Building a Personal Book in Logos 5 — FAST and FREE
Hi Friends, I have been searching for months now how to easily create a .DOCX file for building a personal book in Logos and have given up several times, never finding a good solution. But once again I found myself experimenting this morning when I should have been working on a sermon and a million other things.
Conclusion: I have now found a fast and free way to
Nine to 14 Simple Steps:
- STEP 1: Create or download a PDF
- STEP 2: Upload PDF to Microsoft OneDrive
Note: if you do not have a Microsoft account it is totally worth getting. Also, note that they let you use any existing email address to sign up, so you don't even have to manage a new email address. - STEP 3-6: Open PDF in OneDrive / click, "EDIT IN WORD" / then a Dialogue Box will pop-up called 'File Conversion' click 'Convert' after the conversion the same Dialogue box will come back, this time click 'Edit'.
- Once the file is open and in edit mode, you can now make any changes you desire before saving it.
- STEP 7-9: click 'FILE' in the menu bar / click 'Save As' / click 'Download a Copy'
AND bada bing bada boom and your done...but if your not completely sure how to build the book, here are your final simple steps. - STEP 10-14: Open 'LOGOS' / click 'Tools' / click 'Personal Books' under the 'Library Column' / click 'Add Book' in the new window that opens / then just file in parts 1 and 2 and then part 3 is the final click 'Build Book'.
As soon as your book is built it will open up and you can see if everything formatted perfectly.
Note: This is the easiest and best way to build personal books in Logos 5. It's free, fast and highly functional. I haven't spent much time playing around with it, but all of the 5+ books I built that have chapter headings are automatically recognized in Logos. In other words, as far as I can tell, any headings that you want Logos to recognize need to be designated as "headings" in your OneDrive Word App.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to try and help 
God Bless you all!
Comments
- A PDF file converted by Word 2013 (docx) or Calibre (rtf-->docx) will generally have pictures in the docx, but they don't compile in the PB.
- Same is true for Kindle format in Calibre to rtf.
- An html file copied from a browser page and pasted into Word has pictures that generally will compile with no problems.
- The same Kindle file in #2 can be converted to HTMLZ (which I hadn't heard of before). The HTMLZ file can be expanded by "7-Zip", resulting in an html file. This html file can be copied and pasted into Word as in #3, and the pictures survive the PB compiling. (An added bonus: headings survive, more often than not, that the PB compiler recognizes as headings.)
- A PDF file converted by Word 2013 (docx) or Calibre (rtf-->docx) will generally have pictures in the docx, but they don't compile in the PB.
Nine to 14 Simple Steps
Thanks Royce, this worked very easily and is now my answer to getting pdfs into PBs.
when the Word document was downloaded to computer it wouldn't let me open in in Word but it still let me create a PB from it without errors.
So if you don't have a method of pdf conversion yet, I would recommend what Royce has given above.
Does it work well with PDFs from http://ccel.org/ ? I wish I could try, don't have desctop access till Monday
"No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying." Leonard Ravenhill
Does it work well with PDFs from http://ccel.org/ ?
yes. i made a PB of one of the books from the site and it took me 3 minutes. But I know where I went wrong so I'll be quicker the next time.
If this is similar in functionality to how Word 2013 (without storage service) converts PDFs, one really nice benefit is functional footnotes. If the PDF has live link footnotes, the converted docx will also likely have them. This could be because the PDF's source was in Word; not sure. A large portion of the PDFs at CCEL.org convert very nicely.
EDIT: I would also add comments I made in another thread, in case it is helpful.
My experience with converting in Word 2013 is that the pictures/graphics in the docx generally do not make it into the PB when compiled, without a great deal of agony. FWIW: I currently employ a hodgepodge of methods, depending on the source of the file and the relative prominence of footnotes vs images. See the two links in my signature.
macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
pictures/graphics in the docx generally do not make it into the PB when compiled,
This is a deliberate limitation of the PB compiler not a result of the conversion process.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
pictures/graphics in the docx generally do not make it into the PB when compiled,This is a deliberate limitation of the PB compiler not a result of the conversion process.
Really? I thought it just required a certain format to the graphics. I know I put the resource cover picture into some PBs (redundant to telling the PB builder about a file) and they show up in the PB.
Have joy in the Lord!
I dont know what you are talking about, all my pictures made it into the PB
In my PBs I have pictures in many of them. Sometimes I have a problem to get them there. I know it helped me a couple of times to save pictures to the docx file. I forgot however where the option was and am not able to find it. When I do, I will post it here.
Bohuslav
My experience regarding pictures in PBs is this:
To me, the two biggest issues with converting for PBs are pictures and footnotes.
In examples 2-4 above, footnotes, if they were in any "live" condition in the source document, become static and have to be dealt with manually, or left static. I have a very down-and-dirty Word/VBA routine that can convert footnotes semi-automatically. I have used it mostly with docx files that originate in Kindle, which generally wind up in Word with easily discernable formats for footnotes. When I feel like my communication muscles are bulked-up enough, I will attempt to share my bizarre code.
macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
My experience regarding pictures in PBs is this:
I just converted PDF to Word 2013 but online since I have word 2010 on PC. Then, I opened through word 2010 edited some things and compiled to PB. I have all pictures there [:)]
"No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying." Leonard Ravenhill
My experience is closer to Roberts.It appears that if there is a link to a image on my computer it always works. Without an external link, it usually fails.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."