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Nedlaw
Engaged
Nedlaw
Engaged
Activity
‎Feb 06, 2025
05:30 PM
2 Upvotes
Summary time! (I may have forgotten some check-in/check-out/save steps.) I set up a user id on InDesign. I created two sample boilerplate text-and-graphic combos from existing sample docs using ID's Edit | InCopy | export | selection and put them in the boilerplate folder. Using InCopy, I edited them (for versioning). Saved and checked in. (created a dummy user in IC.) In InDesign, I created two book folders (01 and 02) and put files in them. In ID, I PLACED the boilerplate examples into pages in book01. (And saved etc.) In ID, I PLACED the boilerplate into pages in book02 (saved, etc.) In IC, I changed one of the boilerplate files. Back in ID, after updating content (easiest in the Assignments dialog) the samples in both books showed the altered text. Huzzah. So. The issue appears to be resolved with MUCH help from Mike Witherell, Dave Creamer, and Robert. This will help the boilerplate-using process. (Small point... I still have to test updating of numbered figures and inclusion in TOC... but I'm going to declare victory for right now and get some dinner. ) Thanks again to all. -j
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‎Feb 06, 2025
04:42 PM
1 Upvote
Thanks. It's getting clearer to me. I can see that this approach should work. Running a few tests now! -j
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‎Feb 06, 2025
04:26 PM
Thanks!! I think I got a little distracted, but I see the workflow, now. I'm trying to avoid local editing. I have just tried editing in IC, and it came through in the ID file, so that's good. I had not set up a user in ID. I will do that in the next run through. Somewhere in the menu system in both ID and IC, there was a check-out/check-in/cancel (etc.) I recall this from one of the tutorials. Can't seem to find it right now, but I'm probably not looking in the right place. This has been a tremendous help. Thanks again. -j
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‎Feb 06, 2025
04:08 PM
We're talking 2 formatted ID pages, including graphics. Some boilerplate items are smaller -- only one page.
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‎Feb 06, 2025
04:07 PM
@dAvE Creamer: Let me see if I understand: In InDesign, I select the existing text box holding what I want to use later as boilerplate. (no User naming, no assignments, nothing like that). I SAVE AS, and choose InCopy file (and put it in my boilerplate folder). In documents A, B, and C, I use PLACE, select the boilerplate file and in it comes. So far, so good. I notice that this material comes in with the "world-download" icon from InCopy. Questions: In InDesign, I don't see the command to allow me to "check out" the file (in case I need to make local adjustments, which I don't want to have to do anyway). Is that done in the Assignments box? (No, I don't see it there, either.) In InCopy, when I try to open the file for editing the "central" boilerplate document, it tells me that I need to enter a user name... but I haven't provided any user names in ID, (When I make one up in IC, the file opens. Is this correct procedure?) I'll note that in the local file, I make the page 2-col, but this 2-col look does not appear in IC-layout-view. Am I correct is thinking that I need the IC program to edit the central boilerplate file? (this is not an issue; I have it.) I think I'm beginning to stray from the correct procedure, here. -j
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‎Feb 06, 2025
03:25 PM
I still have bunches to learn about the ID/IC workflow, but what I'm seeing is that the examples I run into all involve "you have a single newspaper file, and you assign various articles to several writers..." Whereas I have a set of multiple documents and there is one boilerplate item that needs to find its way identically into every member of the document set. If there are any pointers on that, I'd be happy to hear them. ID and IC follow a check-in/check-out process (that's not an issue; I've dealt with that kind of thing before). Again... still learning, causing crashes, not getting it right... mainly because examples are about multiple sources into a single file, whereas I need a single source into multiple files. We'll work it out. Thanks again to the community for all the good ideas and help. -j
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‎Feb 06, 2025
10:56 AM
2 Upvotes
David Creamer's idea of using InCopy may be the solution I have been looking for. (Trust, but verify. I shall.) As a single-person freelance shop where I am the writer, editor, designer, and sole provider of revenues and feeder-of-cats, I have not bothered a great deal with the division of labor that InCopy provides (i.e., I am woefully ignorant of its use and benefits). However, InCopy comes with the CC suite, for which already I monthly donate the requisite arm and leg. After spending a profitable day with Adobe tutorials (it took me a short while to get past the woman with the Australian accent pronouncing "text box" as "tick bock") and various 3rd-party YouTube videos... I think this may be the way to handle evolving boilerplate for a document series, even for a one-horse outfit like me. As a techie, I lean towards the technical. Nah. I run towards it. This solution is certainly technical and offers a wonderfully appealing, if decidedly Rococco, approach. Watch for indicatory cherubs in my upcoming drafts. Many thanks to the community for its continued support. -j
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‎Feb 05, 2025
09:19 AM
Small edit: select the text box, not the contents only.
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‎Feb 05, 2025
09:17 AM
Thanks to all that advised me on this topic. I've run some experiments, and this seems the best overall solution, although not perfect. There may be more elegant solutions that I haven't thought of. Create a boilerplate page using the same styles (para, char, etc.) as the rest of the book. Include styled heads and any graphics -- even linked graphics -- as needed. Select the boilerplate text-heads-and-graphics. (Note: not the page, not the text area, just the text/heads/graphics, the live contents of the page.) From that selection, create a CC Libraries entry (you may need to create a new library for the purpose or client). CC Libraries -- apparently -- enters your material as text, paragraph styles, and graphics, but they all appeared together when I entered them into a document. At least mine did. You can double-click the entry from the CC Libraries and edit it directly, then save it back to its CC Libraries entry. Thus, small changes at least are maintained in one place. In the individual document, on a normal run-of-publication page with whatever footer is needed, place the boilerplate (heads, graphics, and all). The heads will be recognized by the TOC production process. I'm presuming that any numbered captions will number correctly when numbers have been updated (more testing, I'm afraid, but I see no reason why this would not work). Run the book. Downsides: While you can edit the CC Libraries entry directly, the entry does not automatically update in any placement you have already made. There is no active "link" -- all you have done is copied text/heads/graphics/styles from CC Libraries into the working document, much like doing a copy-and-paste from some standalone boilerplate document in your file system, except you don't have to copy it every time. <oh well> However, this does solve the problem of making ongoing changes in one place without "de-normalizing" the boilerplate into several independently maintained copies. The pesky footers -- each with a different product name -- are now the province of the parent pages of the separate books, not something that needs to be managed by the boilerplate page. This process could be enhanced IMHO if you were able to link the text to the CC Libraries entry, so that modification there modified the material where it is used, much as editing a graphic in PhotoShop and saving it to the same linked filename updates within an ID document. (Maybe this feature is available and I just don't know about it. Ignorance can be cured, I'm told.) Again, thanks to everyone who advised on this. -j
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‎Feb 04, 2025
01:37 PM
I don't believe Synchronize Parent actually works. However, I do know of ways to get Parent pages from one doc into another. I know that I can create a local book file that points to a boilerplate file located elsewhere. (Okay!) What I need to test is: when I set the Parent page of the boilerplate doc in the local book file (that points to a boilerplate page located elsewhere) does that change the parent page of the boilerplate pages in all the other documents that are ALSO pointing to the boilerplate page located elsewhere. I dunno yet, but it demands a test. (Why is that important: Adobe packages) Thanks. -j
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‎Feb 04, 2025
01:30 PM
1 Upvote
Ah. Another Framemaker person. I was in the deep past. -j
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‎Feb 04, 2025
01:25 PM
I think Mike Witherell made the same suggestion. Currently I create the boilerplate pages and then have to duplicate them -- one for each product -- because the footers must be custom to the product. What I have yet to try is placing and linking a page... and then seeing if the TOC will include the heads on the linked INDD pages. Mebbe it will. Mebbe it won't. Another alternative Mike suggested is creating a boilerplate doc with multiple parent pages -- one parent for each product, named appropriately. Then the boilerplate doc can go into any of the books, and it's only a matter of applying the correct parent page. I like that idea. It's the pesky footer that's the issue. This is why I was asking about best practices in addition to how-to. I figured there might be a way where the cover page could include text (hidden or not) that the boilerplate could pick up. The 2nd boilerplate could then pick something up from the file that preceded it. That would work... but I can't think of a way to do it across files like that. For example, dictionary-style headers look for the first use on each page, but I don't believe they work across component files of a book. I could be wrong on that. -j
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‎Feb 04, 2025
01:05 PM
I do work on Windows. Whatcha got?
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‎Feb 04, 2025
12:54 PM
I can see that I'm going to have to experiment. Thanks again. This is excellent info. -j
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‎Feb 04, 2025
12:46 PM
There currently are seven product docs in the set (and the number is slowly growing). They average about 40pp each, so it's not like I'm updating War and Peace. The two boilerplate items represent 2 and 4 pages, repsectively. Still, that's 10% of the text. Once I've distributed and adjusted per product the boilerplate, I have run into the problem where "a small rewrite" in one of the boilerplates (which should have been propagated to all the others) missed one. Sometimes it matters, sometimes no one but me notices. I would prefer not to have that issue. The necessity of "de-normalizing" the boilerplates -- making 7 different copies and then trying to maintain them through Alpha and Beta drafts -- is what I want to avoid. Can that "place-and-link" technique handle formatted text, head levels, and graphics? And then, what happens with those linked heads when I create a TOC? -j
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‎Feb 04, 2025
11:58 AM
That's pretty much what I'm looking for! Thanks again. Once I test these approaches, I'll mark them. -j
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‎Feb 04, 2025
11:51 AM
Thanks for the excellent ideas!! No, I have not considered multiple parent pages -- but that makes a great deal of sense. Nor do I know anything about "super-parent parent pages." I will research that. I'm less clear about using Edit > Place. Are you suggesting placing entire pages, text, or something else? Thanks very much for your response. -j
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‎Feb 03, 2025
11:53 AM
I apologize for the long post. This may be a how-to question as well as a best practices. I have a project that includes several documents (more than the three in the illustration). Three documents Each of the documents includes two different sets of boilerplate pages. They're boilerplate because they are identical. They go into each document at different places, but they are not simple block information. These boilerplate pages include images, several heads, and footers. Currently, especially the footers. By using boilerplate, I can maintain the pages in a single place so that they all read the same, but only until it's time to create the first Alpha draft. Then, I have to provide each book with its own copy of the boilerplate. Because... The footers of each document include the product name. If they didn't, I'd just maintain the boilerplate in its own directory and insert the boilerplate doc using the book file where necessary. This is in fact what I do... but because of that changing footer, I have had to duplicate the boilerplate file for each book -- which multiplies the problem of maintaining all those "little changes" that crop up over time as the products mature and the docs go together. I use a text variable to maintain the name of the document... but even so, each book needs its own version of the boilerplate docs with the text variable set correctly in each component file of the book. I'm looking for a way to maintain the boilerplate -- text&images or whole pages -- in one place and, when I cite them in the book file, they automatically adopt the correct product name for the book (presumably from the immediately preceding file) without me having to a) have a separate version for each product doc and b) adjust the content of a text variable. Ideally -- I think -- this is the role of an INCLUDE command, where I could have a text-and-image object stored in a library somewhere and "insert it" into a regular page where I want the boilerplate to go (thus obviating the need to modify footers), but I don't believe ID offers that. And really, ID is WYSIWYG, so putting an INCLUDE in the middle of the text is probably not something that's going to happen. (However, I imagine it as something like linking to an external image. After all, the image appears, why not formatted text?) Some kind of saved library object might work... Have others run into this kind of issue? Is there an good way to resolve it? I'm coming up on another iteration of all these manuals, and I really would prefer not to try to maintain a version of the boilerplate for each product just so each product can have the product name in the footer (even if that product name is a text variable and I only have to change it in one place). Thanks as always to the community. -j
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‎Nov 05, 2024
05:11 PM
Alrighty then. This is what was going on. How it got that way... we don't know. But... Windows. Following excellent advice, I located the PS preferences and moved them to the desktop. Clicks on various aliases and the program itself in its installation location after removing prefs would not launch the program. (Recall that the program had been failing piecemeal until it would not boot. This was not a graceful fail, but it didn't exactly crash, either.) With PS not in evidence on the computer nor appearing in Task Manager, from CC Desktop, I attempted to uninstall PS. CC Desktop told me that before it could uninstall, I had to close PhotoShop. But not only was PS not open, it would not open. Apparently, enough of the application was in memory to convince the OS that it was already running, even though it did not show up on Task Manager. I put all my open stuff away (all non-PS) and rebooted the machine. You know, I don't think I do this at all often enough. Windows should probably be rebooted at least once a day for its own good. After rebooting, the first thing I did was attempt to launch PhotoShop. It launched. I re-made the two or three preference settings I use, then played with some graphics. Everything appears to work normally now. Huzzah. So... What happened? I'm pretty sure that between the installation of PS26 18 days ago and the product's failure a day or so ago, I rebooted the machine at least once. Leaving Windows running for three weeks is not something I would normally do. At the same time, I cannot state unequivocally that I DID reboot. I just believe I did. So, maybe mea culpa. Something during that installation process did not go as planned -- but not obviously. Over time, the operation of the software degraded. Garbage collection? Strings lying around in memory? Some minor incompatibility with the other stuff running in the stew that is a major operating system? I dunno. I suspect that it may happen again. At least, next time, I will know what to do. Thanks to the community for the help. -j
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‎Nov 05, 2024
01:09 PM
Thanks to all for advice. This is what I love about the forums. I have dragged preferences to the desktop, per the Adobe link. PS does not open afterwards, even when I follow all the aliases to the actual installation location of the program proper (trying the aliases in-between, of course). Thank you @Ged_Traynor for pointing out where the uninstall command has been buried. In the years of using subscription CC (mostly InDesign) I've never had to uninstall/reinstall one of the apps. But I'm going to have that experience this afternoon! About being behind a hardware firewall and using Malwarebytes... software does jostle around over time and things change, but I've been using this specific firewall -- updated regularly -- for about 6 years (and other models before that, drifting back into the ever-so-hazy 90s -- a firewall was a purchase right after I got onto the Internet). I use MWB along with Windows' built-in (they are compatible, according to MWB), and MWB has documentably saved my butt at least once. I have not ever had a recognized problem with this configuration -- which doesn't mean I've never had an UNrecognized problem. Again, thanks to the community for the advice. I will post my results. -j
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‎Nov 04, 2024
01:51 PM
Hi. Using PS v26 on Win11 (all apparently updated). I installed v26 using CC Desktop about 3 weeks ago when it became available as part of a regular Adobe update. Since that time, PS has gotten flakier and flakier -- first altering the New dialog it presents when choosing all/copy/ctrl-N. Then it got sluggish. Now it won't boot when I click the program icon. I must go to the file manager to click it, and now it has stopped responding to that. It no longer runs. (I've checked task manager, and there does not seem to be any kind of remnant that Win thinks is running.) All other programs (including InDesign) are working just fine. Obviously, something in PS has become corrupted. (I am behind a hardware firewall with Malwarebytes and other AV running; it's unlikely a virus snuggled in just to disrupt PS.) I'm seeking a way to a) remove PS and then b) re-install it. CC Desktop does not seem to offer either function. I can manually remove the software using Windows. How to re-install? Custom settings/brushes/plug-ins not an issue. (I don't have any for PS.) Suggestions? Thanks. -j
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‎Apr 24, 2024
01:24 PM
I mentioned that I'm more-or-less a newbie? (I've done a couple of short videos, but I'm not an experienced and facile user.) After frustrating myself into a light froth with my inability to move a simple audio track and having it bounce back to where it had been regardless of setting or modifier key, I threw up my hands, left the track in place as-was, saved the project, and closed the program. I stalked off to do other, more satisfying, things. Later, I re-opened the program and project... and the audio track moved just fine, now, thank you. This suggests to me that creating the project and importing the audio track during the creation process (as you're encouraged to do by the program and which places the audio track automatically) set some kind of flag internally that prevented me from moving the track as I have done in the past. [There's been an update since I last used the program, and you never know what's been "upgraded" to prevent you from doing things in the way you have previously. As I said, I'm not familiar with the program, and there could have been some modifier required that everyone would know but a newbie.] Now the track moves. All is good. I think this is a subtle bug that could easily frustrate other newbies. I will remember: (1) do not allow the program to place assets for you during the project creation process because it could set some kinds of limitation on the asset; (2) upon placement of any asset -- probably just the first, but who knows -- save the project and close the program, then re-open. I think that is a safe work-around. Thanks to all who generously helped. -j
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‎Apr 23, 2024
03:44 PM
Sorry for the size. You'll see the audio track in green on the right. I want to align it to where the time-tick is (which is 00:00). How do I move it? Thanks. -j
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‎Apr 23, 2024
03:39 PM
No. The track is not locked. -j
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‎Apr 23, 2024
02:16 PM
Hi. Using Premiere Pro 24.3.0 on Win 11 (with current updates). I am a relative newbie with this program, so consider me Mr. Clumsy. I am working on a VO with graphics. The first thing I did was put the main audio track on the first audio line -- no video or other assets yet. The track came in with some initial starting info ("take 2"). This I sliced with the razor blade and deleted the offending section. This left the audio track a couple of seconds distant from the zero point. I cannot figure out how to move the audio track in this brand new project so that it starts at zero. I have turned on "show audio time units" (supposedly smaller increments than frames). This made no difference. I have moved the time pointer. It made no difference. I have tried dragging the audio to the left. Either it bounced back to where it had been (those couple of seconds in) or it replaced the deleted portion of the audio ("take 2") that I thought I had gotten rid of. I have not put any video into the timelines yet. My aim is to match the video to the audio. But I can't adjust the audio... which I will need to do, one way or t'other. I gotta start somewhere. How do I move the audio track earlier in the timeline? (or later, for that matter, or adjust it...) Thanks as always to the community for any help. -j
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‎Apr 01, 2024
11:10 AM
Thanks for the excellent debugging ideas. The problem does not appear to be finding the location of the corruption -- re-typing the offending paragraph and deleting the old version through its paragraph marker seems to do the trick and allows me to enter the intended cross-reference where I wanted to do so. The problem apparently comes out of nowhere, on an otherwise correctly operating file. I try to do an Xref and - pow - with no indication that anything is wrong. It may be an horizon condition in the Xref code of running ID. Maybe I have left ID running too long on the computer (even though files are regularly saved and closed and reopened) and some memory reallocation (garbage collection) routine is not as efficient as it might be. Basically, I don't know. But I do know how to work around it. Thanks again. -j
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‎Mar 30, 2024
01:11 PM
3 Upvotes
Hi. Using ID 19.3 under Win 11. This post is in the nature of a work-around rather than an actual question, but any comments that help me figure this out and prevent the situation from occurring are always welcome. This issue has occurred with previous versions of ID and I've never figured out why or seen a solution, but the work-around continues to save the day. Here is the scenario: I'm working on a file. Everything seems to be going swimmingly. I realize that I must add a cross-reference earlier in the file to an existing head that appears later in the document. I jump up to the earlier place to insert the Xref, bring up the Xref dialog... and ID crashes and closes. (And yes, I send in crash reports.) On restart, I try again to insert the Xref at the point I wanted to previously... but ID crashes when I bring up the Xref dialog. I've learned that trying this again is fruitless. Something has corrupted the file. I save to an incremented file name, I save to an IDML file, I restart ID, I open the IDML file by itself (not as part of the book or from the book panel) and save it as an incremented INDD file name. I try to do the Xref again... and ID crashes. In searching the forum, I've found suggestions about replacing corrupted fonts (I have deleted and re-installed fonts both through CC and into Windows | Fonts directly in hopes that this will help; I am not mixing font types). But the crashing still occurs. I know of no way to see into the file to determine what may have been corrupted. HOWEVER, I have found that I can work around the situation by: Entering a few carriage returns at the end of the paragraph preceding the one where my Xref insertion apparently caused the crash. Retyping the offending paragraph. (What's 50 words to get a file back?) Deleting the old text including its paragraph marker. At that point, I have been able to re-do the cross-reference where I originally wanted it in the retyped paragraph, and the Xref then works as expected. I can continue working. I generally have no problem with the file after that point. It appears that something gets corrupted at the file level and whatever that corruption is does not respond to being saved as IDML and re-loaded. It appears to be highly localized to wherever I'm trying to insert the Xref, because deleting that text and retyping seems to fix the corruption. (The Xref insertion point is almost always at the paragraph marker because I'm in the process of writing.) I have wrestled with this several times over the past couple of years. Never frequently, but always at a cross-reference. The problem has spanned several versions of ID and Windows updates. I really don't think it's a computer problem because random file corruption would occur elsewhere if this was so (and with other programs) rather than only with Xrefs; I think it's something inside of ID and it has survived version updates. It is not reproducible. It happens when it happens and with no warning. As I say, the work-around works, at least for me, but I'd love your suggestions on how to avoid the problem going forward. Thanks as always to the community. -j
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‎Mar 04, 2024
02:28 PM
SOLVED. I have only proven my own lack of observation. InDesign was saving to FIXED-FORMAT. When I change it to Reflowable, everything worked. I knew it was going to be something stupid. I have outdone myself on this one. Thanks for all help. -j
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‎Mar 04, 2024
02:21 PM
Hi. I placed the index on a fourth page at the end of the other three in the same document (this would be impractical in a big book, as my client is planning). No change. My pages are absolute bare-bones test. I did not create a cover, a TOC, and am not using Lorem Ipsum to generate extra text.... so I may be leaving something out that is critical for KDP. As an aside, I do not see a way within ID to generate any EPUB other than 3.0 to test that. Nevertheless, the EPUB test works in Calibre (Calibre 2 editor, to be precise) but does not work in Kindle Previewer. I may have to create a bigger test doc and go through all the TOC generation etc. to create a more formal EPUB. Thanks -- a lot -- for your advice. Attached an example file. -j
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‎Mar 04, 2024
01:09 PM
UPDATE: Did a quick test without the GREP replacement strings for the Index numbers; so did no pre-processing of the doc containing the index page and no post-EPUB-generation processing. Again, the links worked in PDF, worked in Calibre, and did not work in Kindle Previewer. The file generated as an EPUB 3.0. This may have had an effect. It still seems to me that this process should just work (GREP or no GREP, and without post-processing), thus allowing an EPUB to have an index with links to specific topic locations, even tho EPUBs may have a perfectly good keyword search. Part of the value of an index is to see what topics the author -- or the indexer, at least -- finds important, and where to find their major locations. A keyword search may generate hundreds of hits, not all of which will be important. Will keep poking. -j
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