Formatting a Book from Word to Kindle In 8 Easy Steps
Understanding the epub format is good to get a good hand in this formatting or conversion work. Epub files are just like a web page made up of Html, CSS. To edit an epub is not more than editing a web page.
If you like to convert a book
from word to kindle format, it could be done using two free tools, Calibre and
Sigil. The whole process is explained briefly in following steps:-
- Format the entire book text in Ms-Word in fixed layout format. Margins, Page breaks, section, paragraph and line breaks are important elements to check
- Use Calibre, a free software to convert word document into epub format
- Now check this book in Amazon kindle viewer to see the resultant kindle book
- Amazon kindle viewer will interpret / convert the epub to mobi while generating the output
- If there are errors, upload this book to another free tool named “Sigil”
- Sigil provide the environment to read and edit the epub version of a book
- Correct all formatting errors in Sigil edit mode, (Html, CSS skills are mandatory to do this job)
- Now test it again in Amazon kindle viewer and see the results
How to Add Clickable Table of Contents (TOC) in Kindle Book
It’s worthy if your kindle book
have a clickable TOC. While formatting the book in Word, use the Headings,
available in Style menu to get a clickable TOC.
A hierarchy of TOC could be
maintained using Heading1, Heading2, 3 and 4. Label all chapters with Heading1,
then sub topics with H2 and so on. For Example:-
Topic 1 [Heading 1]
Sub
Topic 1 [Heading 2]
Sub Sub Topic 1 [Heading 3]
When finished with formatting the
entire book with headings, add table of contents from “References” tab. Word
will follow the headings to generate the TOC. This TOC will be clickable in all
formats including Pdf, Epub and Mobi.
