SK eBook Studio: Beta Testing Guide

Thank you for testing. SK turns a manuscript into a polished EPUB 3 ebook (ebooks only, no print or PDF). It works offline and your manuscript never leaves your computer.

Time needed: about 30 minutes for the core test. More is welcome.

Before you start

• Use a copy of your manuscript. Keep the original safe.
• Have a real manuscript if you can (.docx is best). If not, use the built-in sample: project menu, Reset to Sample Story.
• Note your version: click BETA in the header, then Copy diagnostic info. Paste it into every report.

Core test (everyone)

1. Import your .docx. Did it find your chapters, title and author? Anything wrong, missing or extra?
2. Edit a chapter in Edit Mode: bold, italic, a scene break, a footnote. Try Undo.
3. Style the book: change genre preset and fonts. Does the preview follow?
4. Save (Save As to a new .skbook), close the app, reopen the file by double-clicking it. Is everything there?
5. Export for the store you use (Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, Nook or Universal). Read the pre-flight results. Do they make sense?
6. Open the EPUB on a real device or reader app and compare it with the in-app preview. This is the most valuable test. Note device and app.

Platform-specific

Mac: edit something, quit from the Dock (right-click, Quit) and reopen. Is your work there when you reopen? Did the app ask anything on the way out?
Windows: Save As to a folder with spaces in its name; double-click a .skbook from Explorer.
Linux: Save As to a name without .skbook. Does it add the extension and warn before replacing an existing file?
Kobo / Nook users: export for that store and test on the device. Check fonts, chapter list and images.
Kindle users: use the Kindle channel, send by Send to Kindle, email or wifi, and check the fonts.

Please try to break it

Huge files, odd characters, images, footnotes, very long chapter titles, pasting from Word, quitting mid-edit.

Reporting

Use the report form further down this page. A screenshot plus the diagnostic info is gold. If it is safe to share, attach the .skbook (or a trimmed copy). Do not send a manuscript you want to keep private.

What we are not looking for

Print layout, PDF, Word export, cover design and custom CSS are intentionally not in SK.

Preparing your Word file for import

No importer is perfect. The better the .docx is prepared, the better the import. A few minutes in Word saves much more time in SK.

Do

• Use Heading styles for chapters. Apply Word's Heading 1 to every chapter title. This is the single most reliable signal.
• Use real scene-break markers, or a consistent line such as *** or #, not a row of blank lines.
• Put the title and author on the first page as plain lines (or use the Title style).
• Use real footnotes (References, Insert Footnote) rather than typing numbers by hand.
• Insert pictures inline and set alt text if you can. A lone picture at the very start is used as the cover.
• Use page breaks only between chapters.
• Keep front and back matter labelled with clear headings such as Copyright, Dedication, Acknowledgments, About the Author, Also By.
• Accept all tracked changes and delete comments before importing.

Avoid

• Chapter titles made only by making text big, bold or centred, with no heading style.
• Manual line breaks (Shift+Enter) inside a paragraph to fake spacing.
• Tabs or spaces for indents. Let SK handle indentation.
• Text boxes, columns and tables used for layout. They do not carry over.
• Drop caps made with Word's drop-cap tool or a table.
• Headers, footers and page numbers. They are dropped, which is correct for an ebook.

What SK leaves behind

Word formatting such as fonts, sizes, colours and spacing is dropped on purpose, because the ebook takes its look from the genre preset you pick. Parts are not detected automatically; add them in SK.

After importing

Open the import review, scan the chapter list for missing or extra chapters, and fix them with Split and Merge before you style anything.