Recommend a formatter?

[Becca Mills]

Apparently the epub I have up on Google Play has some errant html that's screwing things up big time (fixed margins, fixed typeface, fixed font size), and I know the file I have up on Amazon has a fixed typeface. I was going to wait on the typeface thing on Amazon, since no one's actually complained about it, but the problems with the Google version seem to be bad, so I'd better get it done now.

Anyone have a recommendation for a really solid formatter? I want someone who'll keep things totally simple (I want readers to be able to customize their reading experience as much as possible) and won't make any mistakes. I think it'll largely be a matter of stripping out the code Word sticks in. I don't feel competent to do it without screwing it up. The no-mistakes thing is key, since I'm, well, pretty damn anal retentive.

[Deleted]

I rec bbebooksthailand.com/

[Suzy]

Apr 26, 2014 22:52:19 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

Apparently the epub I have up on Google Play has some errant html that's screwing things up big time (fixed margins, fixed typeface, fixed font size), and I know the file I have up on Amazon has a fixed typeface. I was going to wait on the typeface thing on Amazon, since no one's actually complained about it, but the problems with the Google version seem to be bad, so I'd better get it done now.

Anyone have a recommendation for a really solid formatter? I want someone who'll keep things totally simple (I want readers to be able to customize their reading experience as much as possible) and won't make any mistakes. I think it'll largely be a matter of stripping out the code Word sticks in. I don't feel competent to do it without screwing it up. The no-mistakes thing is key, since I'm, well, pretty damn anal retentive.

Have you tried saving it in open office and then into html? I do that when I format for Kindle. Open Office seems to strip all those annoying things that get embedded into a word file. But that might not work in this case. Just an idea.

[Alan Petersen]

This is who I use and recommend: ebookformatting.aamiqbal.com/

[Daniel]

Just offering my sympathies. I've seen the HTML Word produces, and it's nauseating. I think newer versions (I'm using 2003) do a better job, but there's this fundamental problem that Microsoft tries to make the HTML reproduce the look of a print document, rather than generating simple HTML that can be readily re-styled for web/ebook presentation.

[Suzy]

Apr 27, 2014 8:32:22 GMT -5 Daniel said:

Just offering my sympathies. I've seen the HTML Word produces, and it's nauseating. I think newer versions (I'm using 2003) do a better job, but there's this fundamental problem that Microsoft tries to make the HTML reproduce the look of a print document, rather than generating simple HTML that can be readily re-styled for web/ebook presentation.

Have you tried the Open Office option, Daniel? I run my word doc through it into HTML and then do a Mobi formatting for Kindle, which works very well for me.

[Becca Mills]

Thanks for the recommendations, guys! You know, I had a peek at the html, and it's not so bad. After I finish this stack of papers, I think I'm going to have a go at fixing it myself. Looks like, for Amazon, I just need to get the fixed-fonts info out of there. That should be a relatively straightforward matter of taking out typefaces and point values in favor of em values (I hope). I'm not actually seeing the margin stuff Google copied back to me when I wrote and asked about the formatting problems. I wonder if what I uploaded there was the Word file itself instead of filtered html. If so, that might explain the more serious formatting problems, there.

[Daniel]

Apr 27, 2014 12:40:22 GMT -5 Suzy said:

Apr 27, 2014 8:32:22 GMT -5 Daniel said:

Just offering my sympathies. I've seen the HTML Word produces, and it's nauseating. I think newer versions (I'm using 2003) do a better job, but there's this fundamental problem that Microsoft tries to make the HTML reproduce the look of a print document, rather than generating simple HTML that can be readily re-styled for web/ebook presentation.

Have you tried the Open Office option, Daniel? I run my word doc through it into HTML and then do a Mobi formatting for Kindle, which works very well for me.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not an Open Office fan, but I can write VBA code, so I came up with my own solution based on the way my wife and I use styles.

[Deleted]

I can recommend Jaye for formatting!

[Becca Mills]

Big thanks to Andrew Ashling, AKA the God of Epubs, who helped me get my formatting issues worked out! I added a shit-eating review to Google Play to let potential readers know that the formatting issues had been fixed. Hopefully, the fix/review combo will do the trick.