Alternatives to Writer2epub

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by mcdummy

So far, the Export function included in Libreoffice is not providing well-formatted epubs.

For me, writer2latex/xhtml gives still the best results. There's an option to add user-prepared style files, but I haven't figured out how to use it.

Writer2epub is also quite good, but it seems that it does not turn character styles into proper <span> classes. There are also some problems, with tables in Libreoffice documents. For instance, the content of a cell can appear two or even more times in the exported epub.

Do extra save AS in Docx. Then convert in calibre. styles map automatically to CSS Headings to <hx class =" etc

[retiredbiker]

I've been playing with Doitsu's ODTImport plugin for a few weeks now. I've put maybe a dozen freshly OCR'd books through it, after proofing in Writer. Here is the setup:

Make a Writer template file, an .ott file, with the custom styles you normally use.

Make a css file in a text editor that matches the style names in the Writer template. Only for each style, do the epub-ish styling you want. (Example: I have a style in the template called "indent" that makes a paragraph indented and spaced in Writer to make it easy to proof on screen. The "indent" style in the css is styled in ems, not cms, with spacing, margins, and so on to look good on my Kobo.)

Put this text css in the ODTImport plugin directory as "epub.css". It will show up in the imported book as "styles.css", alongside the css file generated by the plugin -- "styles1.css".

Use the .ott template file to make your book, and use only your custom styles. (You may need a new style not in the template, so just add it.)

With this is set up correctly, I can now import a book, simply delete the "styles1.css" made by the import, and have all my custom styles now active in their epub versions. This is amazing! It works so well for me it is hard to believe.

What else though?

--If you have added a new style in your Writer doc, you need to add it to the "styles.css". It will show up in "styles1.css" but with dimensions and whatever Writer had.

--Images will need attention. The import is pretty crude. I have some image styles using width % and height=auto in my epub.css, so a little search and replace can fix them easily.

All this saves so much time and effort compared to other methods I have used, I am just amazed.

[Quoth]

But if you save odt as docx and import to Calibre it automatically creates all the styles as CSS.

I looked at Sigil and decided it was more for text books or custom epub3, that a novel was simpler with Calibre. I looked at both odt and docx importers to Sigil and it seemed like too much manual and error prone work compared to docx to Calibre. The only thing I need to do is edit a few image CSS and fix chapter tags (not the CSS).
I get epub2s and azw3 that look very like the original odt (done on a small page with no headers or footers).

[retiredbiker]

Originally Posted by Quoth

But if you save odt as docx and import to Calibre it automatically creates all the styles as CSS.

I looked at Sigil and decided it was more for text books or custom epub3, that a novel was simpler with Calibre. I looked at both odt and docx importers to Sigil and it seemed like too much manual and error prone work compared to docx to Calibre. The only thing I need to do is edit a few image CSS and fix chapter tags (not the CSS).
I get epub2s and azw3 that look very like the original odt (done on a small page with no headers or footers).

I spent untold hours trying to get that docx save and convert thing working, but could never get the headers to behave, and there were always css things to fix. Maybe just my system and versions of things, I don't know. Just happy now to have a Writer odt file solution that works for me.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

Just happy now to have a Writer odt file solution that works for me.

That's the important bit.

[roger64]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

--Images will need attention. The import is pretty crude. I have some image styles using width % and height=auto in my epub.css, so a little search and replace can fix them easily.

There is a Sigil plugin that just does this automatically. It's called FixImgWidth and has been created by Doitsu who has not released it. I use it frequently. You may send a message to Doitsu to get a copy of it.