and then running it through kindlegen (You could also e-mail the file to your kindle, though that may be a little more damaging to the formatting than kindlegen, not sure why, but so it is in my experience).

As for maths and other technical courses, it's not that easy though. You could look into using LaTeX and compiling into pdf with an adequate page size, if you don't need a WYSIWYG interface, or write into something like MS Word which has a "formula editor", and going the whole docx -> html -> mobi route.

For math I use MS Word then generate images from the formulas and insert links to them in the HTML. Here is a sample page from my latest book. It isn't the best, but mobi/KF8 do not support MathML, so we have to make do.

....

[susan_cassidy]

KF8 != mobi

[imfede]

now i'm using a text edit to create a simple html which i convert in a mobi with kindlegen. i will try out Sigil, just to see how it works, because i'm not very happy with the formatting of a simple html page (only h1..6, p, b, i, u and a few more)

[morantis]

Do not forget that there are loads of Cloud apps.

[imfede]

Cloud apps?

Originally Posted by imfede

now i'm using a text edit to create a simple html which i convert in a mobi with kindlegen. i will try out Sigil, just to see how it works, because i'm not very happy with the formatting of a simple html page (only h1..6, p, b, i, u and a few more)

Ereaders like the Kindle are designed for fairly basic text viewing and reflowing. Think more in terms of a novel rather than an elaborately formatted reference book. Nevertheless, you can use cascading stylesheets (CSS) to create most styles you could ever want. CSS allows you to expand the formatting capabilities of HTML almost as far as you could dare. However, you are reading on a small 6" or 7" screen so things like outlines with 9 sublevels will look like poop, as do multi-column tables. Subtle formatting changes might go unnoticed. You basically have to divorce your mind from a 8.5" x 11" printed page format to achieve something that works and looks good on a small screen.

I'm not sure at all what kind of formatting you desire that you cannot achieve with HTML, except for font substitutions of course. If you could post a screen shot of what you are trying to achieve perhaps we can better assist you.

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

KF8 != mobi

Basically true. However, if you use the latest version of Kindle Previewer to compile a book you will wind up with both formats. The thought being, I assume, is that a single file can be downloaded to various Kindles and/or devices running the Kindle App and this single file will run on all of them. As we know, not all devices and apps support Kindle KF8 formatting, so this ensures that a KF8 book can still be read on a Kindle or Kindle app that doesn't support KF8. That might sound strange, but it prevents the issues that occurred when Sony switched to ePub from BBeB. No need for two files for the same book. If you have two different files on a kindle, you cannot easily (if at all) Whispersync them between devices. In theory the single file with both formats allows the book to be Whispersynced across devices where some support KF8 and some do not. Well, at least that is the way I think it is supposed to work.

[tomsem]

I would just generate a PDF. Then you can use all the fancy formatting, math symbols, etc. that you like. KT supports PDF links and bookmarks (for TOC), TTS, and notes/highlights. You get to see exactly what it will look like as you edit the source document.

For the best WYSIWYG make sure to set the page size (in Word or whatever) to something like the Kindle screen size, set margins to zero, etc. so you make the most of the small screen.

[imfede]

since the basic rule of css is that it can do only what html can do but in an easier way, i will try how much css the kindle is able to render... do you suggest a conversion in .mobi using kindlegen or just the .html file? and lets go on with question: how can i create (if is possible) a ToC in html/css? does the kindle support external .css? and last, in case the "html/css way" is not what i want what is the best software to create a .pdf?

EDIT: oh, a big thank to everyone for their response

EDIT2: a pic of almost what i want is like the one provided by jswinden

[thomass]

Originally Posted by imfede

EDIT2: a pic of almost what i want is like the one provided by jswinden

Alternatively you can use this word extension to save your docs in pdf format with appropriate settings for Kindle.