Anyone know how to upload my MS so I can read it in my Kindle? I’m looking to read it there in a different format to see if I find edits I don’t see in Word. I don’t want to make public, just want to upload it there to read. Thanks much.
I assume you write your MS with Word, no? Kindle can read Word files. You can either hook up your Kindle via USB (it shows up as an external hard drive. Just copy your file there), or send the files via email (you have an email address attached your Kindle. It should be <name>@kindle.com, where <name> is the name from the email-address you signed up on the Kindle, usually your amazon account). Usually it's better to use a different file format. In Word, you can use "Save As..." to save as RTF or TXT, and can send that to the Kindle (Yes, Kindle can read those, too. You can also use PDF, but as PDF by default assumes a fixed page size larger than the screen of the Kindle, it's usually less nice. Unless you fiddle with settings and make a smaller page size PDF). Lastly, you can use the free ebook tool calibre to convert to Kindle's own file format, MOBI, and read it just like an ebook (calibre can send the file directly to the Kindle email address once you have told it the address.)
Thank you, Martin! This is perfect. Yes, it’s in Word. I’m going to try now. I’m flying later today and thought it might be a good way to edit. Thanks again.
As usual, if you need more detailed instructions, just ask. I have done this a lot, albeit just with RTF -> MOBI (as I don't use Word, and my favorite word processor uses RTF.) [While the Kindle can read normal word processor files, they never look as nice as the MOBI (as nice as Kindle could be – it's not yet there typography-wise with physical books). There are still some quirks in converting to MOBI that I have not completely solved, which means fiddling with calibre settings. There's a commercial converter named Vellum which makes it easier; it allows trial for free, but is awfully expensive and isn't worth it unless you sell the ebook by yourself. Said all that, the simple first trial should be more than good enough for proofreading.]
Oops. I forgot that the way I do it is that my word processor (Nisus Writer, Mac only) can save ePub, and I just use calibre to make the MOBI from the ePub. I do not know if Word can, by now, export to an ebook file format, so the conversion path may be more complicated than I thought. I just glanced at some instructions, and they go via HTML (as all the ebook files formats are 'just' HTML 'dialects'.) There's another tool that can reduce the number of steps to reach the goal, but it may be too frightening to use as it is primarily a command line tool. That is pandoc, basically a Swiss Army Knife text converter. I know that pandoc can do DOCX (Word) -> ePub quite nicely.
Guess I haven't been too up-to-date with things... I just tried it. calibre 3.44 just took the DOCX, and made a MOBI out of it, so it's rather simple. That's the Mac version of calibre, but as far as I know it's always the same with the Win and Linux versions. The only problem may be that my DOCX was not made by Word (though I tested it, and it opens in Word and just looks like the Pages file from whence it came.) It's my standard test file, text only, one typeface, with headings (two font sizes), and with italics and bold within the text, first paragraph line indented, 4 A4 pages.
I can't thank you enough. I got it working. A few hiccups because I had to make sure my email was an "approved" sender on Amazon (it's different than the one I used to sign up on Amazon). But it's all worked out, sent to the Kindle, and it looks great. I used a standard Word document - I tried to save it as TXT or RTF but the files were too big (again, I'm traveling and technology challenged a bit - I'm doing this mostly from my phone). But the regular old .DOCX file worked just fine. It's very cool to see it on here! I plan to read this on the plane(s) today with a legal pad and pen to jot down edits. THANK YOU!
You're very welcome! Glad to hear it worked for you! (Yeah, totally forgot about approving the sender... I did this so long ago... Makes sense to limit who can send you stuff, though.)
Note that I never used this before: You can add notes and highlights to whatever you read on the Kindle. As far as I know, you can also send those via email back to you. In short, you could forego the legal pad and do everything on the Kindle. Maybe not a good time to try it right now as you're traveling – stay with what you know works – but something you could look into in the future.
