Guide: Export to Kindle with native TOC, Footnotes, and Chapter Navigation Marks
I know there are a few posts already about Kindle, but I have come up with a methodology to export books from Logos to Kindle (or other eReader devices) that I think is really easy, quick and powerful, and wanted to start a new post to share it with you.
Goal: Export a Logos book to a native Kindle (or other eReader device) format, with fully functional native Table of Contents and working footnotes. Easy and fast (I promise! There are lot of steps, but they are very simple).
Programs: You'll need to install two free programs, Calibre and Sigil. Here are the links:
- Calibre: http://calibre-ebook.com/
- Sigil: http://code.google.com/p/sigil/downloads/list
Steps:
1. In Logos, open Tools - Program Settings. Set the option to Copy Footnotes to "Yes"
2. Open the book you would like to export to Kindle. Go to the Title Page.Change the Layout style to full screen. If you like, make the text as small as possible (this will make it slightly faster, and is completely optional).
3. With your mouse, select the text beginning on the Title Page and begin to drag the mouse downward. In the box above the book which indicates the page number, you will notice that it begins to report the pages which you currently have selected. Once you have selected a good amount (maybe every couple of chapters), right click on the selected text and choose the option Copy.
4. Paste the text into Microsoft Word (or another similar program). You will notice that the footnotes are copied, and that the hyperlinks to Logos resources are NOT included. This is good for Kindle, as those hyperlinks won't work and could simply cause confusion.
5. Go back to Logos, and repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have copied the entire book.
6. In Microsoft Word, mark the Chapter Titles and Sections of the book which you want to be included in the Table of Contents with the Styles of Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3. Normally this can be done very quickly right clicking on the Chapter Titles and Section Titles and choosing the option to Select text with similar formatting.
7. Choose the option to Save As... and save the document in the format HTML, Filtered.
8. Open your saved HTML document in Sigil. On the right hand column you will notice that Sigil has generated a Table of Contents from your headings. That is a native Kindle, Nook, etc. table of contents. Optionally select the button Generate TOC from Headings. A window will pop up with your headings. On the right hand side of the window (you may need to scroll over to see it) there are check boxes where you can select or deselect one by one the headings that you want to keep or not in your Table of Contents. Sigil will also create a Chapter Navigation Mark for each one of your headings included in the Table of Contents.
9. Choose the option File - Save As... and save your book as en EPUB file.
10. Open Calibre. Choose the option Add books. Select your EPUB file. Optionally select the option Edit Metadata and you can download a cover, metadata, etc., or edit it manually.
11. Connect your Kindle, Nook, etc. In Calibre, select the option to Send to Device. Calibre will convert the book to Kindle (or other as corresponds) format and send it to your Kindle.
You will then have a fully functional native Kindle book with footnotes, Table of Contents, and Chapter Markers for easy navigation!!
P.S.: If you need to add images, right click on them in the Logos book and select Copy, and then paste them into your Microsoft Word document before exporting to HTML.
If your book has a lot of images, or you don't need footnotes, you can use the built in option in Logos to "Export/Print" to an RTF or HTML file, which will include the images (but not the footnotes!). But then you have a problem! Your document is full of hyperlinks to Logos resources which will not work in Kindle. Luckily getting rid of these is very easy.
Type CTRL A to select the entire Word Document. Then select CTRL SHIFT F9. This will eliminate all the hyperlinks in your document. Then you can continue with step 6 in this Guide.
Comments
Thanks for the post. I am seeking to do this for iBooks. However, I am having a problem setting the TOC. I am using Word 2011 (Mac). When right clicking, I do no get an option to Select text with similar formatting. Any suggestions on getting information for this step?
Thanks for the post. I am seeking to do this for iBooks. However, I am having a problem setting the TOC. I am using Word 2011 (Mac). When right clicking, I do no get an option to Select text with similar formatting. Any suggestions on getting information for this step?
Observation: Logos offers free mobile apps for iOS devices => http://www.logos.com/apps (my Logos library has a bit over 90 % available for use in Logos mobile apps; some publishers restrict Logos resource use to Logos 4).
Hence a bit curious about iBooks ?
By the way, Mac Beta forum has thread => Bug: Logos 4.5b Beta 5 Copy Bible Verse paragraph formatting since all text pasted into Word 2011 always has normal style for all paragraphs. Also concur Word 2011 on Mac lacks Select text with similar formatting.
Keep Smiling [:)]
Thanks for the post. I am seeking to do this for iBooks. However, I am having a problem setting the TOC. I am using Word 2011 (Mac). When right clicking, I do no get an option to Select text with similar formatting. Any suggestions on getting information for this step?
I don't use Mac, but this page here explains how to do it in Word for Mac.
Turn on the Toolbox (View> Toolbox> Styles), then select content that's formatted & click the
Select All button near the top of the
Styles pane.
Thanks for the post. I am seeking to do this for iBooks. However, I am having a problem setting the TOC. I am using Word 2011 (Mac). When right clicking, I do no get an option to Select text with similar formatting. Any suggestions on getting information for this step?
I don't use Mac, but this page here explains how to do it in Word for Mac.
Turn on the Toolbox (View> Toolbox> Styles), then select content that's formatted & click the
Select All button near the top of the
Styles pane.
Observation: Select All highlights all text that has the same Normal style plus text formatting. Once Table of Contents (TOC) is highlighted, then click appropriate Heading # style to apply (and add selected text to TOC).
Keep Smiling [:)]
Thank you Father Devin for a very useful post. I have long desired just such a procedure, especially when traveling.
Time to resurrect this wonderful guide! I've found recently that, as it turns out, the entire Sigil step can be cut out of this process. Calibre is capable of detecting and creating the table of contents all on its own. In the conversion options in Calibre, go to the Table of Contents page and manually set the XPath expressions for the various levels of the ToC. For most documents, it will look like this:
If you need to tweak it further, there's always the "manually fine-tune" checkbox.
Happy reading!
Thanks, Mitchell. Great find! I had noticed that Table of Contents tab before in Calibre, but didn't know how to use it.
Happy to share what I've learned. Thank you so much for sharing the original process, it's been invaluable to me! I owe you a beer if you're ever in Pasadena.
Thank you for this guide
Just a small hint:
If you have a mouse where you can deactivate the clicks while scrolling (e.g. logitech mx anywhere), you can select a hundred pages within a few seconds. Just don't scroll to far or Logos will crash...
Nice work. I do similar on my Mac...
-- copy book text as you suggest
-- paste into M$ word
-- add a cover image and the other book meta text to the start of the Word doc
-- save doc in .doc format and email as an attachment to your Kindle email address with the word convert in the subject line. Of course, you need to set up your Kindle page so that you have an email address of the convert process.
-- wait a few minutes and the books will appear beautifully formatted like a nice Kindle book.
I have used this method to shift a small pile of Vyrso fiction books from Logos to my Kindle. It is a little painful but worth it as I cannot read the books on Logos or Vyrso. Kindle by contrast is wonderful !!!
PS. You could probably use Mellel and export as a .doc file, but Mellel just doesn't have the great importing support that Word has.
Doesn't this technique violate Logos and other other publisher copyright protections?
I can see exporting one's own footnotes to Word and then sending them to a Kindle Document. However, moving entire books to the Kindle may not be legal.
If I want a book on my Kindle Fire or Kindle Keyboard, I just BUY the book a second time from Amazon and then I'm sure of complying with all the copyright protections. If I want to read one of my Sony eBooks on my Kindle, I buy a second copy from Amazon for use on my Kindle. In fact, since eBibles purchased for the Kindle Keyboard cannot locate verses properly on the Kindle Fire, one must purchase a THIRD copy explicitly for the Kindle Fire. I don't see a problem with that since eBibles on Amazon sell for $ 5.99 or LESS.
Since Amazon charges so little anyway for eBooks, I cannot see the purpose of going around the second purchase. Most very expensive pBooks sell for less than $ 15.00 on Amazon anyway as eBooks. Amazon even notes on the book page if the publisher imposed a price higher than Amazon standards as a warning to the customer.
Buying direct from Amazon insures the ability to sync with all Amazon devices. These exported books probably will NOT be able to be synced by Amazon's servers.
By the way, books exported to the Kindle Keyboard may not work properly on the Kindle Fire so far as searches and other features are concerned.
Probably in a very short time the Logos system will probably work perfectly without a WiFi connection due to their developing Android App. Its worth waiting for it and just avoid all this extra work. Then all one's PURCHASED Logos books will be completely accessible on the Kindle Fire with full functionality.
I don't know about the copyright restrictions. I don't share these books with others and all have been paid for legally.
Your comments suggesting "just buy another copy" however may be fine for those in the USA who have too much money. For the rest of us, perhaps you would like to gift all those Amazon copies to us. I have recently bought about $300 New Zealand dollars on Logos books. These were all on sale. Amazon costs for replacing those books (giving me a needless 2nd copy) would probably cost you $500 USD ($700-$800 New Zealand dollars).
Shall I send you my Amazon account so you can gift those books?
Just post the name and Logos price for a single eBook. Then go to the Australia Amazon site and post its eBook price from there. Post them both in US dollars. I'm curious now how much the duplication would really cost for one eBook. If you just wait a few months, maximum, I'm sure the Logos eBook will be able to be read with full search functionality with the Kindle Fire using the Logos Android App without access to WiFi. Also, remember this exported book will NOT have full search capability on the Kindle Fire. It will only work properly on the Kindle Keyboard.
Noticed Logos article (EULA) => http://www.logos.com/ArticleViewer/2090 includes:
TITLE
We remain the owner of all right, title and interest in the Software and Documentation. Ownership of the Content remains with Copyright holders.
ARCHIVAL OR BACKUP COPIES
You may either:
- make one copy of the Software solely for backup or archival purposes, or
- transfer the Software to a single hard disk, provided you keep the original solely for backup or archival purposes.
THINGS YOU MAY NOT DO
The Software, Content, and Documentation are protected by United States copyright laws and international treaties. You must treat the Software, Content, and Documentation as copyrighted material. You may not:
- copy the Documentation,
- copy the Software or Content except to make archival or backup copies as provided above,
- modify or adapt the Software or merge it into another program,
- reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile or make any attempt to discover the source code of the Software,
- place the Software or Content onto a server so that it is accessible via a public network such as the Internet,
- sublicense, rent, lease or lend any portion of the Software, Content, or Documentation, or
- reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile or make any attempt to "unlock" or circumvent the digital copyright protection of the Content.
Keep Smiling [:)]
That seems to confirm my initial premise. Thanks.
Buying a second copy conforms to all present laws so far as I know and is the proper way to use eBooks with more than one brand of device or software.
If you don't need those features for a book, the slightly simpler method you describe will be faster.
Yes, the method you describe is great -- much appreciated. It would be really nice if there was a Mac app that could make Kindle books and TOC etc like iBooks Creator makes Apple iBooks. The Apple app is amazing and beautiful.