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Well, that was pretty easy to import my Word doc into Kindle Create.
Nice, but I don't like the "Block Paragraph" look and there are too many hyphenated words at the end of lines.
Is there a quick way to change the paragraph format ? Not sure what the word-smithing term is...but block margin on the left hand side and no hyphens on the right hand margin ???
Well, that was pretty easy to import my Word doc into Kindle Create.
Nice, but I don't like the "Block Paragraph" look and there are too many hyphenated words at the end of lines.
Is there a quick way to change the paragraph format ? Not sure what the word-smithing term is...but block margin on the left hand side and no hyphens on the right hand margin ???
As I said... it's too easy to just dump a file into the system.
It will work, but you may not be happy with the results.
I am not sure if anything much done at the Word formatting level makes it through to the final copy, but you can try setting the page size and margins to something closer to the finished version, and turning off hyphenation at the paragraph style level. I think the conversion overrides those.
The only way I know to have more control — and the only process I use — is conversion to HTML and/or EPUB with a customized style (CSS) file. Both will import into Kindle with much closer adherence to the defined styles, instead of ass/u/ming a Word file needs maximum cleanup and standardization.
Not really a process for anyone who doesn't know how to write HTML code and styles.
Well, if Kindle Create doesn't have an easy way to select paragraph style -- that's just pisss-pooor programming.
No, it's a portal designed for the most novice level of user, without any layers for those more experienced.
It's possible to have exceptional control over the finished pages, but an upload portal is not the place to try and implement it, so Amazon (more or less wisely) doesn't try.
Let's face it, if a user isn't skilled enough to use basic Word styles (== 90% of Word users, at least) then giving them a bunch of formatting options in the upload portal is just a recipe for disaster.
At the pro level, absolutely everything starts with structured use of styles, and it's from there that you can control how a Kindle publication looks.
My Word file was structured as Left Adjusted and no Hyphenated words.....I would expect at least that much to come across into the Portal. Or to have a quick fix available.
I don't mind tinkering around with some of the formatting, but in my opinion, that one's a big miss.
I thank you once again Sir, for your help in getting this far.
My Word file was structured as Left Adjusted and no Hyphenated words.....I would expect at least that much to come across into the Portal. Or to have a quick fix available.
I don't mind tinkering around with some of the formatting, but in my opinion, that one's a big miss.
I thank you once again Sir, for your help in getting this far.
Found it. On the panel in the right hand side of KC, there are Text Properties like Fonts and Sizes...and something called Elements. Next to Elements, is Formatting. Click on the line below that word and Enhanced Formatting opens up. There we find the International Standard Icons for Paragraph Styles -- why that is so cleverly concealed is beyond me, but I knew it had to be in there somewhere.
As of now it looks like I have to highlight a page at a time and click on the icon for Left Adjust/Ragged Right.
I'm sure this Programmer has never written a multi-page short story.
My Word file was structured as Left Adjusted and no Hyphenated words.....I would expect at least that much to come across into the Portal. Or to have a quick fix available.
I am not sure Kindle (or ebooks in general) allow much control over things like hyphenation, since it can be critical for display on smaller screens. It's the reader that controls much of how the text actually flows and fills the screen.
As for your file... simply formatting the text doesn't have much to do with how most downstream interpreters handle Word files. It has to be a change in the Normal style definition, not overridden or applied on a paragraph basis.
Learning to use styles, even on a basic level, is an important skill most Word users never gain. I just finished a massive project, handed to me in the messiest Word format I have ever seen — hundreds and hundreds of pseudo-styles and no consistency whatsoever. It wouldn't even import into most of my tools. But it's extremely rare that I see anything close to a "clean" layout, using four or five styles consistently. Word just doesn't... encourage such an approach.
But then there's Powerpoint, which makes Word look like a machinist's lathe... *shudder*
You can go to Kindle directly from Word. If your format is simple enough, it will work fine.
EPUB is the standard e-book file type. It overlaps with another called MOBI, and the actual Kindle file format. You don't really need to know anything about them except the best way to get your document file into the system. When it's much more complicated than flowing-text fiction, using an intermediate conversion to EPUB or MOBI gives you more control over how the final presentation looks.
But you can try skipping all the tricky stuff once you have your final-final Word version.
Thanks, I just hope I can find someone to do all that for me. I'm so computer illiterate!
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