New/updated Tools from the 'Zon

[R. C.]

Does anyone use the Kindle Previewer and the new Kindle Create applications from KDP? If so, maybe you can help me understand why companies continue to produce low-quality applications.

Here's my take:

Kindle Previewer - One of the worst applications I have seen and I have seen some bad stuff.  EVERY time you alter the view, toggle between thumbnail and previewer, it reverts to full screen. If you close the book, it fails to remove the "in-use" flag from the file. I could go on, but you get the idea.

Kindle Create - The best thing about it: Free.  Start with, if you are not careful, it will revert to full screen and cover BOTH MONITORS. The interface hangs often and incorrectly connects sections of text.  ex: Highlighting the subtitle to change the font changed the title also! I had to delete and retype the subtitle.  This is not a one off, it happens throughout the document.  Finally, the formatting options are primitive but that might be by design.

They remind me of Vella. Poorly conceived. Poorly developed. Poorly managed.  I seems the powers behind these applications and platforms are desperately trying to increase the content volume by offering free tools. 

R.C. 

[TimothyEllis]

I use Previewer to generate a mobi file now, for sending to my device for proofreading.

That full screen is a major pain on my main monitor. and as far as I can tell, there is no way of getting the cover into the mobi.

Amazon won't give us a decent downloadable version of the book now, and say Previewer is the only way of getting one.

But what it generates is not the same as what their system did in the submission process.

I agree its a lousy program.

[Moved the thread to the Amazon area, since it's public.]

[Lynn]

I use Previewer. I guess I've never tried to not use it in full screen mode, because I hadn't noticed any issues.

I like it for what it is. It's a little easier to use than the old version of Previewer anyway.

[j tanner]

I've used various versions of Previewer over the years. The only significant issue I've had is certain versions didn't accurately match what the end result looked like on a hardware device. The situations were oddball stuff but annoying. I've had no major issues with the interface. I use a single monitor so dual monitor stuff wouldn't impact me.

I downloaded and used Kindle Create this month for the first time on my new novel which was huge. I didn't feel like doing the hand-coded HTML just to put it into KDP Select and found my first attempt at export from Scrivener to be absurdly obtuse. I found KC to be refreshingly simple, though the TOC stuff is a little clunky. It's a much better tool than what beginners had to deal with five years ago. I had no interface issues here either, and I went in and checked the title/subtitle bug you mentioned just now and don't experience it. I changed them independently without affecting each other--perhaps a bug with particular style setting in the import file.

All in all, they aren't close to the bottom of the barrel of software I've dealt with.

[R. C.]

.... perhaps a bug with particular style setting in the import file.

All in all, they aren't close to the bottom of the barrel of software I've dealt with.

I've been thinking about the comment and agree. I suspect the application does not like the exacting format (styles) I apply to the .docx files.  After enhancing the KDP provided .docx template, I end up with files that import easily and look good. 

Heck, with one tweak for the TOC, the .docx template saves to a .doc and gets through the Smashwords Grinder.

R.C.