Re: [libreoffice-users] Save as html file

Thomas Blasejewicz wrote:
> Good evening from Japan
> Maybe I did ask a similar question before ...
>
> I wrote a book using Writer which I am now trying to upload to Kindle.
>
> The instructions say, I must save the file as html and then create a zip
> file from the html file + the images.
> "Save as ... html" creates a content file and a whole long list of files
> for the images.
> However, that did not work. I got an error message and asked for help.
> Below a copy the relevant portion of the answer from Amazon.
>
> Since I hate MS Word, I would love to do this with LO.
> My question:
> Is LO NOT capable of producing the necessary html file as Word does?
> What trick is required, apart from "save as html file", to make this work?
>
> Thank you.

Thomas,

I've been playing with different tools to create e-books for the Kindle. I 
can find no clean way of going straight from LO to Kindle (MOBI) format. You 
may need to combine several tools. Here's what I've found.

1. If you haven't already done so, install Calibre, a free open source 
e-book manager and converter. It can convert a wide variety of file formats 
into MOBI for the Kindle. It has a depth of features that I have only begun 
to scratch. In my experience, it seems to work best converting HTML and EPUB 
files, but it can also convert LO's ODT files directly, if not elegantly. 
When using Calibre, I first save my LO document as an HTML file. Make sure 
to use the "Save as" command rather than the "Export" command. For some 
reason, in my experience, "Save as" has created cleaner HTML files than 
"Export". I have no idea why. Once saved as an HTML file, I then load it 
into Calibre and convert it to MOBI. It works fairly well. For my work, I've 
found some quirks with the way numbered lists are formatted, but otherwise, 
things go relatively well. My work, however, has been all text, with no 
images.

2. There are (at least) two extensions for LO that convert ODT files to EPUB 
formats; Writer2Epub and Elaix. They work well with fairly simple documents. 
I've only played with them a little, but I sense they are both deeper and 
more fully featured than I have yet discovered.

3. There is another neat free program out there called Sigil. You can load 
your HTML file into it and then edit the HTML code in either a WYSIWYM 
screen or text-based code screen. It will then save the file as a 
well-compiled EPUB file, which you can then convert to MOBI using Calibre.

4. The best solution I've found for this task, however, is a shareware 
product called Atlantis (free download, $35.00 registration). It's a 
lightweight Word clone that has a built-in converter to EPUB format. It is 
*very* well behaved and does the best job in preserving my formatted 
documents. It also produces very well structured EPUB files (that you can 
see by loading it into Sigil and examining the code). It can also convert 
directly to MOBI if you have the free Kindlegen utility (available from 
Amazon) installed. Atlantis reads ODT files very well, although it's default 
file format is RTF. The main downside to Atlantis is that it doesn't support 
tables.

The obvious frustration about all this is that, using free or inexpensive 
solutions will mean an involved learning curve along with a lot of trial and 
error experimentation. I know of no "quick and easy press F7 and get a fully 
formatted Kindle e-book" solution.

Virgil 


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