Special characters

dukesbeach · Jan 8, 2012

I’m trying to import the symbols for cards into Kindle (14cs). The symbols/font covert from word into a PDF no problem. Using Calibre, they also convert into EPUB or MOBI without a glitch, but when I bring that file into Kindle preview it doesn’t convert properly. I see the symbols are listed in, Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers Version: under supported characters, but now I’m stuck. Anyone have any suggestions for a newbie?
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I noticed after posted this that I can see these symbols on my computer (spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts) posted above in parentheses, but not on my ipad. The ipad doesn't have the same font installed. A letter emailed to my ipad in .docx will not save font but the same email in .pdf will. I guess if I want to keep my WIP as is, I'll need an ebook that works like a .pdf file?

merrihiatt · Jan 8, 2012

Can't help with this one, but good luck and I hope someone comes along soon who can answer your question.

brianjanuary · Jan 9, 2012

As I understand it, for the symbols to appear in Kindle they have to be in line with the text/font. So in your Word document, go Insert>Symbol>Font (choose your font), then click on the symbol you want and hit Insert.

You can also look up the html codes for each symbol and insert them into your html directly.

I hope that works for you!

Al Stevens · Jan 9, 2012

I just pasted the characters in your example into the .doc for my WIP. Then saved as Web Page filtered. Used Mobipocket Creator to build a .prc file. I read the .prc file on my Kindle, in the Kindle app on my ipad, and in Kindle for PC. In all three cases, the four characters display fine.

What program are you using when you say you brought the file into Kindle preview? I think that might be the problem.

ETA: this is all based on a bad premise.Ignore it. Sorry

dukesbeach · Jan 9, 2012

Al Stevens said:
What program are you using when you say you brought the file into Kindle preview? I think that might be the problem.

When I try to open the file in kindle preview, I’m just selecting file>open book (book.prc). When I build a file with Mobipocket Creator it looks great in Mobipocket reader, but those symbols are lost when I open the .prc file with Kindle previewer. I also tried converting the file with KindleGen v1.2 and I get the same result.

Al Stevens · Jan 9, 2012

Where does the program named Kindle previewer come from? I think the file is okay.

ETA: More BS

Deleted member 42 · Jan 9, 2012

Use the actual HTML entity:

http://htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/symbols.html

Al Stevens · Jan 9, 2012

First:

Please ignore my earlier observations and pardon me. When i pasted your example, it was a jpeg not a character string. I should have seen that.

Second:

Medievalist said:
Use the actual HTML entity:

http://htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/symbols.html

This works if you use the ♠, ♣, ♥, ♦ html notation. The numerical notations do not work.

Third:
The Windows character map does not work. Those characters are converted by word to the numerical html entities when saving the html file.

It seems you have to work with the post-Word htlm file. Good luck.

Al Stevens · Jan 9, 2012

I didn't try brianjanuary's suggestion. It might be easier.

Deleted member 42 · Jan 9, 2012

Al Stevens said:
This works if you use the ♠, ♣, ♥, ♦ html notation. The numerical notations do not work.

You'll doubtless have noticed that Amazon is fairly specific about what they do and don't support in HTML 4.0 and they've started ironing out their support for HTML 5.0.

If you want to use the numeric notation or numeric Unicode you'll need to hand-create your document declaration and verify it quite thoroughly. It's doable--and the only way to have mixed writing systems, say Hebrew, Greek and English--but it's a PITA.

dukesbeach · Jan 10, 2012

Medievalist said:
You'll doubtless have noticed that Amazon is fairly specific about what they do and don't support in HTML 4.0 and they've started ironing out their support for HTML 5.0.

Medievalist said:
If you want to use the numeric notation or numeric Unicode you'll need to hand-create your document declaration and verify it quite thoroughly. It's doable--and the only way to have mixed writing systems, say Hebrew, Greek and English--but it's a PITA.

Thanks for all your input guys! I will admit I’m quite lost at this point; I’ve never tried to do something like this before. If I save my text to an htm file and then reopen the file in word (selecting plain text): I see all of this code for just one of these symbols I’m trying to incorporate:
s

If I’m following you right: I replace some or all of that with ♠
As far as document declaration, I’m assuming that’s all the gibberish at the beginning for the document. That part doesn’t seem to be something I’d be able to figure out. Is it time for me to give up and pay someone to do it?

Al Stevens · Jan 10, 2012

Start here:

s

Replace all that and nothing more with ♠

Similary replace the other symbols with:

♦
♣
♥

Let us know how that works. You don't have to pay for this small fix. We can get it working for you.

Remember that every time you save the Word document from .doc to .html, you'll have to do this again.

Don't worry about the gibberish at the beginning.

dukesbeach · Jan 10, 2012

Al Stevens said:
Start here:

s

Replace all that and nothing more with ♠

Similary replace the other symbols with:

♦
♣
♥

Let us know how that works. You don't have to pay for this small fix. We can get it working for you.

Remember that every time you save the Word document from .doc to .html, you'll have to do this again.

Don't worry about the gibberish at the beginning.

I couldn’t figure out how to open and close the htm file in Word 2007 and have it work properly. So I downloaded OpenOffice to open the htm file I saved from Word 2007. This seemed to work well, because now I was able to go to the view tab and select view HTML source. Then I made the change you suggested and resaved the file as htm. Next I used Mobipocket Creator to build the .prc file. When I viewed this file in Mobipocket reader the part I replaced showed up as a question mark with a box around it. Funny thing, when I tried to copy that symbol to into this post, it showed up correctly as the symbol of a spade. Also, I selected the item in Mobipocket reader by right clicking on it and a dialog box appears. One of the options in the dialog box is to modify and when I select that a window opens up with the correct symbol (actually with the number 3 and a spade symbol). The only two options in this dialog window are: delete and close (no replace).

Al Stevens · Jan 10, 2012

At this point I can't help you further from here. Too many unseen variables. I know how to do it, but I can't keep up with all the things you've tried. Kind of like telephone tech support in the 1980s.

Post the .doc file somewhere, and I'll look at it.

dukesbeach · Jan 11, 2012

I got it to work! I need to spend some time (many hours) cleaning my word file; it’ll work if I only use one font. I’m glad I didn’t wait until I was completely finished to figure out how this works. Thank you so much for your help.

Al Stevens · Jan 11, 2012

Good work! And good luck with your book.

Special characters

Writing! Writing! Writing!

Deleted member 42

Deleted member 42