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How to convert a MS Word file to an e-book

Updated on June 28, 2011

Follow these steps to convert your MS 2003 Word File to an e-book

Introduction to ebook conversion

There are three basic steps to converting your MS Word 2003 Manuscript to an e-book file and these are illustrated with the chart above.. To begin the process, you must create a MS Word 2003 manuscript document with a linkable TOC, which is required to be used in the Kindle imobi format, You may refer to my HUB: How to create an ebook with Linkable TOC, before you move forward to convert your document to e-book format. There may be other ways of creating your base document using other pathways with other word processing or graphic software such as InDesign, but I have managed to convert and publish six novels with this process and they are available for sale online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com.

I have found that keeping your page graphics as simple as possible makes it easier for the reader to make choices such as font style and size for their reading comfort. If you are familiar with writing HTML code, you can do more with e-book graphics and illustrations. For the purpose of simplicity, I am directing my advice to those who wish to publish e-books without illustrations or more elaborate page designs.


Converting to e-book files with Calibre

After you have set-up a MS Word 2003 Document with the linkable TOC, you can use my chart in this Hub to continue the conversion process, but first, you must go online and go to the Calibre site and download the Calibre program.(The link is provided below) Calibre is easy to use and a new version 8.7 is available for download. I would advise using the Calibre tutorial to learn how the program works. I would import a document to test the process and follow the steps indicated in the Calibre program. There is not enough space in this hub to offer a full tutorial of Calibre. The purpose of this Hub is to walk you through the steps of the conversion process. Once you have converted one ebook file, you will see how easy it is to change file types back and forth. I have listed the main three types of e-book files. There are more file types used for ebook readers but I decided to limit it to the here major file types used by the major e-book distributors.

The Calibre program offers a unique Calibre reader previewer interface that allows you to assess what your e-book file looks like in the reader. I would advise you to utilize the previewer to proof all your e-book files to check for file glitches that may arise. And if you find such a copy or spacing problem, you will have to go to the HTML source code in the Zip version or the save to Web version to troubleshoot the problem and make the corrections before you convert and submit your e-book file to the Amazon Publishing Platform.



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