How Can I Convert Doc To Epub Without Losing Formatting?

I tend to be a bit obsessive about typography, so my approach focuses on preserving fonts, indents, and image placement. First thing: convert only from a .docx with styles applied—manual font tweaks in thousands of places will break on conversion. If you need a specific look, embed fonts into the EPUB: export the font files and reference them with @font-face in your EPUB’s CSS, keeping an eye on licenses. For images, replace Word text boxes with inline images and use the resource path so converters keep them bundled.

When automatic tools don’t preserve spacing or hanging indents, I open the EPUB in Sigil or an HTML editor and adjust the CSS directly—set line-height, text-indent, and margin rules there. If your book relies on precise page layout (fixed panels, two-column spreads), try exporting from a layout tool like InDesign to fixed-layout EPUB, or consider a PDF for fidelity. Finally, test across multiple readers—Apple Books renders differently than a Kobo or Kindle app—so tweak until it looks right on the devices your readers actually use.

For quick, techy conversions I reach for Pandoc and tweak from there. I like Pandoc because it treats the .docx as structured content, so if your Word file uses styles properly, a command like pandoc mybook.docx -o mybook.epub --toc --epub-cover-image=cover.jpg --css=bookstyle.css gives great reflowable EPUBs. If the formatting disappears, that usually means manual formatting was used in Word—so go back, apply style names (Title, Heading 1, Normal) and try again.

If you prefer a GUI, Calibre’s 'Convert books' dialog is forgiving and has options to insert a cover, tweak CSS, generate a table of contents based on headings, and even do bulk fixes. For images, make sure they’re embedded in the .docx (not linked) and use common formats like JPEG or PNG. And before you distribute, run epubcheck — it flags missing tags, bad metadata, and other stuff that will break on e-readers. This workflow keeps most styling intact while letting you manually fix the little bits that automated tools miss.

If the document is design-heavy (lots of columns, positioned images, or decorative elements), I usually avoid a straight reflowable EPUB and think about either a fixed-layout EPUB or PDF. I’ll export art assets at 300 dpi, flatten complex Word elements into images, and make a high-quality cover separately. When I must create an EPUB, I use an editor to place images, define page breaks, and write CSS that mimics the original margins and spacing; embedding fonts helps but check licensing first.

For everyday docs, though, a good middle ground is cleaning up the source file, exporting to clean HTML, then polishing the output in an EPUB editor. That keeps most formatting without the headaches of trying to force Word’s page model into a reflowable ebook. After that I validate and preview on at least two devices — that usually tells me whether to keep iterating or accept a PDF instead.

If you want a result that actually looks like the original document, the trick starts well before conversion: use consistent styles and a clean .docx. I always strip out manual formatting—no weird fonts, no direct color tweaks, and absolutely accept tracked changes or comments before exporting. Put headings in Heading 1/2/3 styles, use standard paragraph styles for body text, and replace complex Word-only elements (SmartArt, text boxes, equations) with images or simplified versions. Save as .docx (not .doc) because modern tools read .docx far better.

From there, pick your tool depending on how faithful you need the layout. For most books I use a two-step approach: export to clean HTML (Word allows 'Save as Web Page, Filtered'), then open that HTML in an EPUB editor like Sigil or feed the .docx to Calibre/Pandoc. In the editor I tidy up the CSS, embed a cover and fonts if licensing allows, and build a proper navigation (NCX/TOC). If your document has complex page layouts (magazines, comics), consider fixed-layout EPUB or export to PDF instead. Always validate with epubcheck and test on a few readers (Calibre's viewer, Apple Books, a Kindle via conversion) — you’ll catch orphaned images, wrong line spacing, or broken TOC links that way. Little things like relative image paths, UTF-8 encoding, and clean metadata go a long way toward preserving formatting, and a quick pass editing the XHTML/CSS inside an EPUB editor often fixes what automatic converters miss.