Embedding font (word)

[DLSieving]

I crafted a detailed procedure the last time I did this but apparently did not include quite enough detail, or perhaps things have just changed too much.

Word 2011 for Mac => Save As HTML
Sigil (0.8.7) => Open HTML:

• The following file was not loaded due to invalid content...
• Set Clean Source preference to Pretty Print Tidy or HTML Tidy
• (different errors depending on selection of PP Tidy or HTML Tidy)

Word 2011 for Mac => Save As HTML
BBEdit (11.1.4) => Open HTML

• Save As: Styled HTML

Sigil (0.8.7) => Open HTML: HTML opens but nothing works.

• HTML shows in the Text window but cannot be navigated
• Selecting Styles, Images, Fonts... folders does nothing; HTML still shows in the main window.

What step did I miss or do wrong?
Should I upgrade to Word 2016 for Mac and start over?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

I crafted a detailed procedure the last time I did this but apparently did not include quite enough detail, or perhaps things have just changed too much.

You didn't mention that you're trying to convert a Word document. Try the following:

a) Save your Word document as a .docx file and convert it to an epub with Calibre.

b) Alternatively, open your Word document with Pages, export it as an ePub.

If you're having problems with the Sigil font embedding method, you can also embed fonts with Calibre:

Calibre > Common Options > Look and Feel > Embed font Family > embed referenced fonts

Convert Books > Input format: EPUB > Output format: EPUB

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

a) Save your Word document as a .docx file and convert it to an epub with Calibre.

to sidestep the flattening of the CCS that calibre conversion necessitates, you could import the DOCX into the calibre ebook-editor and save as EPUB - I think that will also retain the style names from Word.

BR

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

to sidestep the flattening of the CCS that calibre conversion necessitates, you could import the DOCX into the calibre ebook-editor and save as EPUB - I think that will also retain the style names from Word.

Thanks for the information, I didn't know that you could import .docx files into Calibre Editor, because I only use Sigil.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Thanks for the information, I didn't know that you could import .docx files into Calibre Editor, because I only use Sigil.

I use both - mainly Sigil, but some calibre features are a bit better - eg some of the reports. The docx import is useful if the docx makes extensive use of styles - mainly technical non fiction .

BR

[DLSieving]

Thanks for the alternate methods - always good to have - but I also forgot to mention that I've used the complete Word/BBEdit/Sigil/KindleGen/DTP method successfully before. The only thing I've yet to do is buy a few eReaders just for testing purposes and see how it looks on them. Apparently I must have used some subtle variations with Word, BBEdit or Sigil the last time around that I neglected to write down. I suppose I'll just have to keep circling back until I rediscover that which was lost - the magic variation.

And a note to Hendrixxxxxxxx: I wrote incorrectly before that I'd seen the font style sheets in Sigil this time around but I meant to write BBEdit, before I got to the Sigil phase.

[DLSieving]

(message deleted; OBE)

[DLSieving]

I was able to import my filtered HTML into Sigil (Word: File => Save As => Filtered HMTL (display information only)) but the result was such a feeble shadow of the original that I decided to try something different.

Instead I used File => Web Page Preview, which had all of the formatting I want in my eBook. In the browser (Safari) I then used File => Save As => Page Source to output the HTML. I remember now that this is the variation I used with great success the last time I went through this process. The result was only a few hundred K in size as compared to 2.8MB for the Styled HTML I had previously output from BBEdit and which Sigil had been unable to render. I figured Sigil would have a much easier time processing such a small file.

Unfortunately, Sigil started running into problems as soon as it got past the <head> section. I used BBEdit to fix them one by one but it went on and on. I got way past this point last year, so I'm assuming Sigil's problems this time around are somehow the result of the new styles I've added since the last time I went through this process, which I did on the advice of Guy Kawasaki through his APE book (Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur) to consolidate the formatting into CSS stylesheets, which makes perfect sense. I also read Notjohn's book and took lots of notes.

So I read a few posts about how Calibre is in some ways more capable than Sigil with HTML tags and have now moved on to using Calibre which I understand can convert directly from Word.docx to ePub.

Thanks again for your help!

Dave

[Notjohn]

>I'm assuming Sigil's problems this time around

I've always had my best results with software when I assume that the problems are MINE, rather than the software's.

In my limited experience with Word 2013, I thought it produced reasonably sleek html, at least compared to my installation of Word 2000. In the early days of e-publishing, I used to upload to Google Docs and (like you with View Source) get the html that way, which was a lot cleaner than Word's version. Now I use Word2CleanHtml dot com, which IMHO is infinitely better. There are also paid and free softwares and plug-ins that do the same thing. I stay well away from *.docx and will continue to do so until my editors start insisting on it (so far they are all perfectly happy with *.doc files).

I also stay away from embedded fonts. Rarely is it the case that an author's notion of how a book should look has any validity, and if the publisher indulges the author in the first instance, if the book stays around long enough, it will eventually (like all other things) revert to the mean, and that Comic Sans will wind up as Georgia or Bookman.

[DiapDealer]

@DLSieving: Would love to see some examples of valid (x)html/css that Sigil cannot "handle," or render.
"Sigil can't handle my code" isn't exactly very instructional or helpful. We cannot fix (or accomodate) what we cannot reproduce.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

I was able to import my filtered HTML into Sigil (Word: File => Save As => Filtered HMTL (display information only)) but the result was such a feeble shadow of the original that I decided to try something different.

Such as? I've never had issues with an exported Word file creating a "feeble shadow" in Sigil, but then again, I know what styles work in ePUB, and which don't. You say you're using the Styles that Kawasaki recommended in his APE book? Do you mean his CSS? Or did you dl his file--the template of the book that he gave away for free--and use that? As you've done this before, you probably already know that you need both, the HTML and the CSS, for it to work (not insulting your intelligence--most of us here write not only for the post at hand, but for those who may come along and read later).

Instead I used File => Web Page Preview, which had all of the formatting I want in my eBook. In the browser (Safari) I then used File => Save As => Page Source to output the HTML. I remember now that this is the variation I used with great success the last time I went through this process. The result was only a few hundred K in size as compared to 2.8MB for the Styled HTML I had previously output from BBEdit and which Sigil had been unable to render. I figured Sigil would have a much easier time processing such a small file.

Okey-doke.

Unfortunately, Sigil started running into problems as soon as it got past the <head> section. I used BBEdit to fix them one by one but it went on and on. I got way past this point last year, so I'm assuming Sigil's problems this time around are somehow the result of the new styles I've added since the last time I went through this process, which I did on the advice of Guy Kawasaki through his APE book (Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur) to consolidate the formatting into CSS stylesheets, which makes perfect sense. I also read Notjohn's book and took lots of notes.

So I read a few posts about how Calibre is in some ways more capable than Sigil with HTML tags and have now moved on to using Calibre which I understand can convert directly from Word.docx to ePub.

Thanks again for your help!

Dave

As Diap noted, some exemplars would be useful. It's really difficult to troubleshoot descriptions of issues, when they are more generalized, rather than seeing the code that caused the problems.

Hitch

[DLSieving]

FYI, I ended up importing my DOCX directly into Calibre and all of these problems went away.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

FYI, I ended up importing my DOCX directly into Calibre and all of these problems went away.

Which problems? The improperly-formatted code issues, or, you mean that you have an ePUB that displays your fonts, and a MOBI that not only displays your fonts, but also survives the KDP uploading process, and displays them in the on-sale book?

Hitch

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

FYI, I ended up importing my DOCX directly into Calibre and all of these problems went away.

Curious, mainly for the sake of others who may not know there's a choice; was it imported into the calibre book editor, or the calibre conversion process, they're not quite the same (by design)

BR

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by rubeus

Doesnt importing something in Calibre makes it more worse than before? SCNR

No, importing something into calibre doesn't do anything to the file. The file is copied to the calibre directories and then named according to calibre's naming standards.

Now, a conversion does change things. But, if you have a book in one format, and want it in another format, something has to change.