Preparing ebook files - part I
Getting your source files in good order for ebooks
Things to remove
WHY?
Your
existing files probably have visible and invisible data that will cause
trouble when you present them for conversion. It might make sense to save the
file as a simple .txt file and then restore all of the formatting.
This might seem a drastic solution but there is an astonishing amount of
hidden data in most word-processed documents. If you have pasted it from the web
and then reformatted it, chances are that there are tags which will emerge when
you convert the file to an ebook.
Another simple way to strip this all out is to highlight your
existing file and copy it (crtl+C). Then open a new word-processing file
and paste the file you have copied using Paste Special - pick the option
for unformatted text.
If you are starting from a pdf, you don't have these editing options
so try this copy & paste technique.
So you need to:
 | Remove all headings and
page numbering – 'hard' as well as soft numbers. (Hard numbers are one
that you have inserted while soft ones are supplied by the
word-processor). |
| Think about the use of
footnotes and endnotes (they don’t really work in ebooks). |
| If you use footnotes and endnotes you will need to
check to see how these work once converted. Since there are no fixed pages,
footnotes are logically incompatible with ebooks while notes at the end of a
chapter are rather clumsy. This issues is being addressed so that the note can
be immediately pulled up if the reader highlights the word. But while we are in
limbo, you will need to decide what to do. |
| If you have set each heading style manually, these are best removed.
(See adding heading tags below). Tagged text can be interpreted by the
conversion software as explained below. |
| The text for any TOC needs to be removed and
Insert heading tags to
help generate a TOC for your ebook. |
| You also need to look at
your tables and images - You might need to turn these into images
(although epub3 will make it possible to create readable text tables).
Word embeds images at full size (so you can edit them) and these cause a
problem with converters. Try saving the file using 'web filtered' to
extract and compress the images. (.jpg rather than .png) |
| Prepare your meta data.
These are the pointers that will bring people to your writing. You might
be surprised how much can
be put into most text files. If you are a business user then you might be
familiar with all of the information about the document that can be
embedded in a humble Word doc. Calibre will use what it takes to be the
author of a document to organise the way it organises your files. |
| Avoid putting a carriage return into heading or titles
as converters will treat each part of the title as a separate title. So ‘The
meaning of life’ could be interpreted as ‘The meaning’ with ‘of life’ as the
very short first chapter and second chapter. It may look odd on the page
but comes out looking good in ebooks. |
| Get your cover into the
required format (see below). |
