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Auto conversion is the easiest way to go and in most cases will be all you need to do. However, there are a large number of options that give you control over the conversion process. Click the ‘Convert books’ button in the top tool bar. This screen looks very complicated, but realize that the majority of options here don’t need to be changed from the default. Most of the options only need to be changed in special cases. There is one option that is very important and may need to be changed. At the top right there is a drop down for ‘Output format’. This controls what format the conversion will generate. Kindle owners will select AZW3 while Kobo and Nook owners will select EPUB.
In the conversion dialog there are a few things to check before clicking ‘OK’ to begin the conversion. The first thing you need to do is double check the metadata and make adjustments if necessary. Also, click on ‘Look & Feel’ on the left side. The ‘Remove spacing between paragraphs’ option is very popular. It will cause paragraphs to be formatted with an indent at the beginning instead of separating them with a blank line. It makes the result look more like a printed book than the default, which looks a lot like a web page.
Next, click ‘Page Setup’. If you didn’t select your device during the welcome wizard, you can set it here. The input and output profiles provide specialized optimization for your selected device. Be aware that not all formats are affected by the profile.
That’s it for the basic conversion options. Every option in the conversion dialog has a description of what it does and is displayed when you hover the mouse cursor over it. Look though the options and play with them to produce output that suits your taste. Options set in the conversion dialog are saved on a per book basis. Each time you click convert for a particular e-book, the options from the last time you converted it will be remembered. However, your changes will not be applied to other e-books in your library.
Clicking ‘OK’ closes the dialog and begins the conversion.
After the conversion is finished (look at the jobs indicator) click the downward facing arrow to the right of the ‘Send to device’ button. Select one of the ‘Send specific format’ options (main memory is usually the best choice). A dialog will appear asking you which format you want to send. Select the format you chose in the conversion options. This allows you to specify what format you want sent to your device. If you don’t explicitly select a format and you just click the ‘Send to device’ button calibre will send the ‘preferred’ format for the connected reader. The preferred format is based on a configurable preference list which is device specific.