Generating html files for e-book

[StefanS]

Hi

I want to use InDesign for generating E-books, but I'm having some problems. For making chapters in the e-book, my conclusion is that I need to export the InDesign file into separate html files.

I found a nice introduction for that
http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/indesign/pdfs/whats_new_indesign_cs5_epub.pdf
but surprisingly it seems that my InDesign 5.5 doesn't support the function "Use first-level TOC entries as chapter breaks" mentioned in the pdf (bottom of page 3).

Instead I've tried the other suggestion in the pdf "Use an InDesign book file", but it's very complicated splitting the InDesign document in peaces due to the linked text and headings that are linked to specific pages and not the text.

Does anybody know a better and faster solution?

Btw, I'm using Sigil to open the epub file exported from InDesign.

/Stefan

[Mike Witherell]

My opinion: Books are too complicated, filled with gotcha moments, and I try to avoid them.

 

I have found that choosing an H tag to be the chapter split is reliable. This is set up in the paragraph style (all the way at the bottom at Export Tagging, check on the Split Document). I have also found that generating a TOC is useful so that you get the chapter filenames automatically. In the Table of Contents dialog box you should generally check on “Make text anchor in source paragraph”. Then in the Export to Epub dialog box, set Navigation to TOC Style.

 

Another simple to understand way to build where the EPUB splits is by using the Articles panel. Very reliable and it is easy to drag content into the panel to setup separate ebook chapters (called articles in this panel, just to be confusing). First click a new article button, then select content on your page to add in. Either drag it into the article in the article panel or click the plus sign button to add it in. Finally, drag the content up or down to set the flow order of appearance. Also, maybe drag the articles up or down to change the chapter order. Pretty simple, and you can use it with or without anchoring your graphics in the text.

 

Be aware, too, that many shortcomings were fixed in CS6 and CC, so those versions are *highly* preferable to 5 and 5.5.

 

Many EPUB movies on Adobe TV are based on demonstrating CS5, and inevitably the one demonstrating the method ends up “cracking into the code” which is a time-consuming and messy business, and you and I want to avoid that as much as possible. I speak as a graphic designer, and one who has the challenge of deadlines. Don’t make me work in the relatively slow world of NotePad! I think you all know what I mean by that. The evolving goal is, I suppose, to at least make visits to the code-writing world of minimal time impact. Imagine if every time you made a PDF, you had to edit the alphanumeric code in order to make it work!

 

Mike Witherell, ACE, ACI

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[David Bergsland]

With all the irritations of the Creative Cloud, InDesign CC has me to the place where I do not feel the crack to crack open the ePUBs any more. There's still more improvements needed. But for most things, CC does just fine.  CS5 could not even export ePUBS which validated. CS5.5 could barely do that. CS6 was better. But CC can now embed fonts which are accepted for the iBookstore and Kindle. By working on the convert to text option, CC exports lists which come remarkably close to what was designed in InDesign for print. All that remains is embedded fonts for custom bullets. You just set up your styles in the Exporting All Tags dialog box and then choose your H1 tag in the Export EPUB dialog.

InDesign CC comes the closest I have found to software which can export ePUBs almost as easily as it does PDFs for print. The main limitation now is not InDesign but the various cheap ereaders.

On Sep 29, 2013, at 3:37 PM, Mike Witherell wrote:

Be aware, too, that many shortcomings were fixed in CS6 and CC, so those versions are *highly* preferable to 5 and 5.5.

 

Many EPUB movies on Adobe TV are based on demonstrating CS5, and inevitably the one demonstrating the method ends up “cracking into the code” which is a time-consuming and messy business, and you and I want to avoid that as much as possible. I speak as a graphic designer, and one who has the challenge of deadlines. Don’t make me work in the relatively slow world of NotePad! I think you all know what I mean by that. The evolving goal is, I suppose, to at least make visits to the code-writing world of minimal time impact. Imagine if every time you made a PDF, you had to edit the alphanumeric code in order to make it work!

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[Evans, Rebecca]

Which emulation programs do you all use to preview ePubs? None of the emulators seem to agree on how to display anything. I can open the same ePub file in Calibre, ADE, and the Nook emulator and get three different "designs." I can open the same mobi file in PC and Mac Kindle emulators and it won't look the same on the two platforms. And, of course, how it looks in an emulator program might not be how it looks on the device.

Rebecca

From: David Bergsland <da...@bergsland.org>

[William Adams]

On Sep 30, 2013, at 10:04 AM, Evans, Rebecca wrote:

> And, of course, how it looks in an emulator program might not be how it looks on the device.

IME, the Sony Library management program is a pixel-perfect match for their ebook devices.

Available here:

https://ebookstore.sony.com/download/

One datapoint anyway, YMMV.

William

--
William Adams
senior graphic designer
Fry Communications
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.

[David Bergsland]

The sad thing is that no matter how careful you are, all ereaders trash your ePUBs with the exception of iBooks and Readium. BlueFire does fairly well. To proof your Kindle books, you really need a Fire HD or better. However, I can at least hope that the free Kindle Previewer actually produces on a Fire what it shows in the KP app. To view a Kindle book in the MacOS or iOS apps is an exercise in horror.

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[StefanS]

Thanks for the answer (and to the rest of you - but unfortunately, I have to find a solution with InDesign 5.5).
I'll try looking at your solution when I'm able to access 5.5 again.
/Stefan

[Kathleen]

Could you have one file in a 5.5 book?
Kat
McGraphics Design, Inc.
(626) 799-2195
http://www.mcgraphics.us

[StefanS]

Working with one InDesign file? Yes, that's what I was aiming for instead of splitting the file into peaces for generating chapters in the e-book.

[Rick Gordon]

Break Document at Paragraph Style shows up for me in CS5.5. Use that.

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On 9/30/13 at 2:54 PM -0700, StefanS wrote in a message entitled

"Re: [ID] Generating html files for e-book":

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___________________________________________________

RICK GORDON
EMERALD VALLEY GRAPHICS AND CONSULTING
___________________________________________________

WWW:   http://www.shelterpub.com

[Kathleen]

Sep 30, 2013, at 3:58 PM, Rick Gordon wrote:

> Break Document at Paragraph Style shows up for me in CS5.5. Use that.

Never heard of Break Document at Paragraph Style. What/where is this?

[Rick Gordon]

In the Contents pane of Export... > EPUB.

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On 9/30/13 at 4:40 PM -0700, Kathleen wrote in a message entitled

[StefanS]

In InDesign, I have formatted titles and subtitles as paragraph styles and would like to use those titles and subtitles as chapters, exported as html files, each one as a new page. I've tried adding an h tag (h1) in Export Tagging in both my title paragraph style and subtitle paragraph style, but I don't see the Split Document option. Could that be the reason why it doesn't split correctly when I export?

In the export options, I see the "Break Document at Parapraph Style", but there I can only choose one paragraph style (and not h tags either).

 

The TOC dialog box doesn't show me the "Make text anchor in source paragraph" either. Which InDesign version do you use?

[Christophe Dhélin]

Hi,

in InDesign CS5.5 you can split your document with only 1 paragraph style. You have to use InDesign CS6 (at least) to make multiple paragraph style breaks.

Christophe

[Kathleen]

We use ID cs5.5 "books" indb all the time for tagging, hyperlinks, etc.
My thought was that if you had one ID you could add it to indb and export the 1 ID in the "book". But do you really have to have 2 ids in a book. And if you do, make the 2nd. id a blank page then delete it after EPUBing it.

Kat
McGraphics Design, Inc.
(626) 799-2195
http://www.mcgraphics.us

[StefanS]

No, I don't want to work with more InDesign files in a InDesign book file. I only tried that once because I saw it was possible making document breaks in the final e-book based on single InDesign files imported in the book file. But it seemed very complicated in the long run.
I'm not sure I understand you right. Should the tagging, hyperlinks, etc help making document breaks?

I'm able to generate document breaks for titles and subtitles, but not both in the same time, as they don't have the same paragraph style, and InDesign 5.5 doesn't support document breaks for more than one paragraph style. If I choose document break for titles there will be too few document breaks in the e-book, and with document breaks for subtitles, there will be no document break at the titles - which looks awful.

Hoping for more help. I appreciate all of that kind from you all this far.
/Stefan

[Evans, Rebecca]

Stefan:

I suggest that you create a new, invisible/empty paragraph style with zero linespacing, and use that style to mark the breaks you want. You can insert it above the titles and subtitles, as well as anywhere else you need an ePub page break.

Note: even with zero linespacing, InDesign will think that empty paragraph takes up a tiny amount of space. If the bottoms of your text frames align exactly with your baseline grid, this will cause the last line of text to bump to the next page on each page you a zero-lead "break here" paragraph, so you'll need to make those text frames slightly longer.

Rebecca

[StefanS]

Thanks. That's actually the solution I've ended up focusing at as the best solution :-)
Especially in files where I need breaks in many different paragraph styles.