Skip to main content
J
Joe-New-to-ID
Inspiring
April 22, 2023
Question

Creating an eBook | Problems Aplenty | Tips? | Print Book = OK

  • April 22, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 956 views

I created a print copy of my book successfully via InDesign and using a book file. I'm now trying to generate an eBook version and viewing the results using Kindle Previewer 3. Problems and error messages with text were realized and expected. However, I'm having multiple problems with the illustrations, tables, and discrete text frames that I inserted into the main text upon viewing in Kindle Previewer 3. I've iterated with various Export to EPUB settings from the InDesign book file, and watched multiple YouTube videos on the subject, which have helped, but they don't seem to address my specific problems. Any tips on what to do and not do?

 

Notes:

  • The text on the cover page moved from the top of the page to the center.
  • I incorporated multiple small illustrations on the cover but they all moved. Anchoring them to the cover page via InDesign text didn't seem to make a difference.
  • Tables with bullet points embedded in the core/main text, which had its borders hidden and everything lined up in perfectly lined-up columns, now show the borders and the text moved.
  • The discrete text frames anchored and embedded in the main text heve been resized and moved.
  • Illustations that begin each chapter have been moved and resized.
This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
April 22, 2023

The number of issues with exporting to EPUB is book length. And the information "out there" is either very narrow and specific (how to deal with one [1] issue at a time), exceptionally broad (dealing with the whole spectrum of how-to at a breezy clip that assumes you are working with a vanilla project that has no special features or faults)... or just flat out wrong, often from being years and years out of date. The takeaway there is that the problems aren't your failing; it's a complex process that InDesign makes a bit more opaque than it needs to and nearly everyone else confuses, often from the best intentions.

 

The very short pointer to the right road is that an InDesign project file laid out for print, even if it avoids some technical faults, is not going to export to anything like an identical EPUB/Kindle result. It's very possible to use one ID file for both, but the project has to be managed from both ends: in InDesign, for the print layout, and in the export process (primarily CSS style overrides) for EPUB. The more basic method is to have two completely different ID projects, and optimize the second for e-book output, which will result in a "messy" work file not suited to print.)

 

Keep in mind that e-book =/= print book. The goal is not to simply put book pages on the screen; for that, you use PDF. Creating an e-book, EPUB or Kindle, is best done by respecting the different medium and taking advantage of its strengths, while leaving behind print-page aspects that just don't translate or present well on a screen.

 

First, I assume you're trying to export to reflowable EPUB v3. Nothing else is worth using in 2023 except for some very limted value to fixed-page EPUB (FXL) for highly image-based books like graphic novels.

 

Second, all content in the book has to be in one continuous text flow. You can't break up the content into stories and separate text frames, and if you have multiple chapter files, you have to manage the export using the Book feature.

 

Third, all illustrations and graphics have to be anchored to the relevant text so that they become part of the flow. Unanchored items usually "fall to the bottom" of the document. You also have to manage the size export for them; leaving the setting at Relativer to Text Flow usually produces good overall results, but if not, you have to manage one or more of them individual settings.

 

Do those general guidelines help? Ask away as you encounter further issues.

J
Joe-New-to-IDAuthor
Inspiring
April 23, 2023

James:

 

Thank you. This is very enlightening, informative, and helpful. Here are the responses/answers to your questions:

   [1] Yes, reflowable.

   [2] I'll have to modify my plans due to the separate text frames.

   [3] I've anchored everything, but the anchoring appears relatively ineffective.

 

I will experiment more. Do you have any insight into the tables? In the print book, I created two-column bulleted lists using tables where I had the borders hidden such that the lists don't look like tables, which is good. In the EPUB version, they're coming out as single-column lists and with the borders showing, which is what I don't want.

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
April 23, 2023

Once you make sure everything is in one flow, and check or redo any image or text box anchoring to the end of each immediately prior paragraph (the most stable method), you should see something like a final form in export.

 

Although it can be modified, EPUB is resolutely linear — stacking things side by side is almost always something of a workaround (if not hack), and it's best to just let things flow, as in paragraph - paragraph - image - paragraph, etc. Trying to put things side by side, or wrap text around images, is... complicated.

 

EPUB is basically packaged HTML/CSS, so anything you can do with basic web page structure, you can do in EPUB... in theory. Like most visual-to-code processes (including most web design tools) what you can do at a pure code level far exceeds what you can do by pushing things around in a visual layout. This includes things like lists inside table cells. I think this would be simply a matter of writing the code, but getting InDesign to properly stack the features from its methods might be tricky. I did a quick 2-column test with bullets in each cell, and the basic idea works fine. So you should not be seeing your layout morph into a single column... unless what's happening is that each cell is expanding to take full width, and pushing the second column to the next row, or some variation. (Look closely at the order of the material between the source and EPUB.)

 

This might be achievable with enough patience in settting the InDesign layout and styles, but I already see at least one or two things that will need CSS overrides, so the easy path is just to let InDesign handle the print version and use CSS to touch up anything that doesn't export to EPUB properly. This needs three things: that single linear text flow; properly anchored graphics; and meticulous use and assignment of styles for everything. You can't use generic or undefined styles for anything — Paragraph, Character, Object, Table or Cell. So if you've cut any corners and are using undefined styles and spot overrides... go fix them. This includes all text mods like Bold and Italic; use styles, not the spot overrides that ID shouldn't even have. (And never fail to use careful style management again; it's the absolute foundation of doing things well and smoothing in InDesign.)

 

So with Table and Cell styles in use — let's say your two-column bullet tables have a Table style of 2ColBullet and a Cell style of BulletCell — you would want to use the following CSS code:

table.2ColBullet {
width: 100%;
border: none;
margin-top: 30px;
margin-bottom: 30px;
padding-bottom: 30px;
}

td.BulletCell {
border: none;
padding: 0;
}

 

Note that style names must match EXACTLY in spelling, capitalization, and with a dash in the CSS code in place of any space in the ID style name.

 

Put this in a text file — MyBook.css — and in the export step, under HTML/CSS, search for and add this file to the "Additional CSS" list. These style definitions will be added to those exported from ID, and should give you tables with no borders, full width, with your bullets within each cell.

 

If not, next step. 🙂

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices