Converting to multiple formats

[VeryWellAged]

Greetings!

For the last few months, as an experiment, I have been using Calibre to convert my stories into various ebook formats. Up until these last months, they have only been available in HTML format.

While I did have a number of false starts in the beginning, the converstions are generally working OK. [I do fines that some fonts in some formats are not suppored or supported well. I do note that drop caps with seem to work in ePub, do not work in mobi or AZW3. Such is life. So the drop caps found in my PDF (created with Acrobat Pro) are removed for Calibre.]

My real need is to be able to click once and convert a docx into all three formats (epub, AZW3 and mobi) at the same time. I can't seem to find a way to do this.

[JSWolf]

The best way to do what you want is to convert to ePub, fix up the ePub so it look how you want and then use that to convert to other formats. Otherwise, you might not get the eBooks looking how you want.

[VeryWellAged]

Actually that does not help me for two reasons. (1) all re-editing is done in the DOCX and so it adds even an additional step every time there is a change or modification to the texts beyond what I have now; and (2) it does not allow me to create all three at once, which is what I am looking to do.

At the present I individually convert each from the DOCX and it works, but it is three individual conversion. What I am looking for is to learn if there is a way to convert all three at once.

[avantman42]

As far as I know, there's no way to do that in Calibre's graphical interface. The only way I know to do three conversions automatically would be to write a little script to call ebook-convert three times.

Edited to add: This plugin might help: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=207667

[theducks]

Originally Posted by VeryWellAged

Actually that does not help me for two reasons. (1) all re-editing is done in the DOCX and so it adds even an additional step every time there is a change or modification to the texts beyond what I have now; and (2) it does not allow me to create all three at once, which is what I am looking to do.

At the present I individually convert each from the DOCX and it works, but it is three individual conversion. What I am looking for is to learn if there is a way to convert all three at once.

I am confused about your work flow.

If you are still doing 'Heavy Edits' that need the power of a big editor, why are you making all other formats at this time?

Calibres Editor is quite capable of doing touch up edits, Spell check and even a Cut and paste Paragraph move without the need of starting over.
You can queue all the conversions, one after the other if you don't want to write a script. Just always use EPUB as the 'Master' for everything

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by VeryWellAged

Actually that does not help me for two reasons. (1) all re-editing is done in the DOCX and so it adds even an additional step every time there is a change or modification to the texts beyond what I have now; and (2) it does not allow me to create all three at once, which is what I am looking to do.

At the present I individually convert each from the DOCX and it works, but it is three individual conversion. What I am looking for is to learn if there is a way to convert all three at once.

You are doing it in a not very optimal way. You see, you need to get your eBook looking how you want. That means you need to convert the Word document to ePub and then clean it up as needed to make it look like you want. Then from there you do not go back to the Word document to edit. You stick with the ePub as your source document. You make any and all edits using the ePub you've now created. That ePub becomes your master document to make any other formats you want. Calibre's editor will work quite well to help you edit the ePub. Going back to the Word document to make any edits and then converting again is a very poor way to do what you want. Depending on how your Word document converts, you could end up with much more work then you need to be doing.

Following my directions here will save you time and effort and it will make sure your eBooks look as you want. As for the drop caps issue you mentioned before, ePub and KF8 (AZW3) do support drop caps. It's Mobi that does not.

When you are making eBooks, you have to adapt to the new way to do things and the way I described doing things is the way to do it. Going back to the Word document every time you want to make changes is the wrong way to do it. You have to make sure your resulting eBook looks good and is as you want. That means converting and then editing the eBook. So you don't want to be doing the conversion and the edition every time you have changes to make when you could easily make the changes in the source ePub.

[VeryWellAged]

With all due respect, some of these works are long, exceeding 200,00 words with in one case 55 chapters. They are posted in HTML, PDF and these ebook formats. Over time, I have found the need to update them for a variety of reason. You may not think that is optimal, but them, kind Sir, you are not the author. As the ebooks are part of a larger set of formats, editing in ePub is simply not an acceptable option. To do as you suggest would make editting the work in all formats infinitely harder.

Someone else on this thread shared a link which I will review and see it is will work for me. There are fifteen titles, each in all these formats.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by avantman42

As far as I know, there's no way to do that in Calibre's graphical interface. The only way I know to do three conversions automatically would be to write a little script to call ebook-convert three times.

Edited to add: This plugin might help: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=207667

Unfortunately that PI has not been modified to work with Calibre 2.x

@VeryWellAged - as short term measure you could install version 1.48 (Portable perhaps, if you use Windows) and install the existing version of the PI. Also post a note in the PI thread to ask the PI Author (Saulius P) if it's possible to update it to work with calibre 2.x.

Previous calibre releases (← click)

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by VeryWellAged

With all due respect, some of these works are long, exceeding 200,00 words with in one case 55 chapters. They are posted in HTML, PDF and these ebook formats. Over time, I have found the need to update them for a variety of reason. You may not think that is optimal, but them, kind Sir, you are not the author. As the ebooks are part of a larger set of formats, editing in ePub is simply not an acceptable option. To do as you suggest would make editting the work in all formats infinitely harder.

Someone else on this thread shared a link which I will review and see it is will work for me. There are fifteen titles, each in all these formats.

Thing is, depending on how messy your Word document is, you could end up having to do a lot of work just to fix up the conversion. Then you find you need to make some changes, go back to the Word document, make the changes, convert again and then have to work at fixing up the conversion. It could end up being a lot more work editing the Word document and the conversion ever time you have changes to make then it could be making the changes to the ePub.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Unfortunately that PI has not been modified to work with Calibre 2.x

@VeryWellAged - as short term measure you could install version 1.48 (Portable perhaps, if you use Windows) and install the existing version of the PI. Also post a note in the PI thread to ask the PI Author (Saulius P) if it's possible to update it to work with calibre 2.x.

Previous calibre releases (← click)

BR

I've at least got the plugin working with calibre 2.x but still have one incompatibility to resolve. I've posted a version to the plugin thread.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You are doing it in a not very optimal way. You see, you need to get your eBook looking how you want. That means you need to convert the Word document to ePub and then clean it up as needed to make it look like you want. Then from there you do not go back to the Word document to edit. You stick with the ePub as your source document. You make any and all edits using the ePub you've now created. That ePub becomes your master document to make any other formats you want. Calibre's editor will work quite well to help you edit the ePub. Going back to the Word document to make any edits and then converting again is a very poor way to do what you want. Depending on how your Word document converts, you could end up with much more work then you need to be doing.

Following my directions here will save you time and effort and it will make sure your eBooks look as you want. As for the drop caps issue you mentioned before, ePub and KF8 (AZW3) do support drop caps. It's Mobi that does not.

When you are making eBooks, you have to adapt to the new way to do things and the way I described doing things is the way to do it. Going back to the Word document every time you want to make changes is the wrong way to do it. You have to make sure your resulting eBook looks good and is as you want. That means converting and then editing the eBook. So you don't want to be doing the conversion and the edition every time you have changes to make when you could easily make the changes in the source ePub.

This is such sensible advice and given so nicely, that I am going to quote it for everyone to see again.

Thanks, Jon.

[VeryWellAged]

Sir - there comes a time when hubris, arrogance and just plain orneriness, blinds you to the fact, that your bright idea does not work for all needs. There is no way I can use ePub as my master. I have no interest in going over all of that here. However epub does not support pagination and formatting that goes into the PDF version which is based on a word file which pulls from a master document which contains the core text. It does not support the HTML formatting I need, which is also part of another word document which pulls from the same master word doc. That you, and JSWolf, may be unfamiliar with these techniques is not my concern.

Quite frankly, I did not ask you why I am doing this all wrong.

I asked one simple question about how to do something. You and JSWolf seem to have taken it as a opportunity to push your agenda. It is clearly not appreciated by me. That ePub supports drop caps and mobi does not, was already clear to me. I chose to support one format for the ebook versions. That was my choice, and I have no reason to change it.

PeterT's assistance is greatly appreciated.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

This is such sensible advice and given so nicely, that I am going to quote it for everyone to see again.

Thanks, Jon.

Happy to help out as I can. I just cannot see this working out well. But I cannot say I did not try.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by VeryWellAged

Sir - there comes a time when hubris, arrogance and just plain orneriness, blinds you to the fact, that your bright idea does not work for all needs. There is no way I can use ePub as my master. I have no interest in going over all of that here. However epub does not support pagination and formatting that goes into the PDF version which is based on a word file which pulls from a master document which contains the core text. It does not support the HTML formatting I need, which is also part of another word document which pulls from the same master word doc. That you, and JSWolf, may be unfamiliar with these techniques is not my concern.

ePub does support pagination. Going Word > PDF > other formats is going to make the process of getting your eBooks done very difficult. When you convert from PDF, you have to A/B compare the PDF source to the conversion to make sure it is correct as there is no PDF conversion method that will get a novel length PDF converted without any errors.

Sometimes you have to go with what you can do instead of exactly what you want. What sort of formatting is it that you want that you cannot get done with ePub?

I have some experience with converting from Word to ePub and I have seen the resulting uncleaned up conversion be a right mess. It needed to be cleaned up by hand in order to have the code be neat enough to edit easily and to fix some things that did not come out as wanted. There are now tools by Toxaris that will help clean up Word documents before you convert, but even still, you might have to do some hand editing after that.

The idea is to do it in a way that provides the least amount of redoing and the best looking output you can get. PDF in the mix isn't good and Word can be messy at times. It's not a problem here if you want to do things the hard way. I wish you luck doing so.

[BetterRed]

Jon,

I convert 10-20 DOCX files to EPUB most every day. Because I know how to use Word, as I suspect does the OP, I never end up with a mess, particularly since Kovid implemented the DOCX conversion input plugin. And like the OP I segregate the text from the reusable templates, in Word its simple to apply different templates to the same text. The layout and typography is primarily inherited from tried and tested reusable templates that I've developed over the past 20 odd years.

On the odd occasion I have to go back to editing the DOCX its usually because of errors in content not layout or typography, and the odd glitches in the latter invariably stem from a trivial mistake I made in creating the DOCX - not from vagaries of conversion. The other day I applied a BigPrint template rather than the equivalent Standard template

Another reason an author will want to maintain the original as DOCX, ODT etc, is because that's where they'll start if they publish subsequent revisions. Non fiction often gets revised as new information comes to hand; maybe because some new GDR archives are opened up, or one or more judges reinterpret the Law in a 'novel' way.

Development and copy editors want WP files, as do most proofreaders. The idea that such people would be prepared to work with the text hidden in a sea of XHTML is akin to suggesting that in times past they would have been happy to use a Linotype machine.

The OP came to ask about one click multi output format conversions - where in any of your posts have you addressed that issue.

BR