Are a Few Page Breaks Too Much to Ask???

[angelaweight]

Hi Everyone, 

Thank you so much for existing because you just might be my only hope for figuring this out. I've searched through older threads and didn't really find my answer. If I overlooked it, I apologize. 

Here's the deal. I'm publishing an ebook of 60 short humor essays. Based on the Smashwords style guide, I manually inserted a page break at the end of each essay and then uploaded. Excitedly proofread my book to find that all page breaks were missing and essays were all smashed together (appropriate pun, but not intended). So, I went back into my MS Word manuscript and designated page breaks by formatting it into my essay title headings (as the style guide shows how to do). Uploaded the thing. It was accepted into the Premium Catalog. I proofread and began cursing loudly. STILL NO FLIPPING PAGE BREAKS!!!

I understand that ebooks are all about flow and what looks good on one reader won't look the same on another and everyone has different font and size preferences. But is it too much to ask for each essay begin on a new page? 

Also, the table of contents navigation that I so painstakingly entered isn't there. The links show up, but when I click on them, nothing happens. 

My husband suggested that I download samples of several other ebooks on Smashwords. I did that and they all looked like mine. I looked at them on my computer and on my iphone e-reader thinking that it was just the device I was using. 

Any help you can give me will be GREATLY appreciated. 

Thank you, sincerely!

Angela

[Ted]

Page breaks aren't necessary except for Amazon Kindle devices. In some situations it is nice to have a new essay start on a fresh, new page and this requires a little more work with MSWindows - itself a pain in the rump for creating ebooks.

You may have to go nuclear to eliminate all the crap MSWord has added to your file before making any changes such as adding Page Breaks.

Test your ePub file once Smashwords has processed it. ePub is the ebook publishing standard and is delivered to all retailers. Nowadays I convert files only to ePub, mobi, and some to PDF.

Download the free ebook management system called calibre. It is fabulous. calibre-ebook.com/

There are some links to threads on this Forum regarding Page Breaks, but perhaps this one from Julie is what you are looking for: jules57.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/formatting-issues.html

Let us know if Julie's information helped you.

[Julie Harris]

PM me Angela if you need help.
Julie.

[chelsfield]

I tend to like breaks between the chapters of my non-fiction books, because it makes the information 'look' more easily digestible for the reader. I have always gone nuclear, then inserted the 'new page' function in the section title. It seems to have worked, but I will go back and check again. And keep Julie's link on stand-by in case all goes wrong with the new title I will be publishing within the next few weeks, fingers crossed!

[jaydax]

If you use Calibre to produce an epub file from a Word document it's fairly simple.
1. End each chapter with a page break and set the heading of each new chapter to use Heading 1 style in Word.
2. Import the Word file into Calibre. I use the Word 2013 version and the docx format imports well with fewer unneeded styles.
3. Edit the meta data in Calibre and browse for the cover
4. Convert the Word document to epub. In the Table of contents section put the check next to 'Force use of auto-generated Table of Contents. In 'Level 1 TOC' enter //h:h1
5. In the EPUB output section put the check mark next to 'Preserve cover aspect ratio' and make sure there is no check next to 'Do not split on page breaks'