The PDF conversion saga may have drawn to a close today. I say may because I haven’t yet taken the step of actually uploading the file to CreateSpace. I’ll do that tonight, I hope. Today, a little after my expanded lunch hour, I had what looks like a good file: a PDF with the pages showing as 5.5 x 8.5 just as I want it.

But the gyrations I had to go through to get there! Last night I posted to the CreateSpace forums, saying exactly what my problem was, all the software I was using and what versions. Overnight one of the experts posted to say it ought to work. He suggested making a dummy file and seeing if I could create a 5.5 x 8.5 PDF out of that. If so, I would know something in my book file was corrupt. If not, I’d know the problem was in the software.

That seemed like a good idea. I created a two page dummy file and used Adobe Acrobat to create the PDF, and it created it with the larger pages. I pulled up a four page file I had on my computer and tried that: same thing with the larger pages. I was getting frustrated.

But then I saw that I had the option of creating the file in “PDF995” printer. This is an inexpensive program that does what the expensive Acrobat does, though supposedly not as well. I tried that with my dummy, and got 5.5 x 8.5 pages. I tried it with the four page file, and got 5.5 x 8.5 pages. I tried it with my book file, and got 5.5 x 8.5 pages. Yea! But wait, it turned out only the first two pages were the right size. All the ones following it were the incorrect size. In the Word document, the first two pages were defined as one section, the rest of the book as a separate section. Also, when I tried to use Acrobat following some instructions my helper gave me, it still created in the larger pages.

Back to the CreateSpace forums. The same one who helped me before did so again. He said it appeared my Word document was corrupt. It was a place to start. Also odd was that the cheaper PDF995 product seemed to be working better than the expensive Acrobat product. He had a few suggestions.

I went to the Word document and copied the Section Break to the end of the book. This created a third section, of just one page at the end. Then I created the PDF using PDF995. It gave me a book of all 5.5 x 8.5 pages, except for the last page that remained 8.5 x 11. This was becoming quite frustrating. I played with some settings, then decided what I needed to do was remove all section breaks. This would mean I’d lose the headers and footers, but so be it. So I removed the section breaks and created the PDF using PDF995. By this time I had decided to quit messing with the Adobe product. And it created the PDF with the right size pages throughout!

I put my headers and footers back in, which created two sections. I tried creating it with PDF995, and it created correctly. So, I had a PDF file I could upload to CreateSpace. Of course, I noticed a few things I had to change in the formatting. I forgot to add the ISBN numbers, had to add a half title page and blank page before the real title page. I had to take care of a couple of orphan lines, things like that. I recreated the PDF, and it still worked. It’s at 188 pages now instead of 196, which is okay.

So, tonight when I go home I get to work on the cover and the back cover copy. I don’t know how difficult either of those will be. My main concern now is that I have the interior margins too large, and the font too small, and that it’s going to look amateurish. I guess at this time I’ll let it run as is, and see at the proof stage if I have to make any corrections. Right now, if I had to make a prediction, I’d say the book will be uploaded by Sunday. Or Monday if I need to make another PDF.

So the saga is continuing. Stay tuned.