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How to properly format a PDF (eBook)

by screwdriver
14 replies
Hi there,

I've just finished my eBook that I've written in word 2010 and now I need to convert it to an eBook format and the way to go seems to be PDF.

When I use word's own PDF-converter and tick the the PDF/A function it turns out well and all the links are clickable. However the table of contents is not clickable which is kind of annoying. I mean it's not possible to click on a heading in the TOC and then be brought to the page that contains that heading. I've seen this in a lot of other PDFs so I know it's doable - does anybody know how?

And when I use word's own PDF converter the resolution of the images don't turn out great even though I use 120.

I've tried using the Adobe PDF printer, which takes care of the image resolution but there's a line that goes through the whole document and neither the TOC or links are clickable.

I've tried to make an ePub version of it - but that's a complete mess...

How do you guys make your PDFs and eBooks to get the best result?

Thanks
#ebook #format #pdf #properly
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Get Open Office ... it's free and see if the results aren't better. Open Office will open your Word doc and has an easy save to pdf function. I never have problems with image quality. Don't know about clicable table of contents but you can check that out.
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    • Profile picture of the author Enis
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      Get Open Office ... it's free and see if the results aren't better. Open Office will open your Word doc and has an easy save to pdf function. I never have problems with image quality. Don't know about clicable table of contents but you can check that out.
      Yes, I've used different converters and find open office to be great. You don't have to wait or anything, it will instantly export your stuff to PDF. And it's FREE!
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      • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
        To make a table of contents clickable you need to create internal "bookmarks" to direct the links to.

        Anywhere in a document, you can click to place your cursor where you want it, then go up to the menu at the top of the page, click Insert, then click Bookmark. Name the bookmark and click Add.

        So here's how to do that with your table of contents:

        Look at the first TOC item that you want clickable. Scroll down in the document until you reach the page where you want that click (from the TOC) to bring the reader. Most likely that's at the top of the first chapter or section listed in your TOC.

        Click once at the beginning of the Chapter heading or the first paragraph, so your cursor will be sitting there at the beginning of the page. Now go up top to the menu choices at the top of the screen, click Insert, and then click Bookmark. Name your bookmark something obvious but short - like "chapter 1". Then click Add.

        Now, go back up to your table of contents, and highlight the text that you want to be clickable, leading to that new bookmark you just created. Right-click on the highlighted portion, and when the little menu comes up click Hyperlink.

        When the hyperlink box comes up, look to the right side of it and you'll see a button that says "Bookmark". Click that, and it will bring up a list of your bookmarks. Click on the one you want, and then click Ok. Click Ok again on the hyperlink box, and now your TOC text is a link that leads to that specific page in your document.

        You'll have to do this with each item on your TOC which can take some time, but your readers will appreciate it!

        I think you are using a newer version of MSWord than I have, so the steps might be slightly different than what I've described, but not much.

        Wendy
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        • Profile picture of the author screwdriver
          Originally Posted by WritingMadwoman View Post

          To make a table of contents clickable you need to create internal "bookmarks" to direct the links to.

          Anywhere in a document, you can click to place your cursor where you want it, then go up to the menu at the top of the page, click Insert, then click Bookmark. Name the bookmark and click Add.

          So here's how to do that with your table of contents:

          Look at the first TOC item that you want clickable. Scroll down in the document until you reach the page where you want that click (from the TOC) to bring the reader. Most likely that's at the top of the first chapter or section listed in your TOC.

          Click once at the beginning of the Chapter heading or the first paragraph, so your cursor will be sitting there at the beginning of the page. Now go up top to the menu choices at the top of the screen, click Insert, and then click Bookmark. Name your bookmark something obvious but short - like "chapter 1". Then click Add.

          Now, go back up to your table of contents, and highlight the text that you want to be clickable, leading to that new bookmark you just created. Right-click on the highlighted portion, and when the little menu comes up click Hyperlink.

          When the hyperlink box comes up, look to the right side of it and you'll see a button that says "Bookmark". Click that, and it will bring up a list of your bookmarks. Click on the one you want, and then click Ok. Click Ok again on the hyperlink box, and now your TOC text is a link that leads to that specific page in your document.

          You'll have to do this with each item on your TOC which can take some time, but your readers will appreciate it!

          I think you are using a newer version of MSWord than I have, so the steps might be slightly different than what I've described, but not much.

          Wendy
          I followed the instructions that you wrote, but the headings inside the TOC are still not clickable. However, in acrobat if you click the bookmark tab you can easily jump between the different headings. The conversion process somehow managed to solve this on its own. Is this what you meant? Am I missing something or can't the headings inside the TOC be made linked and clickable?
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          • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
            Hmm, sorry! I really don't know - I wonder if it's a different formatting issue since you use a newer version of Word? Just out of curiosity, did you check the Help files in MSWord? They might have instructions that will help. Or, search on Microsoft's website, I could swear I've found help on various things there, but it's been a long time.

            I wish I could be of more help but the bookmarking process I described works on my version of Word and the TOC headings are clickable - they must have changed something with the newer version so you need to do it differently, I just don't know how.

            If you can't find info on their website, maybe just try a Google search, you never know if someone else in a forum discussed it and solved the problem?

            Good luck!

            Wendy


            Originally Posted by screwdriver View Post

            I followed the instructions that you wrote, but the headings inside the TOC are still not clickable. However, in acrobat if you click the bookmark tab you can easily jump between the different headings. The conversion process somehow managed to solve this on its own. Is this what you meant? Am I missing something or can't the headings inside the TOC be made linked and clickable?
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by screwdriver View Post

    However the table of contents is not clickable which is kind of annoying.
    Is it a real table of contents generated and maintained by Word, or did you just type out the chapter headings and page numbers yourself?
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    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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  • Profile picture of the author MaxReferrals
    Second Open Office. Takes a little while to download but worth it.

    Cool Tip: Format all the pages for optimal screen viewing -- meaning no scrolling. I think a 6x9 or so dimension makes it super cool to read 1 page on the screen without scrolling. You gotta play with it obviously.
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Just so you guys know...

    Oracle gives up on OpenOffice after community forks the project

    In a statement issued on Friday, Oracle announced that it intends to discontinue commercial development of the OpenOffice.org (OOo) office suite. (...) OOo has long been plagued by governance issues and friction between its corporate stakeholders. Sun's copyright assignment policies and bureaucratic code review process significantly hindered community participation in the project. Oracle declined to address these issues after its acquisition of Sun and exacerbated the friction by failing to engage with the OOo community in a transparent and open way.
    Signature
    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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    • Profile picture of the author Henry White
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      The important thing to take away from this is that Oracle is donating it's code to the Apache Software Foundation's Incubator so OO will remain free and open source software and completely user driven - as ALL software should be IMNSHO.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    Dude, dont waste any more time. Search for Tracy Yates on here.

    This is her speciality.

    Here you go, Ill make it easy for you.

    http://www.warriorforum.com/members/tracy-yates.html

    Tell her I sent you so I get brownie points
    Signature

    BS free SEO services, training and advice - SEO Point

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    • Profile picture of the author screwdriver
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      Get Open Office ... it's free and see if the results aren't better. Open Office will open your Word doc and has an easy save to pdf function. I never have problems with image quality. Don't know about clicable table of contents but you can check that out.
      I've tried OO but when I open my docx in OO it screws up my formatting really bad. It would take years to fix it

      Originally Posted by WritingMadwoman View Post

      To make a table of contents clickable you need to create internal "bookmarks" to direct the links to.

      Anywhere in a document, you can click to place your cursor where you want it, then go up to the menu at the top of the page, click Insert, then click Bookmark. Name the bookmark and click Add.

      So here's how to do that with your table of contents:

      Look at the first TOC item that you want clickable. Scroll down in the document until you reach the page where you want that click (from the TOC) to bring the reader. Most likely that's at the top of the first chapter or section listed in your TOC.

      Click once at the beginning of the Chapter heading or the first paragraph, so your cursor will be sitting there at the beginning of the page. Now go up top to the menu choices at the top of the screen, click Insert, and then click Bookmark. Name your bookmark something obvious but short - like "chapter 1". Then click Add.

      Now, go back up to your table of contents, and highlight the text that you want to be clickable, leading to that new bookmark you just created. Right-click on the highlighted portion, and when the little menu comes up click Hyperlink.

      When the hyperlink box comes up, look to the right side of it and you'll see a button that says "Bookmark". Click that, and it will bring up a list of your bookmarks. Click on the one you want, and then click Ok. Click Ok again on the hyperlink box, and now your TOC text is a link that leads to that specific page in your document.

      You'll have to do this with each item on your TOC which can take some time, but your readers will appreciate it!

      I think you are using a newer version of MSWord than I have, so the steps might be slightly different than what I've described, but not much.

      Wendy
      This was exactly the information I was looking for. Thank you very very much Wendy!

      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      Is it a real table of contents generated and maintained by Word, or did you just type out the chapter headings and page numbers yourself?
      A real one.

      Originally Posted by MaxReferrals View Post

      Second Open Office. Takes a little while to download but worth it.

      Cool Tip: Format all the pages for optimal screen viewing -- meaning no scrolling. I think a 6x9 or so dimension makes it super cool to read 1 page on the screen without scrolling. You gotta play with it obviously.
      Interesting tip. I shall gander.

      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      I think it's called Libre Office now. Some other dudes took it over.

      Originally Posted by ramone_johnny View Post

      Dude, dont waste any more time. Search for Tracy Yates on here.

      This is her speciality.

      Here you go, Ill make it easy for you.

      View Profile: Tracy Yates

      Tell her I sent you so I get brownie points
      Thank you very much sir and I shall do

      Cheers for the replies.
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      • Profile picture of the author Henry White
        Originally Posted by screwdriver View Post

        I've tried OO but when I open my docx in OO it screws up my formatting really bad. It would take years to fix it
        Convert docx files to rft files with this free utility to solve that problem:

        Open Word 2007 and OpenOffice files
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  • Profile picture of the author pmbrent
    You don't have to download anything extra or contact someone to help you do it. All you have to do is under your "save as" option in word simply "save as" PDF or XPS and your document is converted into a PDF.
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  • Profile picture of the author screwdriver
    If someone else has the same issue I've now managed to solve it.

    I was running Word 2010 x64 and that version did not support the PDF maker of Adobe Acrobat 10 which I had. Instead I used Word's native PDF converter and Adobe's PDF printer and these converters did not have all the functions necessary for a good conversion. For example they did not fully support hyperlinks. I tried a ton of different PDF converters but none seemed to do the trick.

    This was until I upgraded Acrobat to 10.1 which had a PDF Maker that supported Word x64 so now I can convert flawlessly
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