Microsoft word has lots of features that make creating ebooks easy. This tutorial shows how to convert microsoft word document docx to epub or mobi ebook format for amazon kindle or other ebook platforms. Go to the file menu in word, choose save as, navigate to where you want your document to be saved and save it first as a standard word. The main thing is to get things right in the word document, rather than messing around with things to much in sigil. How to format your ebook for epub conversion bookbaby blog.
Please note, that this will remove all formatting, including italics and bold. A quick guide to formatting your microsoft word manuscript. You can create with a table of contents and chapter breaks for easy ereader navigation and readability. Turnaround time for your custom book within 7 days 3 days for rush jobs. What is the best way to convert a word doc to a kdp ebook. This article explains how to remove the formatting from a document. Then you can try avs4you document converter, it is a dedicated yet free word to ebook converter, helping users to convert word docxdoc, pdf, rtf, txt, html, tiff, jpg and others to various formats, with original file quality highly. Choose the type of book youre making and click choose file. My plan is to convert the word doc to pdf then to epub with calibre. Aug 23, 2017 this is the mantra to keep repeating to yourself when youre formatting your document. Step by step instructions for formatting an ebook in microsoft word. The most important formatting element is to make sure you use heading 2 for your chapter titles.
They want to make it easy for you to get published, so theyll convert your word document into an ebook epub file instantly, as soon as you upload it. And if calibre can convert word, then it can convert almost any document into an ebook. Five simple principles for formatting microsoft word documents. As you prepare your ebook, consider whether your content should have a fixed or reflowable format. Styles in microsoft word is the easiest way to perfectly format an ebook the stepbystep procedure for using word styles to format an ebook file. Sadly, so few even know these things exist, let alone how to use them. The main feature of this format is the use of reflowable text word wrap which makes it possible to adapt the image to different device displays. How to format a manuscript for ebook conversion publishdrive. Change the default settings for new documents office support. Styles are words way to standardize the treatment and appearance of words, characters, and blocks of text. Highlight each before choosing the style mentioned. How to convert a pdf file into a word document digital trends. Unfortunately, microsoft word does not currently have the ability to do this.
How to do the quick conversion open your word document and save it as an rtf rich text format using the save as function select rich text format from the. Im an expert word user, so just by reading this, i can tell that prepping my book for publication will be a fairly straightforward task. Although your word doc formatting looks correct when you use the tab button to indent and the space bar to create multiple extra spaces, etc. Hit ok and calibre will immediately begin converting. Understand the fundamental differences between formatting for an ebook and formatting for hard copy. You can upload and convert your ebook manuscript file from several supported formats. If you need to undo an action rather than undo formatting, see undo, redo, or repeat an. How to do the quick conversion open your word document and save it as an rtf rich text format using the save as function select rich text format from the dropdown menu. Doc files can also contain charts and tables, videos, images, sounds and diagrams. Formatting ebook and book cover design and formatting. In order to turn your book into a functional ebook, your manuscript document.
On the message tab, in the basic text group, click clear all formatting. Some popular programs to use for the epub conversion process are. If you still think your word document fits the bill, heres how to create your epub or mobi file. How to format your book for kindle using microsoft word in. The reflowable format is better suited if the document targeted at eink device users. It is associated mainly with microsoft word application. In microsoft word a popup window will appear asking the same thing click yes. To format a document is a simple matter of using things that expert programmers have built into word for us.
Epub the opensource, widely used ebook file format and mobi the awkward kindle file format are extremely flexible after all, they have to be read on thousands of different devices with different capabilities. If you attempt to make your ebook an exact facsimile of your print book, you will cause yourself and your readers unnecessary frustration. Even more advanced the right way another way to make ebooks more professional, but more timeconsuming is to copy all the text from your word document and use an online service like to make it cleaner. Do you want to convert your word document to an epub or mobi file. Epub electronic publication is a free and open ebook standard from the international digital publishing forum idpf, an open xmlbased format for digital books and publications, can be read on portable eink devices, mobile phones, and desktop computers. Is a format developed by the international digital publishing forum. For the stylesheet to work properly and your books formatting to be consistent, you will have to format using general styles instead of using local formatting. I liked that this howto booklet was concise, yet clear in its explanations. How to convert a microsoft word document into an ebook using the calibre conversion tool. Creating and formatting documents for ereaders using epub. It will make sure that your document will be clean of background code that can affect fonts, paragraph styles and line spacing in your ebook.
Word to epub converter can convert a word file docx or doc directly into a epub format ebook. How to convert a word docx file to an epub youtube. If youre patient and willing to format your word document carefully, you can use the automated conversion processes of amazon kindle. So, if you want to format a word document such that it sails through the conversion process for kindles mobi or the more generic epub read on. Yes using calibre to convert ebooks such as convert azw to pdf, steps are easy to go, just add books, choose output format and then convert, ok. Jun 26, 2016 creating an ebook means converting your document into one or more of the several ebook formats. Repeat this step for every chapter title and save your document. It does involve jumping a few hurdles, though, and those hurdles are the reason that so many selfpublished. I used a free application called calibre which you can. The epub and kindle ebooks contain not only the content from. Editing the html document the html needs to be edited so that when it is converted into an epub file it displays correctly. You may want to convert this file because epub is a very commone file format.
Then, go back to save as, navigate to the same folder and this time, select the dropdown under the filename and select pdf. The book formatting rocket is our very own formatting software, which in its first version was developed back in 2012, and was very unique of its kind for the time. Using word styles is the easiest way to prepare your word file before you publish your ebook. Kdp is very picky about what kind of files it accepts, and it has been known to reject without reason calibre files. The following code illustrates how to convert the word document to epub file. Dec 02, 2018 if you still think your word document fits the bill, heres how to create your epub or mobi file. Help formatting word doc to convert to pdf then epub. I wish this book had included information about prepping the word document for release as a print book up on amazon. And yet, if you adopt the five simple formatting principles below, you will be using the reflowable content method for epub ebook. Word will then transfer the document into a word file and open it. However if your ebook does not contain these formatting issues, here are 6 easy steps to turn your microsoft word document into a kindle book. Creating an ebook means converting your document into one or more of the several ebook formats.
Jul 20, 2017 top tips for ebook formatting in word. How to convert a word docx file to an epub or kindle ebook. How to convert a word document to epub suffolk libraries. Change format style of the book title and all chapter titles to heading 1. You can use helpndoc to convert a word doc or docx document into an epub or kindle ebook. You can easily clear all formatting such as bold, underline, italics, color, superscript, subscript, and more from your text and return your text to its default formatting styles. If you converted to mobi the first time, then hit the convert books button again and select epub to convert to that format. In this tutorial, you will learn how to format the microsoft word document properly so that it is ready to be converted into epub or mobi and then. You can use styles to format an ebook or update its formatting to work on a different platform. The information we give is specific to the 2016 version of word, but the steps are similar in most versions.
May 15, 2020 but before you start converting word doc to epub or mobi, make sure your word document is correctly formatted using word styles. Open the word document you want to convert to epub. On windows, click the acrobat tab, then click create pdf. If you convert your book into these three formats you will be golden. Creating an epub from a word document is an incredible waste of time. How to use microsoft word to create an ebook pcworld. My last post led us through the process of getting rid of all the junk, hidden code, and other weirdness. For help formatting a quality ebook, see this stepbystep guide. You know calibre is a free and open source ebook library manager, so if you want to convert word to epub, calibre can also help you. Simple ebook formatting using ms word molly greene.
They want to make it easy for you to get published, so theyll convert your word document into an ebook epub file instantly. All of these background elements can alter the look of your ebook once it is published. How to format your ebook for easier distribution written. Feb 17, 2017 this tutorial shows how to convert microsoft word document docx to epub or mobi ebook format for amazon kindle or other ebook platforms. How to convert your word document to epub format using calibre. So, you may need a professional word to epub converter to retain the original formatting as much as possible. Calibre is a fantastic program, and i cant find any reason other that its marked as a calib. If your book is in an ms word file, you should actually have saved a simple copy, before you did any. Once you have set calibre up follow the instructions below to format and convert your original document into an epub file.
Mar 23, 2017 five simple principles for formatting microsoft word documents. The stepbystep guide to formatting your print book for kdp. Later, when you start formatting the converted wordtoxhtml document as an epub, you will need to add several more styles to your css style sheet to handle special sections of the book. What file size, aspect ratio and file type you will need for your book cover images. How to convert a word document to epub or mobi for kindle. You can customize the normal template and change default settings for many aspects of a document, such as text formatting, paragraph formatting, document formatting, styles, text, pictures, autotext entries, and keyboard shortcuts. What you need to know about formatting your own ebook. Format in microsoft word and convert to ebook in calibre udemy. For the best results, we recommend a microsoft word docdocx or a kpf file created with kindle create.
This tutorial will show you how to convert word doc to epub. Open kindle create and click new project from file. You need to see the formatting marks, so turn them on, as well as the navigation pane and the ruler, by clicking the backtofront p sign the paragraph symbol used by proofreaders. Formatting a print book for kdp can be learned quite quickly, and you can do everything in microsoft word, or indesign if you want to make it extra professional. Doc is a file extension for word processing documents. The epub document has a light grey background color. Weve since rewritten it from scratch and improved the software, which works by providing a simple system to tear apart your microsoft word document, remove all of the unnecessary fluff, and then completely rebuild from scratch a. You can do this the debate continues, but im back to tell you yes, you can format and upload your ebook manuscript in microsoft word. Aug 07, 2017 if youre patient and willing to format your word document carefully, you can use the automated conversion processes of amazon kindle, smashwords, draft2digital, or similar ebook retailer and distribution services.
Feb 18, 2017 in this tutorial, you will learn how to format the microsoft word document properly so that it is ready to be converted into epub or mobi and then uploaded to amazon kindle or other ebook. Once you install calibre, there are two basic ways you can add your word file. If youre patient and willing to format your word document carefully, you can use the automated conversion processes of amazon kindle, smashwords, draft2digital, or similar ebook retailer and distribution services. If you see any issues or if your book doesnt look the way you want it to, we recommend converting your pdf to a word document and formatting it according to our ebook formatting guide.
While there are several excellent ebook writing and conversion apps availablefrom free to hundreds of dollars for every platformmost people still prefer writing in a traditional text editor. To create chapter headings, insert a section break at the beginning each chapter. It creates a serviceable ebook, but not a beautiful one. Help formatting word doc to convert to pdf then epub hey there, sorry if this has been asked before, but i looked into the previous posts, and i couldnt find this exact situation.
Once youve created a cover, typeset the pages and organised the sections of your book, youre ready to export your hard work as an epub file. But as word to a mobi and epub converter, it is one of the easiest and quickest tools to use. Highlight your main title, select format styles and formatting or the equivalent option. Mar 03, 2015 unnecessarily complex formatting or layout will hinder the readability of your epub. On mac, click the create and share adobe pdf icon, then skip to step 4. It is characterized by the xml and xhtmbased optional use of css styling. Select restrict editing in the dialog box if you want to prevent the finished pdf file from being changed without your permission. Mobi the mobipocket ebook format is based on the open ebook standard using xhtml. How to convert a word document to epub long way use libreoffice, openoffice, or word, its all the same. But the mobi ebook format, or kindle book format, is the only. Beautiful formatting draft2digital easy selfpublishing. How to turn a microsoft word document into an ebook epub. How to use the book formatting rocket apex authors.
External hyperlinks to websites, social media, andor email. Follow this stepbystep guide to format your manuscript for ebook conversion. Take a look at the formatting and make sure you can edit the document as you want without graphics or text behaving. Also, the reflowable format is preferred if you want to provide options to. All of these background elements can alter the look of your ebook once it. Good formatting in your word document will make your ebook look and read much better for your potential ebook readers. Apr 17, 2012 microsoft word has lots of features that make creating ebooks easy. This is the mantra to keep repeating to yourself when youre formatting your document. But before you start converting word doc to epub or mobi, make sure your word document is correctly formatted using word styles. There are many reasons why good formatting habits in word are important, but easy conversion to ebook is usually not one of the reasons cited.
A free and open ebook standard by the international digital publishing forum idpf. Now i wont say doing your own is a cinch, but im here to tell authors, aspiring authors, and everybody standing on the sidelines because they think the ebook formatting process is too hard or too expensive that you can do it yourself. But, converting word to epub with calibre is not so simple as you think. A reflowable epub document allows the epub reader to optimize the content depending on the display device. Epub the opensource, widely used ebook file format and mobi the awkward kindle file format are extremely flexible after all, they have to be read on thousands of. How to make an ebook kindle and epub conversion diy book. Additional styles may include css for areas of the book where the author has inserted from 1 to 3 blank lines, larger centered italic text, a scenechange.
If you used scrivener or adobe indesign you can export as an epub file directly. Draft2digital create an account through their home page. In word, click the clear all formatting button to remove all formatting. Getting rid of the junk code requires a solid knowledge in xhtml programming and bundling in epub and mobi formats. Simple ebook formatting using ms word i hear lots of chat about the difficulties of ebook formatting. On the home tab, in the font group, click clear all formatting. The software is excellent, the features are as follows.
Sometimes its not a bad idea to take your microsoft word document, import it into or open it inside another one of these systems, then see how well it exports as epub. Word is not a good choice, because it fills the file with all kinds of unnecessary formatting and other nonsense word bloat. Preparing a word document june 5, 2012 by araby greene for epub or kindle production, the ideal word document has simple styles, consistency in their usage, and no formatting that disappears after conversion, such as tabs, words text boxes, and running headers and footers. What is the best way to export from word to epub format. Request an ebook formatting quote by clicking the button below. If you havent set up your document as a book file, simply go to file export and choose epub from the format dropdown menu. How to quickly create an epub file from word jane friedman. Another approach is to write the book from the beginning in a program with builtin epub conversion. Much depends on the quality and complexity of the document you start with.