CJs Easy As Pie Kindle Tutorials

Getting Started in Kindle Publishing: Choosing Your Kindle

2011-12-31T23:26:00.000-06:00

If you haven't yet purchased your Kindle -- and you do need one if you want to successfully publish to the Kindle -- this post is for you.

Bufo Calvin who writes "I Love My Kindle, owns, I believe, every model of Kindle, and he researches and tests each new offering so he can help newbies pick the best Kindle for their own particular situation.

You'll find his latest lists and comments here:

Currently Available Kindles

Getting Started in Kindle Publishing: Independent vs Traditional Publishing

2011-12-31T10:10:00.002-06:00

Earlier, I directed you to Joe Konrath's a Newbie's Guide to Publishing.

As you may recall, Joe, most of his guest writers, and even many who comment on his posts, are already established writers, many with impressive backlists.

Their experience is very valuable, but I think perhaps more CJ's Pie readers will identify with DD Scott's The Writer's Guide to E-Publishing.

A recent guest post by writer Lois Lavrisa, starts with the comment that she will "take huge liberties with a classic story", to tell of her efforts to get traditionally published and why she is planning to indie publish in 2012.

Her Alice in Wonderland tale will bring a smile to the lips and a pang to the heart of many who have traveled that same magical and mythical road.

Lois begins her story:

"Somewhere, over the rainbow in New York, publishing happened. Agents and editors in the shining city had power to grant writers their dream of being a published author. Of course, as a writer I wanted to achieve that dream too. And therefore, I worked diligently and tirelessly: I joined professional writing organizations, attended countless writing conferences and workshops along the road to publishing success.

Beta readers and critique partners read my work. I learned the craft, I networked, I wrote and rewrote. Then I did it all over again.

At last, with my manuscript polished and complete, I decided to pitch it at a conference. When it was my turn for my pitch session, I was led down a long golden carpeted hallway,"

Read the rest of Lois's story here:

http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/welcome-to-the-wg2e-lois-lavrisa http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/welcome-to-the-wg2e-lois-lavrisa

While you are there, at DD Scott's The Writer's Guide to E-Publishing , be sure to check out the sales figures on the right-hand sidebar.

Of most interest, of course, are DD's very healthy Amazon sales figures, but what also should be noted are the relatively low figures for ebooks in other formats.

It's nice to think of having our books available in all formats... but how much time and money can we afford to spend to get our books converted to every format under the sun?

DD's figures suggest that our time and money might be better spent in developing our stories and sharpening our writing skills.

Getting Started in Kindle Publishing: Established Authors

2011-12-29T11:50:00.001-06:00

For a while, now, I've been sending authors to Joe Konrath's blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing. You may have noticed a link on my right-hand sidebar.

The thing that's unique about Joe, is that he is so straight-forward. Unlike most of the noise that's posted around the Internet (which, as you may know, I rant about regularly) Joe gets right to the point with actual experiences and sales numbers.

Joe was already a successful writer before he decided to try Kindle Publishing, and he shares, with actual numbers, successes, and failures, the process he went through, as he tried to decide whether to risk that success to try Kindle publishing.

If you are going through that process now, you will find much of value, not only in Joe's posts, but in the experiences of the many established writers who comment on his posts.

Joe is well past that decision-making process now, and is making not only a living... but GOOD LIVING. from his Amazon Kindle sales.

For that reason, it's necessary to go back a bit in order to pick up where Joe and his guest writers were making those first steps into Kindle Publishing.

It's difficult to know where to start, but since we are at the end of 2011, going back to January 2011, seems appropriate... so let's start there.

Click the link below to visit Joe Konrath's blog in January 2011, as author Blake Crouch writes about his own decision-making progress, and other now-successful authors comment on their own decisions and progresses.

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, January 2011

How to Place a Picture into Your File: Find Photos You Can Safely Use: Understanding Fair Use of Photos

2011-12-28T08:54:00.002-06:00

Too often, in forum posts, some people claim it's ok to use any photo that's been posted on the Internet.

That's "Fair Use", they say.

Well, no, it's not... and it would behoove all to remember that ignorance is no excuse.

To understand what you can and can't do under Fair Use, please read the article by Attorney David L. Amkraut, posted on Joel Friedlander's The Book Designer:

Fair Use and Copyright: What Every Writer Ought to Know

Helpful Websites:

Copyright and Other Rights Pertaining to U.S. Government Works | USA.gov
http://www.usa.gov/copyright.shtml

Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/

Creative Commons Attribution
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Creative Commons: What Every Self-Publisher Ought to Know The Book Designer
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/06/creative-commons-what-every-self-publisher-ought-to-know/

Joel Friedlander Self-Publisher Quick & Easy Guide to Copyright is a good investment:

Amazon.com: The Self-Publisher's Quick & Easy Guide to Copyright (The Self-Publisher's Quick & Easy Guides) eBook: Joel Friedlander: Kindle Store
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Publishers-Quick-Copyright-Guides-ebook/dp/B004PLO8XK/

How to Place a Picture into Your File: Find Photos You Can Safely Use

2011-12-27T16:21:00.000-06:00

Please look at the article by The Book Designer's Joel Friedlander, here:

Finding Photographs for a Book or Blog Gets Better The Book Designer
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/12/finding-photographs-for-a-book-or-blog-gets-better/

Joel offers advice about how to use the images, how to give credit to the owner, how to save time when searching for images, and how to save money when buying the right to use certain images.

Here are a few sites that offer free or low cost images:

Google Advanced Image Search
http://images.google.com/advanced_image_search

Stock Photos: Download Royalty Free Images, Photos, Pictures | iStock
http://www.istockphoto.com/photo

Flickr: Advanced Search
http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced

Compfight : A Flickr Search Tool
http://compfight.com/

Dreamstime: Download Free Stock Photos & Royalty Free Images
http://www.dreamstime.com/

Morguefile: Free Photos For Creatives By Creatives
http://www.morguefile.com/

Stock.Xchng: The Leading Free Stock Photography Site
http://www.sxc.hu/

US Government Photo Sources

Copyright and Other Rights Pertaining to U.S. Government Works | USA.gov
http://www.usa.gov/copyright.shtml

NOAA Photo Library – HOME
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/

NOAA Photo Library – Treasures of the Library
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/library/index.html

U.S. Government Photos and Images | USA.gov
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml

Pictures of the Documents - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net
http://www.usconstitution.net/constpix.html

US Federal Government Public Domain Images - Primarily Photos
http://stellar-one.com/public/us_federal_government_public_domain_images.htm

NASA - NASA Featured Images and Galleries
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html

DefenseImagery.mil
http://www.defenseimagery.mil/index.html

The Best Copyright-Free Photo Libraries: - DotGovWatch Exposing the good, the bad, and the buggy - A Blog Monitoring U.S. Federal, State, and Local Government Websites
http://www.dotgovwatch.com/?/archives/8-The-Best-Copyright-Free-Photo-Libraries.html

How to Place a Picture into Your File: Make Your Photo the Right Size

2011-12-23T13:33:00.001-06:00

If you don't already have it, please download the following to view your Kindle ebook:

Amazon's Kindle Previewer 1.61
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000234621

To view your MS Word file as nearly as possible as it will be displayed on the Kindle, go to Page Setup and set your page size to be 3.5 wide, 5.1 high, and .25" margin all around.

My Matt the Cat file, in Print Layout View now looks like this:

You might notice that the picture isn't quite wide enough... there is too much white space on either side of it. Let's make it a little wider.

Right click on the picture to cause the Pop-Up Menu to appear, as shown in the picture below:

The tiny menu above the main Pop-Up Menu shows the current size of this photo.

You can see that the photo is not 3.0 inches wide, to match the text. but is only 2.88.

Put your cursor on the tiny up arrow and click several times to increase the number to 3.0.

Above is the result, with the photo being the same width as the text.

How to Place a Picture into Your File: In Line With Text

2011-12-22T23:13:00.000-06:00

We start with the picture that we just inserted into our file in the previous article.

Our next task is to reposition the photo. We want it to be centered on the page and to have a nice separation between the edge of the photo and the text of the page.

To do that, we format our photo to be "In Line With Text".

Start by placing your mouse cursor on the photo and CLICK-RIGHT to display a small pop-up menu:

Choose "Format Picture"... that's the last item on the pop-up menu list.

Now, we see why our picture is in the wrong position. Notice that the last icon is selected with a selection box around it.

Move your cursor to the first box and click to select it.

Our photo jumps to the center of the page, and is now nicely positioned within the text.

How to Place a Picture into Your File: Switch to Print Layout View

2011-12-21T14:12:00.000-06:00

Print Layout mode shows how your file will look when printed on paper, and, also approximately how it will look on the Kindle. Page sizes look right, paragraphs look right, and pictures and illustrations are in their proper places.

But it is slow to work in Print Layout mode because the file is being re-formatted as you type, and pictures and illustrations are in your way.

So... when you are typing your manuscript, it is usually faster and easier to work with your file in Draft or Normal View because the text acts almost like a plain text file and also because pictures and illustrations are hidden from view, so they aren’t in your way.

But what happens when you want to insert a new picture into your file?

Let's look at an example:

Below is my Word file in Draft mode. I have created a new paragraph and applied the "Illustration" tag to it (see blank paragraph mark).

Now, I go to My Pictures, and find, select, and copy the photo I want, then come back here, and paste the photo at the blank paragraph mark that I formatted earlier.

Now, my page looks like this:

Yes... it is exactly the same.

That can be VERY disconcerting, as you wonder what on earth happened to your picture!

The answer is to switch to Print Layout view. We click View from the Menu at the top of the screen, then Print Layout.

Below shows our file in Print Layout view.

Notice that the page and paragraphs now look neat and nice... just as we want them to appear on the printed page... or on our Kindle.

Our photo has appeared but LOOK AT IT!

It's off to one side, instead of centered as we expected, and it's not spaced properly.

That's because we have not yet placed it "in line with text".

We will show how to do that in the next article.

How to Place a Picture into Your File: Copy and Paste or Insert from File

2011-12-20T13:12:00.000-06:00

When it comes to inserting a picture or, any illustration, into your MS Word file, the advice you may hear around the Internet, is... "Always use "Insert from File:... never use "Copy and Paste!"

Some even go so far as to say that if you have already prepared your manuscript with copy and paste, you must remove all those pictures and "insert them properly".

No one ever explained why Insert From File is better, but I, along with many others, followed that advice... and sure enough, I never had a problem.

But is it really necessary?

Copy and Paste is often faster and easier... and sometimes a manuscript has already been prepared with Copy and Paste before its author even thought about publishing to the Kindle.

Does that mean the author must delete those illustrations and replace them with the "proper" method of "Insert From File"?

No, not at all. From the illustration below, you can see that there is no difference in appearance between the two methods.

The picture on the left was inserted into the MS Word file, using the most-often recommended method, "Insert From File".
"Insert From File" is a menu item under Insert, and may also be chosen from a small picture icon on the Menu bar at the top of the Word screen.

The "downside" of this method is that you must know where your picture is located, or you must go looking for it before you can insert it. Unless you are very well organized, that is going to take extra time.

The picture on the right was inserted into the MS Word file, using the faster (but less desirable in the opinion of many), "Copy and Paste" method.

Copy and Paste is usually easier and faster because you can just copy a file from wherever you might find it, and paste it into your file.

As you see, the two pictures are identical in the MS Word manuscript.

Does that mean the two methods are identical?

Not exactly... it depends on your individual situation and working habits.

We will talk about that next.

Kindle Tips: Create a Kindle Template, Pictures, Part Two

2011-10-18T21:52:00.000-05:00

1600x1200 pixels, 493 KB

From his perch outside my motorhome,
Matt the Cat Sees Something that does not meet his approval.

1600x1200 pixels, 697 KB

With fluffy tail, Matt explains the facts of life to
3-month-old Bubba, who sadly starts down the steps.

1600x1200 pixels, 697 KB

Bubba changes his mind, comes back and
assumes the “You’re the Alpha” position.

1600x1200 pixels, 695 KB

Bubba begs to come aboard,
but Matt, still with fluffy tail, is unimpressed.

1600x1200 pixels, 532 KB

Mission accomplished, Matt returns to his perch,
but watches with eyes wide open.

Matt the Cat Trains Bubba the Puppy, CJ's Easy As Pie Mini-Tutorial

Pictures were inserted as described in previous articles in this series.

Kindle Tips: Create a Kindle Template, Pictures Tag

2011-07-24T16:58:00.001-05:00

In this lesson, we will create a Styles Tag to hold our pictures and other illustrations in their proper positions.

As always, your needs may be different, and you can create your own Tags to suit your particular need... but here is what I wanted in a Pictures Tag:

I want my "Pictures Tag" for my Pictures and other illustrations to have a page break before, to have a nice margin at the top, and to be “Centered”.

I also want my "Pictures Tag" to have the feature “keep with next”… “next” being the caption that I want to appear directly under the illustration, rather than getting kicked over to the next page.

As described in previous lessons in this "Create a Kindle Template" series, to display your Apply Styles box, issue SHIFT-CTRL-S.

When the box appears, just start typing “Illustration with Caption” into the Style Name field.

As soon as Word realizes you are typing a name it does not recognize, the button just below the name field changes from “Apply” to “New”.

When you have finished typing the name “Illustration with Caption”, click the “Modify” button that now appears below the Style Name field.

Now you are ready to “Modify” your new style… that is, to apply the features that you want to apply to your illustrations.

(See earlier articles in this series if you need help to “Modify a Style”.)

Here is how I formatted my “Illustration With Caption” Style.

Font: Default

Paragraph:

Space Before 22 px

Alignment: Centered

Line Spacing: Single

Line and Page Breaks:

Page Break Before

Keep With Next

Following Style: Caption

Apply this Style to a "paragraph mark" at the exact location where you want your illustration. Then, simply insert your illustration at that very point, and there is your illustration... properly formatted!

I have prepared a file of several pages of images with this format applied that you can test.

To download a free copy, to see how these formats will display on your own device:

Send an email to cj-01@cjs-easy-as-pie.com

In the Subject Line, put "Requesting “Illustration with Caption” Free Download.

I'll send you a link where you can download the file in Kindle format, to test on your own device.

The next article in this series (Kindle Tips: Create a Kindle Template, Pictures, Part Two), illustrates "Matt the Cat trains Bubba the Puppy" with full-size (1600 x 1200 pixels) photos simply copied and pasted from the original MS Word file, using the same tag described above.

Matt and Bubba will be featured in a future mini-tutorial about how to place pictures in your Kindle ebook. Send an email to the address above if you want a free download when it's finished.

Kindle Tips: Create a Kindle Template, Block Quotes Tag, Poetry Quotes Tag, Dialogue Quotes Tag

2011-06-05T19:38:00.005-05:00

In this lesson, we will look at tags that you might use if you want to format paragraphs of quoted text, using Tags already provided in this MS Word 2010 Template.

In the screen shot below, we have the Styles Box open to display all the Styles that are currently available to us to format this document.

We have also opened the Styles Pane at the center of the page, show which Styles are being used by each paragraph.

In this screenshot, the Styles Pane shows that "Normal" is applied to the first paragraph.

The Styles Pane also shows that the Style named "Quote" has been applied to the second paragraph, and...

The Style named "Intense Quote" has been applied to the third paragraph.

These Styles are "defaults" within this MS Word 2010 Template we are using.

Suppose we want a centered Style, such as we might use for a verse of poetry, to make short lines look nice.

We can do that by simply choosing Quote, and changing it to be "Center" aligned.

We will "Modify" the Style named "Quote", and call our new Style, "Poetry Quote".

We can also make "Intense Quote" more business-like by changing the font color to Black and remove the border under the paragraph.

We will make those changes with Modify Style, and call this new Style, "Business Intense Quote".

See it in the next screen shot.

Also in the next screen shot, you can see that we have applied the Style Poetry Quote to one of the most well-known statements of all time, the second sentence of the American Declaration of Independence... "We hold these truths to be self-evident..."

We need one more Quotes tag... one to define lines of dialogue.

Let's use our Quotes tag again, but this time we will make it left aligned instead of centered, and give it a first line indent.

In the next screen shot, we have formatted the second sentence of the American Declaration of Independence to look like a line of dialogue rather than a line of poetry, as we did in a previous screen shot.

Kindle Tips: Create a Kindle Template, Chapter Title Heading 1 (H1)

2011-06-05T15:17:00.002-05:00

Now that we have our basic formats set up for Normal Style and Body Text Style, let's look at what is one of the most important Styles in our Kindle ebook.

That is "Heading 1"... the Style that we apply to the Chapter Titles in our MS Word document.

(This is what is called in the universal HTML language, "H1". I add that just so you'll know what it is when you see it mentioned.)

We will use Heading 1 (H1) to style each of the main Chapter Titles in our Kindle ebook.

If we want each of our chapters to start on a new page -- as most books do -- we can do that right here.

If we want each of our chapter titles to be in a bigger and/or darker font than our text (of course, we do!), we can do that right here.

If we want each of our chapter titles to start a certain distance down from the top of the page (some do and some don't), we can do that here.

OK... just as we did in previous lessons, let's call the [Display Styles] box (with CTRL-SHIFT-S from Draft or Outline View).

Then, type "Heading 1" into the selection window.

Now, click the [Modify] button.

Now, click [Format] at the bottom left corner of this box to display a list of things we can change:

As you see, [Font] is highlighted.

Let's start with [Font].

From this [Font] Selection Box, we see that the default (in MS Word 2010) for Heading 1 is Bold, 16 pts.

Now, I've been saying all along, that we are creating this Kindle Template in order to make our Kindle ebook look exactly as we want it to look.

I must now confess that I was fudging a little there.

We can choose, and Kindle will display, bold, italics and underline text, and it will display smaller and larger size text, but it won't display just any font you might want to use.

The Kindle displays only its own internal font, one that some people think looks like Arial, and others think looks like Times New Roman. Since those two are entirely different fonts, I compromise and say it looks like a cross between them.

The largest size is what appears to be 22 pts in Word. Choose anything larger, and you will still get 22 pts.

(Be aware that Amazon is constantly revising and upgrading, so this will may have changed by the time you read this.)

I am preparing a booklet, about choosing Kindle fonts, that you will be able to display on your own Kindle so you can see exactly what the Kindle will do.

Look for it for sale as an Amazon Kindle eBook sometime around June 15, 2011.

For now, let's accept this default font setting. Remember, you can always come back here to change it later.

Now, go back to the drop down list we displayed above, and choose [Paragraph] to call the [Paragraph] selection box:

Click the [Indents and Spacing] tab to see how Heading 1 is indented and spaced.

Notice (in the [Alignment] window), that it is "Left" aligned.

If you want your Chapter Headings to be centered, instead of "Left aligned", click the arrow at the end of the window and choose "Centered".

In the [Indentations] window, you see that both left nor right indents are " 0 px", and [Special] is "None".

The next group, [Spacing] shows how Heading 1 will be spaced from the top of the page, and how close under it the body text of your book will start.

The spacing shown, 16 px (pixels) before and 4 px below seem pretty small, but I recommend that you leave these spacings as they are for now; you can change them in the final lesson of this series if you decide they are too small.

Now, go to back to the top of this [Paragraph] box, and click the [Line and Page Breaks] tab.

Under the [Pagination] group, find [Page break before], and click it.

This will cause each of our chapters (that we have tagged with Heading 1) to start on its own new page.

This will save you a lot of time, and eliminates the problems caused when you insert manual page breaks between chapters.

This completes the basic items you need for your special Kindle Template.

Next, we will look at a couple of tags that you might or might not need for your book... a tag you can use for "block quotes", such as, for example, when you may be quoting from a newspaper, and one just called "Quote", that you might use, for example, for lines of poetry.

Kindle Tips: Create a Kindle Template, Body Style

2011-06-04T17:43:00.081-05:00

In this lesson, we will create the Style that we will use for most of our Kindle book.

We could start from scratch and decide each detail, but it will be easier if we start with one of the Styles that MS Word has already provided for us... Body Style... and modify it to suit ourselves.

Just as you did before, display the [Apply Styles] box.

There are several ways to display the [Apply Styles] box, some depending on the version of MS Word you are using.

You may have to look around in your Menus... In some Word versions it is under Format | Styles & Formatting.

One of the easiest is... when you are in Draft or Outline View... issue SHIFT-CTRL-S.

The [Apply Styles] Box appears:

Type in "Body Text", then click the [Modify] button.

The [Modify Style] box appears:

You will quickly see that Body Style is pretty much like Normal Style... that's because it is based on Normal Style.

But... unlike Normal Style, Body Text Style stands alone, so we can modify it without causing any change to any other style.

Let's look at each selection to see if this is how we want our text displayed in our Kindle books.

Now, just as we did with Normal Style, let's look at this box to see how Body Style will format our text.

The big window shows how our text will appear in our document, and the text above and below the big window tells us the details.

Remember, it is based on Normal Style, so many of the options are now the same as Normal Style.

We can either leave them as is, or "Modify" to suit our own need, which is to create a nicely formatted Kindle ebook.

To Modify this Style, click the [Format] button at the bottom left to display the drop-down selection box shown below:

Choose the second item on the list... Paragraph, so we can change anything we want to change about the paragraph style.

Ok, now we are ready to go to work.

When you get this box right, you will eliminate about 90 percent of the indent problems that plague Kindle ebook writers.

Let's start with [Indents and Spacing]. (tiny letters on the tab, just under the title word [Paragraph])

In the little selection window titled [Alignment], we see that paragraphs with this Style will be "Left" aligned, which is what we want for our general text.

The next selection window shows that the Outline Level for this Style is "Body Text"... that's good, because we sure don't want all these paragraphs to appear in the TOC.

Next is the "Indention" group.

Selection boxes under "Indention" show no indention ("0 px"... zero pixels) from the left or the right.

That's what we want for our general body text. If we want indented paragraphs, we will create a different Style to format them.

Now, look at the little selection box to the right:

It's titled "Special", and it's blank in our example.

As unimportant as it looks... that is a real biggie!

If you leave it blank, Kindle will impose its infamous default first line indent.

We can leave it that way, but it's better I think, to take control, and set your own indents.

So, press the tiny arrow at the end of the box and choose:

First Line

Then, in the selection window, type in the indention you want in pixels.
I'd recommend 25 pixels, to start. So type "25 px".

If you decide later that you want a larger or smaller first line indent, you can always come back here to change it.

And remember... this is the only place you will have to change it.

One change here -- if you have applied this Style to your entire file -- will change all your body text indents in your whole document... even if you have thousands.

The next group (tiny blue letters) is [Spacing].

This shows us that paragraphs styled with this "Body Text" will have no space above (0 px before) and a fair amount of space (14 px after) below each paragraph.

You may want to come back here later, to change that spacing. That is a matter of personal preference... and depends what you need for a particular publication.

Next (to the right) is [Line Spacing].

The Kindle ignores this setting, so leave it alone or set it to the spacing you want in your manuscript. If you are preparing a manuscript to send to an agent, for example, you might want to set "Line Spacing" to "Double".

Now, look back at the top for the tab [Line and Page Breaks].

We will set some of these options for other Styles, but for Body Style, ignore all but the first, [Widow/Orphan Control].

Kindle may not honor what we choose there, but at least we will have pages correct in our manuscript.

You will observe that there are other options I haven't mentioned, on this, the [Lines and Page Breaks] tab, and as well as on the other tab, the [Indents and Spacing] tab:

We will use some of those other options for other Styles, but just ignore them for now.

Next we will look at how to format our Chapter Titles or Headings for our Kindle format eBook.

Kindle Tips Create a Kindle Template, Normal Style

2011-05-25T12:44:00.006-05:00

Please see previous articles:

Create a Clean MS Word Template

Create a Clean MS Word Template, Two

Things to remember:

Normal Style is always in the background.
MS Word uses Normal when you don’t specify a style.
Normal is the “parent” of all other styles.
If you make a change to Normal Style, it will, by default, filter down to all other Styles.

That’s why it’s so important to understand Normal Style, and get it right at the start.

Let’s look at the formatting of Normal Style, and decide if it is suitable to be used for the default text for our Kindle books.

Again, press SHIFT-CTRL-S to display the Apply Styles Box.

Find Normal in the “Style Name” selection window, then click the small “Modify” button, just under the selection window.

The “Modify Style” Box appears, (screenshot below).

Notice at the top of the box, in tiny blue letters, you see “Properties”, then under “Properties”, in tiny black letters, “Name”.

In the “Name” selection box the name of this Style, “Normal” is displayed.

Then, under the “Name” box, another selection box displays “Style for following paragraphs”, which also displays “Normal”.

That shows us that all following paragraphs will be in Normal Style until we specify a different Style.

Next, in tiny blue letters is “Formatting”.

The selection boxes (under the word Formatting), show us that the default font for this version of MS Word is Calibri, 11 pt.

This is a perfectly suitable font for the Kindle, and I recommend leaving it as is for now.

The Kindle will use its own internal fonts, anyway, so you might as well set a standard that will make it easier for your own work.

If something changes in the future, or you find another font that works better for you, you can easily modify this Style.

That’s all we would normally change here, but let’s look at what else we can learn from this box:

Next, under the font selection box, we see the familiar little “left justify” icon, telling us this Style is left justified.

The large window displays several lines of text, showing us what our text will look like when we have formatted it with this Style.

Under that large window, a few lines of text summarize important information about how this Style (Normal, in this case) will format our text.

We go to the sub-boxes to actually enter this formatting information, but for now, lets look at what we can learn about how this Style will format our text.

If we wanted to change this Style, we would click Format at the bottom left of this screen to bring up sub menus where we can change this Style to suit our own needs.

But since we are creating a Kindle Template, we will leave this Style... Normal Style... as it is -- in its default state -- then we will create a new Style to suit our exact needs for most of our Kindle format book.

The reason we want to leave it alone, as we mentioned earllier, is that every change we make to Normal will filter down through all the other Styles in our document.

While that MAY be what we want, it will be safer to create a new Style to take care of most of our Kindle format needs.

We will do that in the next lesson...

Kindle Tips: Create a Clean MS Word Template, Two

2011-05-24T12:30:00.002-05:00

Our goal here, is to create a new MS Word Template formatted exactly to match Kindle Publishing requirements.

Please see earlier article:

KindleTips: Create a Clean MS Word Template

Actually, we won't create it ourselves, we will force MS Word to create a new, clean Template, then we will modify it as needed to suit our own purposes.

We do that by hiding our current template so Word can't find it...

Word will then create a new one.

First, sign out of MS Word, because we can't rename the MS Word Template if Word is loaded.

Now, find your MS Word Template:

Work your way down through the following Folders, starting at My Computer:

My Computer
Local Disk C:\
Documents and Settings
Your User Name (it's CJ Allan for me)
Application Data
Microsoft
Templates

In the Templates Folder, you will find one -- or maybe both -- of the following templates, depending on whether you are using a recent or an older version of MS Word.

Template.dot
and/or
Template.dotx

I rename Templates like this:

Template 0.dot
and
Template 0.dotx

Save your changes, and go back to MS Word.

When you open MS Word, it will look for its Template... either Template.dot or Template.dotx, depending on your version of MS Word.

It won't find the Template, of course, because we hid it, so it will create a new one... a nice clean one.

Now, when we display the Styles and Formatting Styles Box, this is what we will see:

As you see, there are only about a dozen Styles there instead of the hundred or so that we got when we were creating Styles hit or miss when we were formatting by hand.

While we can create new styles if we need them, chances are that everything we need for Kindle formatting is right here.

Next, we will look at Normal Style and Heading 1 to see how they are formatted.

Kindle Tips: Create a Clean MS Word Template

2011-05-23T21:23:00.024-05:00

For some people, one of the great surprises about MS Word is that it is always creating Styles for you, whether you want it to or not... and it saves Styles that you never intended to save.

The result may be that your MS Word Template will accumulate dozens of Styles that you don't recall creating.

That's why you may call for a "Heading 1", for example, and get something entirely different from what you expected.

That's what happened to one author who asked for my help.

He had followed all the steps and his book looks beautiful, but even though he had properly applied Heading 1 to each of his Chapter Heads, the Table of Contents was not being built correctly.

The screenshot above shows the first page of his book on the right, with the Table of Contents on the left.

As you can see, it looks very nice. What you can't see, is that three chapter headings are missing from the Table of Contents.

The author has rebuilt his Table of Contents many times, without changing this result.

He concluded, correctly, I believe, that the problem was that he needed to clean out his Template and start fresh.

He reports "Since I'm the only person who ever used my computer, and I've never used the Styles and Formatting section, I don't know how so many styles could already be set up in there--but there's a large number of them. Do you know a way to clean them out so I can start over?"

The screenshot below shows the Styles that are contained in his Template.

You may recall my previous statements... that even if you think you are not MS Word Styles and Templates, you really are... and this screenshot shows the results.

The first thing we do is to force MS Word to build a new squeaky-clean MS Word Template that has not been touched by man nor beast.

To do that, we move or rename our existing Template so Word can't find it.

We'll talk about how to do that, next.

Kindle Tips: Update for Kindle K2 and DX

2011-05-22T13:03:00.006-05:00

Past updates for these two Kindles have been made automatically, in the background.

All the user had to do was to remember to leave Whispernet on when an update was expected.

That automatic update didn’t happen this time… at least not for my K2, and, from what I read on Amazon’s Kindle forum, not for the older DX, either.

The reason, apparently, is that these two Kindles are now discontinued, and automatic updates will no longer be made.

In fact, according to Kindle Guru Bufo Calvin, this is the LAST update that will be offered for these two discontinued Kindles.

HOWEVER -- Don’t be misled by some messages that say “there isn’t much improvement”.

There are some improvements that may or may not be of value to everyone (changes are described in the paragraphs below, copied from the Amazon web page about this update)… but the improvement in font contrast and clarity on my K2 has brought the display up very close to my new K3… which is, indeed, a thing of beauty!

Here is the on-line Amazon notice:

(Make sure, all the messages say… to follow directions exactly!)

All below is copied directly from the Amazon webpage:

Kindle Software Update Version 2.5 and 2.5.8

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_navbox_top_kindle6l?nodeId=200529740

Kindle Version 2.5 Overview

We're excited to announce that a new, free software update is available for Kindle (2nd Generation) and Kindle DX. It's free and easy to download. The features included in this update are:

Collections: Organize your books, audiobooks, and personal documents into one or more collections. Subscriptions such as newspapers, magazines, and blogs cannot currently be added to collections on Kindle.

PDF Pan and Zoom: Zoom into PDFs and pan around to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics.

Password Protection: Password protect your Kindle when you're not using it.

More Font Sizes & Improved Clarity: Enjoy two new larger font sizes and sharper fonts for an even more comfortable reading experience.

Facebook & Twitter Posts: Share meaningful book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter directly from your Kindle.

Popular Highlights: See what the Kindle community thinks are the most interesting passages in the books you're reading.

Kindle Software Update Version 2.5 and 2.5.8

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_navbox_top_kindle6l?nodeId=200529740

Kindle Tips: I can't find that file!

2011-05-21T08:29:00.001-05:00

How often have you tried to follow a tutorial, here, or elsewhere, but can't find a file that's mentioned in the tutorial?

This may be the reason:

By default, Windows hides file name extensions.

In that case, your MS Word documents will be named simply "MyFile"... rather than "MyFile.doc".

And, as reader Spencer Schankel discovered, you won't be able to find the file named "MyFile.PRC", which the tutorial tells you should be in the folder named "My Publications" after you have built your Kindle format ebook.

To find how to fix this problem on your system, search the Web for "Show or hide file name extensions".

You will be looking for something similar to this:

Start | Control Panel | Folder Options | View

On the View tab, is a window titled Advanced Settings.

In the Advanced Settings window under View, scroll down to find:

Hide extensions for known file types.

If the little box at the beginning of that line is checked (or "ticked" as some describe it), that may be why you can't find certain file names.

Click to un-check the box, then click OK at the bottom, and back out.

Now, when you are told to look for a file named *.PRC, there it will be in your "My Publications" folder.

Thanks to Spencer Schankel, author of Paper Cuts, for bringing this problem to light.

Kindle Tips: Internet Explorer – Kindle - Mobipocket, Compatibility Issues

2011-05-20T10:40:00.002-05:00

Reports from the forums:

Recent messages have indicated that some people who had problems with Mobipocket, found those problems solved when they “DOWN-graded” from Internet Explorer 9 to Internet Explorer 8.

Search Microsoft on line help for advice on how to successfully remove IE 9 and replace it with IE 8,

Earlier problems with IE 8 were discussed here:

http://www.cjs-easy-as-pie.com/2010/03/kindle-cover-format.html

How to Modify MS Word Styles for Kindle: Normal Style

2011-05-04T13:24:00.001-05:00

How to Modify MS Word Styles for Kindle:

In this article, we talk about how to prevent those ragged first-line indents problems that cause so much angst among Kindle publishers.

We talked about the causes here:

http://www.cjs-easy-as-pie.com/2011/03/kindle-first-line-indents.html

You can go back even earlier to see how to clean a Word file that’s already a mess… just enter a search word or two into the Search Box under the Birds on a Tight-Rope photo.

To get started on how to prevent those ragged first line indents:

We will "Modify" MS Word Normal Style to give it a "first line indent".

Once we do that, the Kindle will leave it alone... it will not impose the Kindle default first line indent on this Normal Style.

To make things easier, let's start with a perfectly clean page and Styles set... do that with File|New.

Now, from a clean page, to display the “Apply Styles” menu, use the Shortcut Key CTRL-SHIFT-S.

(This is a bit different from most shortcut keys. I do it by holding down the CTRL KEY and the SHIFT Key with my left thumb and forefinger, then type the Letter S with my right forefinger.)

(If this doesn't seem to work for you, try changing your View to "Draft" or "Normal". You also may find it on your Menu under Format | Styles and Formatting.)

The Apply Styles box will appear:

Since we are on a clean page, the Style Normal, should already show in the selection box at the top of this little menu box.

If not, type "N" or scroll down to find "Normal".

Now press the button, "Modify".

The Modify Style Box Appears:

Click Format (button at lower left corner).

When you click Format, a list of things you can format drops down. Choose Paragraph from this list.

When you select Paragraph from the above Drop-down list, the Paragraph Box appears:

With the Paragraph Box open, we can make a lot of changes: Right now, we want to make only one. We want to change the first line indent -- or as Microsoft calls it, "Indentation", for the Paragraph Style named Normal Style.

Notice at the top of the Paragraph box, there are two tabs: One is named "Indents and Spacing". It is the default, and may already be displayed.

If not, click the tab, Indents and Spacing:

About the middle of the Indents and Spacing page, is "Indention:" in tiny blue letters.

At the far right under the title Indention, is a little box named Special.

On our screen shot, that little box displays (none):.

If that box on your screen has something other than (none) in it, then your Normal Style already has a value in it, and the Kindle default indent will not change it.

If yours does say (none), we need to add an indent to the first line of Normal Style.

Click the small down arrow at the end of the "Special" box.

One of the selections is "First Line", with the default selection "48 px".

Now when you save everything and exit, your Normal Styles wil have a first line indent of 48 px, and the Kindle will not alter it.

That 48 px first line indent may be more or less than you want. Just change it to whatever you want.

Conclusion:

Actually, there is no conclusion... as there is much more to say, but this will get you started.

Also... it should be noted that the "Normal" Style in Microsoft Word is the "Parent" of all other styles.

Any change you make to Normal Style will "filter down" to all other Styles, unless you take control.

The changes I've given you here are only for the Kindle.

Unless you have a specific purpose, and know why you are doing it, don't change your Normal Style for any other use.

How to Modify MS Word Styles for Kindle: Body Text Style

2011-03-22T13:39:00.039-05:00

Many people who use MS Word to format for the Kindle, will tell you quite earnestly, "I don't use MS Word Styles and Templates".

All that means is that they don't *know* they are using MS Word Styles and Templates. They are built in, so anyone who uses MS Word is using Styles and Templates, whether they know it or not.

The best thing to do then, especially when formatting for the Kindle, is to set up MS Word Styles to properly format your Kindle eBooks.

Previous articles told how to set up MS Normal Style to be your default style.

That's okay for most of the people, most of the time, but for properly formatting a Kindle eBook, it's better to leave Normal Style as the default :"Parent" Style, and set up the Body Text Style to properly format the "body text" for a Kindle format ebook.

To do that, start with a clean, empty file:

From the MS Word Menu, choose File|New:

Now, do the Keyboard Shortcut to pop up the Apply Styles box:

CTRL-SHIFT-S

(If this doesn't seem to work for you, try changing your View to "Draft" or "Normal". You also may find it on your Menu under Format | Styles and Formatting.)

The Apply Styles box appears:

If you are on a clean new file, the Style Name: shows "Normal" in the entry box.

If it occurs to you to click the tiny down-arrow at the end of the entry box, you will see the various Styles that are available to you at this time.

If it also occurs to you to look for "Body Text", you won't find it, even though it is actually included in the MS Word Normal Template.

The reason is, it is one of those Styles that is "Hidden Until Needed".

Ok, we need it now.

Move your cursor to the Entry Box, and type "Body Text" and press Enter.

Magically, MS Word finds Style Body Text and offers to Reapply or Modify

We aren't sure we want to 'Reapply" Body Text because we don't know what Body Text does to our file.

To find out, click the button Modify.

The Modify Style box appears:

Click the Format button at the lower left corner to display the List of things you can format here:

Choose Paragraph from the list that displays when you click Format (at the lower left of the box).

By default, you should be on the "Indents and Spacing" box.

This box has three sections where you can set things to make your paragraphs display the way you want them.

At the top (in small blue letters) is "General", with two selections under it: "Alignment" and "Outline level".

Those are the defaults for the general text of your book.

Next, in small blue letters is the title: Indention.

Under it is Left: and Right: Both are set at 0, and should be left there for your body text.

Then to the right... still under the title Indention, is the title Special.

We've seen this before... when we modified Normal Style.

At that time, we described it this way: "Look or the selection box titled Special at the middle right of the Paragraph box".

Just as you did before, click on the tiny down-arrow to display "First Line".

The default for "First Line" is already filled in: It is "48 px".

I'd recommend leaving it at 48 px for now, then if you don't like that length of indent, come back later to experiment to get exactly the indent you want.

Next is a group of selection boxes, with the title in small blue letters, is "Spacing"

Here is where you set spacing between paragraphs and "line spacing" (double space or single space, etc.)..

The defaults for "space" (not lines) between paragraphs are 0 px "Before" and 8 px "After" each paragraph.

Those are pretty good defaults for your general text.

I'd leave them alone for now... you can back later to change them if you have a special need.

Line Spacing is where you set the distance between "lines" of text in a Word file, but the Kindle does not recognize this feature, so just leave it as it is.

So... you see... you have several options for putting space between paragraphs... you should never ever do it by adding extra line spaces with the Enter key on your keyboard.

This is a good time to point out that you can format your paragraphs just about any way you want to format them... with Styles.... you don't need to do any formatting with the space bar, the enter key, or the tab key.

Should you make a mistake... or for any reason, want your file formatted in a different way, you don't have to go through line by line to change it... all you have to do is come to this spot... Modify Style... and make your changes one time.

Just that one time will do the job... and your changes will be made throughout your book.

How to Avoid the Kindle Automatic First Line Indent

2011-03-22T07:21:00.038-05:00

[Quick Answer: Modify MS Word Normal Style to have a first line indent of 1 px.]

As we discussed in previous articles, the Kindle will impose a first line indent only on those paragraphs where the user has not specified a first line indent.

The answer for most of the people, most of the time. is to "Modify" the paragraph style for "Normal" style so that it has the correct first line indent.

That has two advantages:

Your paragraphs will have the indents you want... not the indent assigned by the Kindle.

And:

Anyone who reads and edits your file -- can now see first-line indents on the computer screen, so won't be adding the tabs and spaces that mess up the formatting.

But there is a little fly in that ointment.

Because Normal Style is the "parent" Style of other Styles in your file, that same first line indent that you (or the Kindle) assigned to Normal Style, will filter down to all other styles in your file.

For most files, that's perfectly okay... every paragraph has the same indent.

That's the reason that Kindle's imposed first line indent was probably the best idea for most of the people most of the time.

But, for a file with a lot of short lines and centered quotes or poems, that imposed first line indent may not be right.

If your file is like that, or you have other reasons for wanting to defeat that first line indent, here's how:

Modify Normal Style so that it behaves just as Microsoft designed it to behave:

That is... it has no first line indent, and imposes no first line indent on its "children styles".

To make the Kindle ignore Normal Style when it assigns its automatic first line indent, assign a value... any value.. to the Normal Style first line indent.

That value should be 1 px... not 0 px. If we assign a zero indent, MS Word thinks we made a mistake and changes it to 48 px.

To see how to do it, follow the steps in the previous article to display the Format Paragraph box.

Now, at the Special box at the center right, click the tiny down-arrow to display "First line":
Enter "1 px". to assign a value.

You might think that a value of zero would be right, but the MS software, user-friendly, as always, will think you made a mistake and change it to 48 px..

So, 1 px, while not quite zero, will do the trick, and is so small that it is not noticeable on the Kindle display.

Conclusion

You have disabled the Kindle's automatic first line indent from Normal Style, so it displays on the Kindle in block Style, just as Microsoft designed it.

You can now assign the indent you want to every paragraph in your file.

You "can" do that with the tab key and the space bar... but that will give inconsistent results.

A much better way is to set up "Body Text" Style to format every paragraph of the body text in your file

How to Modify MS Word Body Text Style is next.

Kindle First Line Indents

2011-03-19T17:18:00.005-05:00

My Kindle First Line Indents are all over the place!

That's probably the most-often heard cry among Kindle publishers... when they view their eBook -- even though it looked perfectly fine as an MS Word doc.

Some even report going through hundreds of pages and thousands of words, adding or deleting indents line by line.

The sad thing is that it is so easily prevented.

(It's also fixable... just enter a couple of pertinent words into the Search box under the Birds on a Tight-Rope.)

All it takes is an understanding of the Kindle's default first-line indent, and the knowledge of how to work with it.

First, it might help to understand WHY the Kindle imposes that default first-line indent...

Too many people don't realize the necessity of a first line indent, and send their text to the Kindle as one massive glob of words.

To make matters worse, the "default" for Normal Style of MS Word 2003, the most-used word processor in the world, is "no first line indent" and "no space between paragraphs"

(That's because we, as writers, are different, our editors are different, and others have different requirements... by leaving these options open, we can enter what we want there.)

Can you imagine what a couple of hundred thousand words with no first line indents and no space between paragraphs would be like?

The programmers of the Kindle decided that the best solution was to impose a first line indent.

And it does work!

It works if we work with it, that is.

If we just leave it alone, and don't try to help it along with tabs and spaces, our file will be nicely lined up with even and consistent first line indents for all paragraphs.

The programmers, no doubt reasoned... "This will save the necks of those who don't know how to enter a first line indent... and it won't affect those who do know how."

Uh-Oh!

It's that last half sentence that causes all the trouble!

Nobody told us that all we have to do is enter our own first line indent into our paragraph style!

It doesn't matter what you enter... even 1 px will disable the Kindle's automatic first line indent. (And being so small, it will look like no indent at all if you want block paragraph paragraphs).

The Kindle's default size of the indent is 48 px... just like MS Word's... but if you want more or less, just modify your paragraph style to suit.

And, of course... don't do anything by hand... let the Styles handle all the indents.

Next... for those who really didn't know how to enter their own first line indents with styles, I'll tell how to "Modify" a style to include -- or exclude --a first line indent.

Create Kindle Cover with Mobipocket Creator or use the first page of file?

2011-03-19T07:39:00.000-05:00

Create Kindle Cover with Mobipocket Creator or use the first page of file?

That's a question of endless debate, but here are some Kindle screen shots to help you decide which is best for you.

The images below, scanned from my Kindle's display screen, compare the two methods.

The cover created with Mobipocket Creator (above) fills the entire Kindle display screen, top to bottom, side to side.

The cover created "by default" (below) because it is the first page of the MS Word file, has margins all the way around, and includes locations and other information that is on other pages of the file.

To get the full page image shown in the Mobipocket Creator sample, the image must be a "true" 600x800 pixels.

A smaller image "resized" or "stretched" to 600x800 pixels won't work.