How to Export Your Book as ePub and Mobi file formats

with Microsoft Word and Calibre

This basic tutorial will offer you some guidance on how to prepare The Tutorial is Broken up into Sections:
your Microsoft Word file for export to the ePub format, and how
to use Calibre to convert your ePub file to the Mobi format. The 1. Preparing your Word document
ePub format is readable by: the Kobo eReader, the Blackberry
Playbook, the Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony eReaders, various • Bookmarking your Chapter Heads
Android and Linux devices, and many others. The Amazon Kindle • Adding Hyperlinks
supports the Mobi format.
2. Converting to the ePub and Mobi formats with Calibre
The screenshots shown in the tutorial use Microsoft Word 2007
and 2010 for Windows, Microsoft Word 2011 for Mac OSX, and 3. What Do I Do Next?
Calibre 1.29.0 for Mac OSX and 1.29.0 for Windows. If you are
using different versions of the software, some of the instructions and 4. I Need More Help!
screenshots will be slightly different, but hopefully you can find the
right feature in your software version.

What is Calibre?
Calibre is a free, open-source e-book management application For your convenience, we have created a few template files for
that is available for Mac, PC, and Linux. With Calibre, you can different standard book sizes to make your layout work easier.
organize and manage an astounding number of different e-book You can find these templates in the Publisher Knowledge Base,
file types in your library and sync them directly to a wide variety in the Digital Titles subsection under Title Management.
of personal devices. There is a small amount of e-book editing If you plan to produce both print and digital editions, it will be
that can be accomplished with Calibre, such as adding additional more time efficient to set up your book files to print specs first,
metadata. You can also convert DRM restriction-free e-books and then produce a digital book from the same files. Keep in
between different file formats. mind that Microsoft Word does not have the ability to produce
Take advantage of other Calibre support documents and tutorials:: press-ready PDFs for color books, as our printer requires a full
bleed outside of the book’s trim area. Microsoft Word can only
Calibre: http://calibre-ebook.com produce black and white press-ready PDFs to trim size.
Calibre tutorials: http://calibre-ebook.com/help For more information about the mechanics of setting up your
Word file, e.g., importing and styling text, and inserting art,
Calibre demo: http://calibre-ebook.com/demo see the DriveThru tutorial for Microsoft Word in the Tutorials
and Templates for Creating Digital Downloads page, located
under Digital Titles in the Title Management section of the
Publisher Knowledge Base.

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 Preparing your Word document
This tutorial begins after you have completed flowing and
formatting your Microsoft Word file. You may have already
prepared your file for print, exporting it as a PDF. PDFs are fixed
format, meaning the text and images stay locked in place and
do not reflow as the page is enlarged or reduced. This is vastly
different from the ePub format.
In the file format family, ePubs are unruly and reckless little brats.
ePubs are book files written with XHTML and CSS, which, like web
sites, make them fluid and ever-changing. The exact same file will
appear differently from device to device, depending on the physical
size of those devices and their user-imposed settings. They will
never, ever look exactly the same. Do not let this aggravate you.
To prepare your file for the odd behavior differences, you may need
to eliminate some formatting you imposed, or make some choices
to exclude certain elements that exist in the print or PDF versions of
your book.
Here is a list of problematic formatting and page elements that need
to be addressed in your file, if they exist:
• All chapter heads should be globally (machine) formatted using
paragraph styles from the Style menu, not locally (or manually) • Automatic page numbering must be stripped out;
formatted; You don’t have to use Word’s default choice of type Since book pages will reflow from device to device, fixed page
or size... You can make and save a custom style, and you should numbering becomes inaccurate, irrelevant and confusing.
use it to style all your chapter head text. Just make sure the • All headers and footers should be eliminated from the file.
styles are named Heading 1 for chapter heads and Heading 2
for sub-heads, etc. Later, this will be translated into Style Sheet • Chapter breaks must be stripped out; Chapter breaks will be
information on export from Word. autogenerated on export based on your global chapter head
formatting, as previously mentioned.
• Don’t despair, because some local (manual) formatting is okay;
If you have text in the paragraphs of your book that is manually
formatted as italic or bold, those should transfer just fine.

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 Preparing your Word document (continued)
• Make sure all the illustrations that occur throughout your file • Eliminate different color text; All text should be black.
are anchored to the specific location they need to appear;
When exporting an ePub, your images can shift around to some • If your file was built using a multi-column layout, revise this to a
surprising places when left with no specific instructions. If you single column layout.
have not assigned places where your images should appear in • Make sure any hyperlinks to URLs are correct and unbroken.
relation to text or other objects, the export process will use its
own logic in deciding where to put them. For example, images • Turn off track changes, autoformat, and autocorrect functions.
that should always appear next to certain paragraphs in your
• Turn on and view nonprinting characters in your document
Word file may be bumped to the end of the chapter because the
and correct any formatting issues, like extra tabs, extra
export process doesn’t know exactly where else to put them. The
spaces, inconsistent paragraph spacing, etc.; Open your
solution for reigning in this chaos is to anchor your image objects.
Word application preferences, open <View>, then select <All>
• If your file contains layers for images, eliminate any Nonprinting characters.
background borders, background colors or background
images; The ePub format does not support layers, and will
include and shift these images around in your output file.
• Eliminate any text placed in text boxes; Do not use text boxes
to position text.
• Eliminate any drop caps in your file text; Do not use drop caps
at the start of each chapter or anywhere else in your document.

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 Preparing your Word document (continued)
Bookmarking your Chapter Heads Adding Hyperlinks
After you’ve globally styled all your chapter heads, go through your Now that you’ve bookmarked all of your chapter heads, you can
Word document and begin bookmarking them. Navigate to the first turn them into link locations. Go back to the first bookmark you’ve
text you want to bookmark in your document and select it with your made, select it, pull down the <Insert> menu again, and choose
cursor. Then, pull down the <Insert> menu and open <Bookmark...> <Hyperlink...>. The Insert Hyperlink dialog box will open. Choose
Using one word, name your bookmark something appropriate, and Document, then next to Anchor:, click the <Locate...> button. In
make sure it sorts by <Location>. Click <Add>. Continue this with the next dialog box, select the correct bookmark for this location.
the rest of the chapter heads throughout the document.

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 Converting to the ePub and Mobi formats with Calibre
Save your file as a Word (2007 or later) document, then export the When Calibre has completed processing the file, your book title will
file as a filtered web page (.html, .htm). This is the file you will import appear in your library list.
into Calibre to convert to ePub and Mobi formats.
After you have added your file, you will need to double-check your
Open Calibre. First, add your HTML file to your Calibre library. book’s metadata. Click the second icon at the top of your window,
Click the <Add books> button at the top-right corner and then <Edit metadata>.
navigate to the location of your HTML file on your computer.
Select the file to add it. While Calibre adds this file, you will see
a temporary dialog box open, telling you that Calibre is working
on the task.

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Converting to the ePub and Mobi formats with Calibre(continued)
A dialog box will open. You can proceed with updating your book’s
information here. You can add additional tags and even add
publication dates. To insert your cover image, click <Browse>
under the Change cover options, then navigate to the location of
your JPG file on your computer and select it. Click <OK> to save
when you are finished.

After you have updated your metadata, you can begin converting When the Convert dialog box opens, there are more adjustments
you book. Click the <Convert books> icon at the top of your you can make to your file before processing.
window.

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Converting to the ePub and Mobi formats with Calibre(continued)
On the left-hand side, there will be a list of tabs that you will click The next tab is <Look & Feel>. The only setting you need to adjust
to provide more specific format setting information. The default tab here is <Remove spacing between paragraphs>. Removing the
opens with <Metadata>. spacing between paragraphs adds an indent to the beginning of
each paragraph, which makes them look more like they would
If ePub or Mobi is not already set as the output format, choose appear in a printed book.
one from the drop-down menu at the top-right hand corner of the
dialog box. Otherwise, please do not enable <Disable font size rescaling>;
the user of the device will no longer be able to enlarge the text for
If your book cover image does not appear in the cover image readability. Also be wary of embedding any font families that are
viewer, you can manually navigate to a JPG file stored on your not universally available on most machines and devices, as font
computer and add it, or click <Use cover from source file> to substitutions will likely occur.
include the cover image if it was already built in your Word doc.

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Converting to the ePub and Mobi formats with Calibre(continued)
The next tab is <Page Setup>. In the top left-hand corner of the In the next tab, <Structure Detection>, use the wizard to set your
dialog box, your Input format should automatically be recognized chapter detection to your styled H1 headers. Select the H1 tag, then
as <EPUB> or <MOBI>. Set your Output profile to <Default Output specify “class” and “chapter” attributes. Do the same for <Insert page
Profile>. Set your Input profile to <Default Input Profile>. If you breaks before (XPath expression)>.
are inputting and exporting a file for a personal device, and know
exactly what device the conversion should be tailored to, you can
specify those devices here. However, in this situation, your files
will be read on unknown devices, so it’s best to choose a default
that covers a wider range.
Default margins should be fine as is.

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 Converting to the ePub and Mobi formats with Calibre(continued)
The next tab is <Table of Contents>. Click to enable <Force use The last tab to click is <EPub Output> or <MOBI Output>.
of auto-generated Table of Contents>. Next, you’ll need to specify
the Microsoft Word styles you have previously used for chapter If you are outputting an ePub, make sure to check <Preserve
headings. When the HTML file was exported, these styles were cover aspect ratio> and <Insert inline Table of Contents>.
tagged in a (H1, H2, etc.) hierarchy.

If you are outputting a Mobi, make sure to select <Old> for MOBI
file type. This will make your Mobi readable by an older and larger
range of Amazon Kindles.

Now that you have completed adding file format specifics, click
Select the correct tag, the <OK> button at the bottom right-hand corner of the dialog box.
then specify “class” and Calibre will begin to convert your file, automatically adding it to
“chapter” attributes. your library.

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Converting to the ePub and Mobi formats with Calibre(continued)
While Calibre is working, the wheel icon at the bottom-right hand If you open your ePub file using Adobe Digital Editions, you can
corner of the library window will spin. If you click <Jobs> to the left, check your ePub file’s autogenerated Table of Contents. It will
you can see the conversion progress of your file, or many files if be placed directly after the front cover of the book. You can test
you have a batch queued. the links both from the TOC page itself as well as the Table of
Contents list off the page to the left in the application’s sidebar.
Now your new file has been added as an additional file format
for your book. To view the converted file, click the <EPUB> or Test your ePub and Mobi files on as many readers and devices
<MOBI> link in the file format list under the book cover image. as you possibly can after export to make sure it looks the way
Calibre will open a window in which you can scroll through and you want it to. Doing this gives you a chance to make formatting
see what the converted file looks like. corrections before you upload your files for public consumption.

Adobe Digital Editions: a free e-book reader application

http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions.html

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 What Do I Do Next? I Need More Help!
Once you have finished producing and testing your new digital Your publisher service rep is not really an expert on digital layout, so
edition formats, you’re ready to upload! chances are slim that he or she will be able to answer questions not
answered in this tutorial. However, please do email us your questions
Log into your DriveThru account, and go to your Publisher Hub anyway so we can help find an answer if we can and also so that we
on the Publish page. If you have not already set up a title record, can improve this tutorial so it answers more questions for everyone.
go to TITLE MANAGEMENT/Set up a new title to do so.
If you have decided that you don’t care to do your own file layout, you
If you have any questions or need more information about how can find people with professional skills and contract them to create
to proceed with filling out this form, you may also find it helpful your print files. The cost of this work depends on how much of the
to follow our Book Walkthrough located in the Publisher work you do yourself before handing it over. You can find freelance
Knowledge Base. layout professionals at sites like www.upwork.com.
After a successful upload, you can choose to activate your title for We can also recommend someone for layout if you would like.
live sale! How exciting! Please contact Publisher Services for details.

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