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10,017 Posts
I learned that I had been making a hash of my Word files for the last thirty years by clicking on ad hoc formatting commands whenever I needed one. It never mattered because I was either printing or emailing the files.
So I had a mess on my hands when I first encountered a situation where all those random clicks mattered. Formatting for eBook upload became a formidable challenge.
The solution was to go back and learn what I should have learned about Word many years ago. So I learned how to create, save, manage, and use STYLES. That made all the difference. I now have only six STYLES, have banished all the other formatting icons from the Word screen, and dumped the ribbons at the top of the Word screen. I only use my STYLES to format. Never anything else. Always.
After I figured this out, I copy/pasted to NotePad, copy /pasted back into my new Word configuration, and applied my six STYLES as needed. It was easy.
Now there is no formatting step. A Word HTML file goes into Mobi, I ID a cover file, ID the TOC tag, and produce a prc file that can be directly uploaded to Amazon. Prior to that upload, I USB copy to my personal Kindle to make sure it looks right . If it does, it gets uploaded. If not, i fix it in Word and repeat until I like it.
I then input the prc file to Calibre and upload the ePub output to B&N.
So I had a mess on my hands when I first encountered a situation where all those random clicks mattered. Formatting for eBook upload became a formidable challenge.
The solution was to go back and learn what I should have learned about Word many years ago. So I learned how to create, save, manage, and use STYLES. That made all the difference. I now have only six STYLES, have banished all the other formatting icons from the Word screen, and dumped the ribbons at the top of the Word screen. I only use my STYLES to format. Never anything else. Always.
After I figured this out, I copy/pasted to NotePad, copy /pasted back into my new Word configuration, and applied my six STYLES as needed. It was easy.
Now there is no formatting step. A Word HTML file goes into Mobi, I ID a cover file, ID the TOC tag, and produce a prc file that can be directly uploaded to Amazon. Prior to that upload, I USB copy to my personal Kindle to make sure it looks right . If it does, it gets uploaded. If not, i fix it in Word and repeat until I like it.
I then input the prc file to Calibre and upload the ePub output to B&N.
