How do I force page breaks

[alexbell]

How do I force page breaks?

I've just done a short story for my daughter which has an acknowledgements section after the text, and both she and I would like that section to start on a new page. And we'd like the story to start on a new page after the title and copyright section.

I've read and re-read the manual, but still can't understand how to do it.

Regards, Alex

[beau]

Hi Alex.

I'm new to Smashwords - but my first two manuscripts both went through the meat grinder first time without hiccups so I think I basically understand the formatting requirements.

Normally in Word you click on the insert tab and find the words page break - look to the left in later versions of word. If you've got the show/hide button activated (i.e. the reverse P or pilcrow) you'll see the words page break with a series of dashes either side appear after you click on insert and click on page break. I couldn't work out how to insert a snapshot to show you but it looks a bit like this...

The Codetalkers
by Beau Cornerstone
................page break..............
 


Having said that - I think you'll find that Amazon request page breaks after titles and copyright sections but Smashwords doesn't. I flipped through the style guide and couldn't find the gen myself. I guess you could experiment - and see what the meatgrinder does if you include page breaks. It might look good in some formats and bad in others after going through the meatgrinder.

I hope this helps

Beau

[alexbell]

Thanks, Beau, I'll give that a try.

One of the problems is that neither my daughter nor I use Microsoft Office - she uses Page on her Apple, and I use LibreOffice or Atlantis. I'll see if there is something similar in either of these word processors.

[Ted]

Page breaks aren't necessary for ebooks except for when uploading to Amazon for their Kindle devices.

Ereaders flow pages continually, not like a printed book. Inserting page breaks in your document breaks the flow of the ebook and often ends up creating a lot of annoying white space in the ereader device.

I would expect your book would be rejected by the meatgrinder for having Page Breaks and you'll just have to remove them before uploading a new version.

It's best to follow the Style Guide for both Amazon and Smashwords and keep the formatting to the style readers expect.

[alexbell]

I'm sorry, Ted, I simply do not agree. When I'm not doing docs for my daughter to feed into the Smashwords Meatgrinder I design ebooks for a small publisher in the UK and some for MobileRead forum. I've done about 50 so far, and I can assure you that each one has the title page, introduction, chapters, copyright information and colophon all starting on new pages.

I think that there are few things more ugly than a chapter heading or subheading stranded at the bottom of a screen while its text is on the next page.

[Ted]

I think that there are few things more ugly than a chapter heading or subheading stranded at the bottom of a screen while its text is on the next page.

I agree. If I see that in occurring in one of my ebooks (using Calibre to produce test output) I rewrite a part or parts of my book to correct it, or move/resize an image, or perform some other corrective task.

Problem being that what displays properly on one device may not display the same on a different device, page break display problems in same epub file on an iPad vs Nook for example.

I'm hopeful that in the not-to-distant future the coding of ebooks will become more standardized (epub is a standard for many devices at this moment), that MSWord code will be cleaned up at last, that Mark will update the meatgrinder to accept formats other than MSWord, and that Smashwords and Amazon upload function will allow more control of output by authors.

[Julie Harris]

I've used page breaks successfully in Smashwords documents by incorporating the page break into the 'Chapter Heading' style I created: based on Normal: font 14 (or 16) bold, alignment centered, spacing below 15pt, page break before. That's the key, really, using Styles based on Normal to keep the document consistent. I wrote a post about using and creating Styles on my blog:
jules57.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/formatting-issues.html

[tangomike]

Arriving late to this conversation, but here's a bit more to consider:

1) Use of Word's Heading 1 style for chapter headings and including the page break before option is absolutely the key to avoiding problems with page breaks.

2) I've used that for upload to KDP, PubIt, and iTunes and the breaks appear as they should in the mobi on the Kindle and the epub as viewed on both the Nook and iPad.

3) In all of those cases, I've uploaded the files as mobi or epub that I've converted from Word. The Meatgrinder's requirement to upload only a doc file can cause problems if you don't realize that the word "chapter" must be used in the chapter heading for it to recognize the Heading 1 style and use it to create the NCX TOC. Without it, the Meatgrinder ignores the chapter heading. That is not the case for either mobi conversions or epubs that I've created with Calibre or Sigil.

4) To insert page breaks in the front matter, the key once again is to define a style for your front matter headings and include the page break before option. This ensures that the acknowledgments, dedication, and table of contents if you include a manual one, etc., all start on their own pages and don't leave the orphan heading at the bottom of one page and the text it belongs with at the top of the next.

5) And I agree with Ted that the option to upload other than a doc file would be beneficial to those who can create their own epub. Every one I've done has appeared flawlessly on the Nook, iPad, and my computer with Adobe Digital Editions. But with the Meatgrinder's epub conversions, NCX TOC problems keep cropping up that prevent inclusion in the Premium Catalog. I've had to deal with that for every book I've done. And the problem for customers is that the books are live before I get a chance to check the results. A proofing step would be a very nice option, in my opinion. I suggested that last year using the comments function on the Smashwords site and never received any indication that anyone took notice.

[echase]

May 19, 2012 14:45:04 GMT -8 Julie Harris said:

I've used page breaks successfully in Smashwords documents by incorporating the page break into the 'Chapter Heading' style I created: based on Normal: font 14 (or 16) bold, alignment centered, spacing below 15pt, page break before. That's the key, really, using Styles based on Normal to keep the document consistent. I wrote a post about using and creating Styles on my blog:
jules57.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/formatting-issues.html

clever. I didn't think about incorporating the breaks into the heading styles. My inserted page breaks on word seemed to have carried over through the meatgrinder though.

[Julie Harris]

Ctrl+enter = page break on both Word and Atlantis.
Julie.

[KelliJaeBaeli]

I started this before i saw someone already answered the page break thing--but i would have said the same--page breaks are not necessary, as the "new page" you seek to create, won't actually be a new page on the eBook readers, and page breaks, in a formatting sense, are a no-no in eBooks--not so, of course for print, but this is the Smashwords forum. ;^)

Word is standard for any writer, but if you can't afford to purchase it or didn't get it pre-loaded with your computer software, just download OpenOffice. It's free, and it's designed in a very similar way as Word and compatible with most every type of text file... You really should use a proper word processing software--and both you and your daughter should also use the same thing if you're doing projects together. It will save you all kinds of headaches.
Good luck!
Jae

[Ted]

Jae, last year I switched to LibreOffice from OpenOffice as it seems more stable to me and is very well supported by the open-source community. LO has all the functions of OO and is also free as its name states.

[KelliJaeBaeli]

Haven't tried that, Ted. Sounds great. Though i am a staunch Word fan. I also use word for typesetting and formatting all print books...used it since the beginning of....you know....TIME. hehe. But great suggestion. Not everyone has access to the more costly programs, and i am a firm believer in OpenSource.

Want to investigate the other info the rest of you have been offering. I have an issue with formatting some of my nonfiction, such as an academic type work that has huge amounts of references and footnotes. That's not going through to premium distribution because i used the footnotes as smaller inline text. Seemed no other way to do it, (partly because the footnotes can't always be relegated to endnotes--they need to be seen while in that area of the text and scrolling or jumping tot he end of a section or the end of the book would be hugely problematic for the reader)-- but of course the error messages in SW autovetter are telling me i have different sized fonts, etc. I hope things get updated too, as you suggest, Ted.
I realize this has strayed from original post topic, so I'll hush.

[Julie Harris]

Jaebaeli, I used to work in a university's publishing department. When we went digital (online and CD delivery) we had to get rid of footnotes entirely. 99% of the time there's a way to paraphrase the footnote and merge it into the relevant paragraph. It took awhile for academics to get used to this 'new' way of publishing but it worked fine. So you could try that approach, then you may get into Premium.