With the release of Mobi maker, there comes up a new question, how can I publish it both for epub and Kindle more efficiently?

The question can be,

1 Can I arrange my Word odcument for ePub and publish as Mobi?

As described in last post, it can do but the result quality is not guaranteed, you’d better arrange Word for Kindle.

2 Some may then think, how about arrange for Kindle and publishing both for ePub and Kindle?

That also can do, but you can not take advantage of ePub features in ePub edition.

Unfortunately, for professional publishers, we have to arrange for these two formats separately, that means you have to prepare original Word document in two files.

But that doesn’t mean we have to always maintain them both. The key for efficiency is you must arrange original Word document in good structure by styles, so that what you need in preparing another format is just changing some styles.

Here’s a more efficient solution. If you are an Word expert, you can create your own template. I think this is a need for digital publishers.

For example, you create an template for Kindle, you can just copy the content of a Word document (arranged for ePub) to create an edition for Kindle. but you needn’t maintain this Kindle editon. When you altered something in original ePub edition, you just copy it, create the Kindle edition and publish it again.

Remember, all the basic is that your original Word document must be well organized and structured. If the document is composed of scattered direct formattings, then it would be a disaster for you and the switch is impossible.

You know, there are several free tools converting ePub to Kindle, so creating an ePub and converting to Mobi a basic method for Kindle publishing.

Yes, that’s a good free way for common readers, but not good for professional epublishers.

You may encounter such problems from ePub to Kindle/Mobi, such as

Where’s my TOC? TOC lost!

Why it looks so different on Kindle form Nook or other ePub eReader?

Mobi is a simpler format than ePub, but that does not mean it’s simpler to publishing on Kindle, on the contrary, it’s more difficult to make your book looks good on a simpler format.

Many good thing in ePub are absent in Mobi, such as font, CSS, only limited methods and resources you can use for your book formatting. But you have to format your book, make it look professional.

So you need arrange your manuscript by another method for Kindle separately. you need create a copy for Kindle from your original manuscript, and apply simple formatting and styles for this edition. And of course, convert to Mobi by Mobi Maker.

Mobi Maker released, but the examples in the package are just the same of ePub Maker. Though it has no problem, it’s not perfect.

Now the example document, A Christmas Carol, has been modified for Kindle publishing, please visit the example page of Mobi Maker
http://epingsoft.com/mobi/examples.asp

This example reveals some basic secrets of Kindle publishing.

• Give up different fonts in Word document, for Kindle doesn’t support fonts. Add Italic formatting for some special part originally distinguished by other font.
• Rearrange spacing for some headings, because Kindle only supports some fixed spaces, such as one line, two line, there’s no precise space like 1.5 line or 8px.
• Change some font size smaller to make book title looks larger. The size difference between headings(such as heading 1 and heading 2)is so unobvious. And Kindle show headings in a fixed size, font size on headings simply has no effect.

Kindle and Mobi format are so simple and even primitive, comparing to other formats, especially modern web pages and documents.
So, in conversion and epublishing, those who are new to this field, may be always astonished and dissatisfied with the result effect which is far from their original design.

These difference and simplicity/shortage of Kindle, are the first secret thing you should know to be a better epublisher.

Now, let’s see these secret in Kindle one by one.

We are happy to announce that Mobi Maker first trial version now is available, user can download from the page of Mobi Maker.

Download Mobi Maker

This tool allows you create Kindle Mobi book from Word document and HTML files. similar to ePub Maker, Mobi Maker user can take advantage of MS Word as editor, further more, comparing to other Mobi generation tools Mobi Maker’s advantage is that TOC and sections can be created automatically.

But Mobi Maker needs KindleGen to be installed first, you can visit this page for details.

How to Setup KindleGen

Visitors may already found, there’re some changes with this website.

Yes, older tools has been blurred from front web pages. HTML Cleaner series had been moved to htmlcleaner.com a year before, now DocX series (including popular DocX Viewer and DocX converters) are not listed on home page and navigation bar any more.

This reveals that Epingsoft now concentrates on development on ePublishing tools, from ePub Maker, to Mobi Maker and other tools, which are in plans or under developing. The website also focus on the new direction – ePublishing.

Professional ebooks, especially reports and commercial documents, often contain tables, they may be designed previously for print on paper, so the size doesn’t fit small screen of eReaders usually, can they be adjust to fit the screen automatically?

ePub Maker has an option in setting of Absolute Width, checking it off will delete absolute width of most elements, including table. It can work for some tables, but not all, because Word writes width information into every cell of a table, and if we delete those width information in cell, the table will be far away from its original appearance.

The best way is to modify your source document in Word. (Be sure, you have reserved a backup for paper print or copy a new one for ePublishing)

Don’t be afraid, that’s just a work of minutes, you needn’t specify each tables one by one. There’s quick way.

First, you should know how to set a table to dynamic width.

After opening the document in Word, right click the table, see the menu items, don’t expect it’s in Table properties, it’s an independent item – AutoFit.

There’re three items in AutoFit – Contents, Window and Column Width. Since there’s no column on eReaders generally, you need just care first two. They are both dynamic width.

AutoFit to Contents, that means the table width will grow with the contents, if the contents width is smaller than screen or window, the table will be smaller too, vice versa.

AutoFit to Window, in eReader, window is the screen, the table will be always in the same width as the screen page width generally. Even if there’s no content inside the table, the table would still maintain its size.

So you just need select one for your table, then the table will not be written in fixed width, thus perfect for eBook on eReader.

But you may say there’re a dozen of tables in your document, how can you auotfit them one by one? Yes, you can.

Don’t you know the magic key in Word – F4, which can repeat your last action? Just click another table, then press F4, and so on.

For example, there’re 20 tables in your document, you need click 20 times, and press F4 20 times, of course, you also need scroll your document. That’s all.

Are you testing if your epub file is readable by loading to Nook or iPad every time?

Yes, that’s the most reliable method to test on real devices, but tiresome.

Actually, most problems can be discovered by testing on a PC previewer.
After proof on a previewer, you can do the final test on real device, this will save you much time work.

Briefly, there’re three major previewer you can installed on PC,

• Adobe Digital Edtions
• SONY Reader Library
• NOOK for PC

Either one of them is OK for the testing work, you can install all of them of any one of them. They all bases Adobe SDK, the same base of most e-ink eReaders, and performs alike.

But ADE has an advantage, *.epub can be associated with ADE, so that when you double click on an epub file, ADE will be invoked automatically, that’s very convenient for ePub Maker users when they made an epub then preview it by just clicking the file link in ePub Maker.

Otherwise, you may have to open the previewer and load the newly generated epub file manually.

There’s also another annoying thing to be cared for, when you are previewing an epub in ADE, or the file opened in ADE and not closed, that epub can not be re-generated by ePub Maker, because ADE locks that file not to be writable. You must close that book in ADE so that you can make the epub again.

Unfortunately, there’s no proper previewer for iPad on PC, and iBooks has a different epub standard, you may have to test on iPad, but a previewer can still helps a lot.

Performing ePub validation is very useful for ePublishers, it will ensure your epub file is valid and loadable on most devices, if there’re errors, it can indicate where the error is, which can help you solve the problem, though it often provides confusing explanation and can not correct it.

From ePub Maker 1.6, user can perform epub validation after epub making by setting up epubcheck.

If you don’t know how to install epubcheck, please read this blog from Threepress,

Running epubcheck on your computer

Simply, you must install Java Run Time first if it’s not installed, then download epubcheck and unzip it to a folder.

Download epubcheck

That’s enough, you needn’t care how to run it from command line.

Now, what you need is to tell ePub Maker where’s the epubcheck installed.

Just in the advanced tab in ePub Maker, select or fill in the location of epubcheck jar file(with full name) and save the settings.

Then you can perform a epubcheck after you make an epub by pressing F9 or check any other epub by pressing F10 in ePub Maker.

A message will tell you if the epub is valid and if there’s error, you can check the log for details.

You can also visit the detail page on my website.

In order to show the features of ePub Maker, we want more vivid examples from users and customers. The examples will be listed on our website and some will be included in the software package.

The reward for each accepted example is a license of ePub Maker.
Here are the requirements of the examples,

• No Copyright Limit Free copyright or you own the copyright.
• No Confidential The content is public, not confidential.
• Source file can be either Word format or HTML format, can be downloaded.
• Type can be document, report, manual, brochure, catalog, or part of a book.
• Field can be commercial, intellectual, technical or educational. (Literature not wanted this time)
• Containing Elements more is better, images, tables, illustrations, lists, even equations, complex enough to show the power of ePub Maker, (not too complex to convert,:), such as textboxes, columns should be avoided)
• Topic should be interesting and useful, and can be accepted by most visitors, such as related to environment,
  nature is recommended.

Here are some simple tips,

• Some sample chapters of your book
• A report from an organization

So if you have good examples, please email us directly to

info@epingsoft.com

Note Commercial brochure and catalog can be accepted, but no ePub Maker license rewarded, (we provide the conversion) and it can only be posted for a month or two.