Use Cross-Eyes to Prevent Ebook Formatting Problems

Use CrossEyes to Prevent Ebook Formatting Problems, by C.K. MacLeod

by C.K. MacLeod

Updated. Originally posted at Beyond Paper Editing.

Hidden formatting in a Word document can cause trouble in the ebook conversion process. In Word, what you see is not always what you get. This video will show you how to use CrossEyes—a format revealer—to reveal hidden formatting in a Word document.

Have you ever worked with WordPerfect? If you have, CrossEyes works just like WordPerfect’s Reveal Codes feature. It’s a free Microsoft Word add-in for Windows, and you can get it at Levit & James, Inc. Once you download CrossEyes, you’ll find it under the Add-Ins tab in the Custom Toolbars area in Word.

Note: CrossEyes doesn’t work in Mac versions of Word (sorry!) or Word 2013.

Formatting Codes

If you’re not familiar with formatting “codes,” CrossEyes will seem a little foreign to you at first. But with some practice, you can become adept at reading the formatting codes and deleting the ones you don’t want. It helps that the codes are featured in bright colours and colour-coded according to type.

CrossEyes window; codes are in colour (Click to enlarge)

A quick peek in the CrossEyes window tells you that in the first line of the document paragraph, the author introduced a different font to the document. The font is similar to Times New Roman used elsewhere in the document, but with an unpracticed eye, or without the help of CrossEyes, it can be easy to miss. CrossEyes exposes the font so you can delete it.

How to Delete or Change a Style

To change a style in CrossEyes, double-click on a coloured formatting code in the CrossEyes window, and hit the Enter key to select a new style. A Styles dialog will pop up, allowing you to choose another style option. You can also hit the Backspace key to delete a code, which will then delete the applied style.

CrossEyes Styles dialog box

CrossEyes can also help you to see formatting that you can’t see, but that can cause problems for ebook conversion later on. If you click on the white space in a document, you’ll discover if different fonts are lurking, or if “illegal” ebook spacing (tabs and extra paragraph spaces) have been applied. You’ll want to remove unwanted formatting so that it doesn’t alter text in undesirable ways on an e-reader.

If you have a Word document that behaves in strange ways on an e-reader, or an ebook that’s getting error messages after you upload it to a distributor, such as Amazon or Smashwords, CrossEyes will help you to see what’s going on.

Image by Charline Tetiyevsky