Easy Ebook With WPS Writer

Copyright Cover: "Easy Ebook�

Easy Ebook With WPS Writer

By Volker Schunck Published by Volker Schunck at Smashwords Copyright 2015 Volker Schunck hellovolker.wordpress.com Smashwords License Notes Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends.

This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite ebook retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support!

Table of Contents Copyright Table of Contents About me Preface The Basics First make styles Write and format text Insert pictureยง Insert bookmarks and hyperlinks Cover and Copyright

About me

I live in Dresden, Germany. I was a merchant and then I studied theology - without degree.

Through my engagement with Zen I became aware of the Christian mysticism.

Meanwhile I go my own way.

Believe is not a thinking but a being. It is important to me, not to live lost in thought, but to live aware and intensely.

My Christian faith and my experiences in meditation influence my everyday life, in which I try to be attentive. My books arise from this spirit too.

Table of Contents

Preface I publish my ebooks at smashwords.com since November 2014. I am, as you may also be, primarily an author and not a computer geek. I use Linux (Xubuntu) and don’t have Microsoft Word. I wanted to publish my first ebook with LibreOffice, but it didn’t work out. Then I became aware of Kingsoft WPS Writer, an excellent free alternative to Microsoft Word. Until now I have published 10 ebooks with WPS Writer. But I'm always annoyed whenever I publish a new ebook, because I have always the feeling to start from scratch again. That’s the reason, why I have written primarily for myself, a small guide that shall help me as a reminder how to publish ebooks on smashwords.com with WPS Writer. The tips are given in good faith, but I exclude any liability of any kind for anything. I can’t answer further questions regarding WPS Writer. Questions related to publishing ebooks can be safely answered by looking into Mark Coker's "Style Guide" on which this ebook is based, even if I didn’t establish that at any point with quotes. From this "Ebook Bible" I learned all about creating and publishing ebooks. I offer only the basics to publish easily a simple ebook: Easy Ebook.

Table of Contents

The Basics

The WPS Writer is constructed like a browser. You open a new document with the plusbutton. 1. Under "Home" (underlined in blue), the basic functions which you need, appear. For us are primarily interesting 2. the possibilities to make text bold, italic and underline (B, I, U) and 3. the possibility to show the editing marks in the text. The function must be activated (blue background) to see the spaces between the words and the number of blank lines between the lines of text. You can only insert one blank line with the “Return” key to create paragraphs. If “Insert” is selected (underlined in blue) a different view is displayed.

Then you have the option to insert 4. Picture, 5. Hyperlinks and 6. Bookmarks. You need “Hyperlinks” and “Bookmarks” to connect the headings (H1, H2,...) with the “Table of Contents” (TOC). More about this later.

Table of Contents

First make styles

If you click on the right side "New Style", the following window appears (below). We type the appropriate title. We need 5 different styles: Normal, Center, Justify, Heading 1 (H1), Heading 2 (H2).

I have chosen the default font "Times New Roman" for normal format. The reader can adjust later in his / her own ebook reader the font and font size, which he / she wants. The blue shaded boxes mean "left-aligned" and line spacing "1" (single-spaced). The other styles (Center and Justify) differ from the normal template only in that the button for centered text or justification is clicked. I never used the button for “right-aligned�. I’ll explain the styles for headings later.

If you click on the small arrow "Format", a selection list appears. We choose "Paragraph" and the following window appears.

“Indents" mark a new paragraph in the text. I also used “Indents” in previous ebooks, i.e. one chooses "Indentation" under "Special" "First Line" and enter an appropriate value at

which the first line of the paragraph should be indented. In printed books you can find a blank line before the indented line. But the Autovetter of Smashwords doesn’t accept an empty line (“Return” key) combined with "Indents". I made countless attempts how to settle "Indents" properly, and I don’t use them anymore, i.e. I let the settings as you see above and thereby make a paragraph by pressing the “Return” key twice at the end of each line. This creates a blank line between two lines. Mark recommends for the Kindle an indentation of 0.01''. Whoever wants to do so can indeed read at Mark’s “Style Guide” again. I refrain from it.

Click in the following window "Widow / Orphan Control"

In the following picture can be seen, such as the settings for the style "Center" must be.

The settings for "Format / Paragraph" must not be changed, since they are already defined in the normal style.

The justify style is defined the same as the center style. Only with the difference that the justify icon is selected (4th icon from the left).

But now it gets interesting. We define the style for the main heading. The by Mark recommended maximum size is 14. We stick to it. We also choose a line spacing of 1.5 and B for bold. I take Arial as font to differentiate more clearly the heading of the text.

But everyone can do as he / she wants. Only too exotic fonts (e.g. Handwriting fonts) should be avoided.

On the picture below we see how page breaks are produced. Only by selecting "Page break before". Page breaks are intended by us only for a new chapter, all other page breaks the ebook reader makes itself!

A possible second heading (H2), or as many headings (H3, H4, ...) as one needs, are defined as Heading 1 (H1). As usual, we are free to select the fonts. It is only to consider to choose no exotic fonts and the maximum font size of 14. I choose for H2 (Heading 2) e.g. "Times New Roman 12, bold, single-spaced.

Table of Contents

Write and format text After we have defined the styles, the real comes - the essential: the own text. The emphasis is on "own". Because smashwords.com only allows texts, which have its source in your own creativity. But that's really a matter of course and we confirm that by accepting the Terms and Conditions. It has been my experience that it is easiest to write your own text completely in a new document and to connect the text first after it is completely written with the individual styles. It works like this: you mark the relevant text, and then you select one of the from us predefined styles, e.g. for the heading or body text. Then the text must be saved as "Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP/2003 Document".

But what if I previously wrote the text with LibreOffice in .odt format and would like to insert it in my WPS Writer Document? This works out. Here's how: I open the text in .odt format with LibreOffice and after I have completely marked it, I choose with the right mouse button "Copy" and then copy it so to the clipboard. Then I go to my empty WPS Writer Document and click the right mouse button. There a menu appears from which I don’t choose "Paste" but "Unformatted Text", then the unformatted text appears in the WPS Writer Document. That's it! Then I can quite normal, as described above, connect the text with the different styles.

I already mentioned that I no longer use indents, that means to indent the 1st line of a new paragraph, but make the paragraphs through pressing the "Return" key twice. The following must be observed: It is only one blank line between paragraphs allowed. If there are several blank lines the ebook reader interprets this as a page break. At the end of each chapter must be a link to the table of contents. After this I also don’t add a blank line, since the free space is created through the page break before the new chapter, we've defined in H1.

Table of Contents

Insert picture After clicking the menu selection "Insert" this picture appears. Now we can click "Picture" (4.) to insert a picture, best in .PNG (.JPEG, .JPG, are also possible).

If the image is still active and not anchored to the document, you can change the size of the image by clicking the right mouse button. For that you choose "Format Object" and "Size". Select the tab "Layout" and "In line with text". "Wrapping" so that the text runs around the image is not possible. The images can be positioned - for example centered - quite normal with our at the beginning defined styles.

Table of Contents

Insert bookmarks and hyperlinks Each ebook must have a table of contents. This table of contents first of all is created simply by the fact that we totally normal write the headings of our ebook one after another under the heading “Table of Contents� after the Copyright (more on this later) .

The individual headings in the Table of Contents must be linked to the individual chapter headings. Previously, however, the individual headings must be provided with a "Bookmark". It works like this: I mark with the mouse the chapter title in the text and select in the menu bar "Insert" and this menu appears.

Then I click on "Bookmark" (6.) and this window opens:

Then I insert as "bookmark name" a word from the highlighted heading. Multiple words with spaces are not possible. Then I confirm with "Add" and go on to the next heading.

When I have provided all headings with a bookmark - also "Copyright" and "Table of Contents" - I go back to the table of contents and select the first heading. Then I go to "Insert" and then I select "Hyperlink" (5.) After I have choosen "Place in this Document", this window appears.

There you see the other bookmarks that I have already given. We choose "Copyright" and confirm with "OK". After all headings linked in this way with the headings in the text, it is advisable to test whether all links work. For this purpose, I point with the mouse pointer on the link and press the "Ctrl" key. The Mouse pointer changes (for me anyway) in a hand and can be clicked. If everything goes according to plan, the selected chapter appears.

So, soon we've done it! But we still need to provide the end of each chapter with a link to the table of contents. For this purpose we easily write “Table of Contents� under the last sentence of each chapter, after we have inserted a blank line, mark it with the mouse, choose again "Hyperlink", "Place in this Document" and then "Table of Contents". Again, it is recommended - as described - to test each link.

Table of Contents

Cover and Copyright Finally a few words about the things that actually are at the beginning of an ebook: The cover and the copyright. The cover is not part of the text file and is created separately. For years I use "Gimp". If one has once incorporated, the design of the cover goes like Speedy Gonzales. The cover must be in color, because Apple does not accept black and white covers in its iBook Store. The ratio of width to length is 1:1.5. In plain English, this means that a cover which is 1600 px wide must be 2400 px high. The minimum width is 1400 px. For more information, please visit https://www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq and http://blog.smashwords.com/2012/06/new-ebook-cover-image-requirements.html.

I made the experience when uploading a new ebook with a slow Internet connection - I use a wireless stick - that it is advisable to upload first only the text file (.doc), and then the image file and not both at once, as it is offered by smashwords.com.

The copyright is absolutely necessary. If the copyright is missing the ebook doesn’t come through the Autovetter and won’t released for the Premium Catalog, so doesn’t come to the major online retailers. There are different versions of copyright, depending on whether the book is available for free download or for sale. More information is available at https://www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq#avcopy and in Mark Coker's "Style Guide".

That's it! There is hardly anything more electrifying and more fulfilling than writing your own books.

Have fun with publishing and good, creative ideas for the contents of your ebooks.

All the best, Volker!

Words can change the world.

Table of Contents