Skip to main content
F
focksbot
Participating Frequently
July 13, 2023
質問

Best way of formatting stanzas of poetry for .epub export?

  • July 13, 2023
  • 返信数 2.
  • 1402 ビュー

Hi all,

 

I found a year-old thread on this but couldn't find any definitive answer on it, as the persons answering didn't really seem to understand what was being asked.

 

Here's the issue: exporting to .epub removes double-returns. Double returns constitute stanza breaks in lineated poetry, so they need to stay. You can't just add space-after to a paragraph style because this adds space after every line of the poem, rather than just at the stanza break.

 

You also can't just use shift-return in place of line breaks in order to keep every stanza as an unbroken paragraph, because poetry should be formatted with hanging indents for lines that are broken by the width of the page or screen.

 

So the only solution I have is to use a different paragraph style for the final line of every stanza. This seems overly complicated and is also tedious in terms of workflow. Does anyone have any better solutions?

    返信数 2

    Willi Adelberger
    Community Expert
    Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 13, 2023

    With stanza I work with forced returns, the only purpose I use it. Every verse is a paragraph with several forced returns.

    In the paragraph style I define the distance of paragraphs of the same style with the space I want ot have between verses. This space is kept in EPUB and of course in PDF export.

    F
    focksbot作成者
    Participating Frequently
    July 14, 2023
    Forced returns are the same as soft returns, no? The problem with this is
    that if the stanza is treated as a single para, and you're using a hanging
    indent (as you should, since lines will be split by users who increase the
    font size or are using small screens), every line but the first will end up
    with a hanging indent.

    You would also need to go through an imported MS line by line. I'm working
    with poems and sets of poems that are sent to me as Word or Google docs,
    sometimes even in the bodies of emails, and it's a shame there doesn't seem
    to be a way of handling this material with the application of a single
    style.
      Dan Greyhound
      Dan Greyhound
      Inspiring
      July 13, 2023

      What I ended up doing was to run a find-and-replace for double returns to replace these with a return and a line break. The line breaks then didn't affect the text, only the line of white between text lines.

      Then make sure that the 'remove forced line breaks' option is unchecked when converting to epub.

       

      Before doing all this make sure there aren't any line breaks in the text that actually shouldn't be there.

       

      The response I got to my previous post still annoys me so thanks for the support!

        Willi Adelberger
        Community Expert
        Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        July 13, 2023

        Never use succeeding returns to create space between text lines. It is a no-go in print and in epub.

        F
        focksbot作成者
        Participating Frequently
        July 14, 2023
        For reasons I've explained elsewhere, this is not a very helpful or
        intelligent response. When typesetting poetry, you are working with
        manuscripts sent to you, sometimes in pieces, by a variety of authors. The
        double line breaks are already there when you import the content (because
        authors are not designers). That InDesign doesn't offer any tools for
        automating the process of converting this content to reflowable format is a
        clear design oversight.
          契約条件Accessibility statement
          Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices