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taty_5474
Participant
February 2, 2025
Question

How to create a digital (epub) Table of Contects From an Imported PDF into Indesign

  • February 2, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 770 views

Hi

 

I need to create a fixed layout EPUB from a previously written book I have in a PDF format. The book is picture heavy so I only found fixed layout EPUB to work. The ebook distributor in question (Draft2Digital) only allows EPUB, which is why I'm going through all this (although I know how crazy it is to transform a PDF into an EPub, so please kindly don't judge me, as I'm doing it because I'm being forced to.).

 

Although I was able to get a fixed layout EPUB format already, my EPUB file does not have an EPUB table of contents. So if I open it on Kindle Previewer or any other epub preview, the TOC has all "untitled" spreads under it.

 

Question: Since this is a PDF import and I do not have text paragraphs or headings in the inDesign document, how can I create a table of contents for it?

 

I created sections with marker sections for each of the chapters, so I was hoping to generate a TOC from that. However I was not able to figure this out, if that is even an option. The other solution I though of was to use the markers as a paragraph style, but was not able to figure this out either.

 

My sincerest apologies for the absurdity of this thread; I'm new to inDesign. Could someone shed some light on options on how to create TOC from a PDF import in order to export EPUBs with a digital TOC? I truly would appreciate detailed instructions if any option is available.

 

Thanks

Taty

3 replies

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
February 3, 2025

Well, RT already gave the very short answer.. You're going to have to embed text on each page to give an anchor for TOC generation. The best method is probably to put the text in a frame just off the page itself, so that the TOC process finds it but the EPUB export process (probably) will not. The other method would be to make the text very tiny (1pt) so that even if the export sweeps it up it will be invisible in the final result.

 

But you've hit on several points worth noting:

  • PDF is a lousy publication format if you need sales/rights/DRM control. It basically doesn't exist for the format.
  • Converting PDF to EPUB is a very poor workflow for several reasons, including things like this lack of active text to tag for TOCs.
  • Fixed-format EPUB is a hard format to work with at best, and not really InDesign's strength in any case.
  • Using Kindle Previewer for general EPUB check/proofing is not a good idea. They are not the same format.

 

You might consider going back to your book's source file and choosing a different workflow/export path for EPUB.

    T
    taty_5474Author
    Participant
    February 2, 2025

    For anyone who wants to create an EPub TOC from an imported PDF into InDesign, I figured out an option.

     

    One way is to create bookmarks for each page at the beginning of each chapter and name that bookmark with whatever you want to display in your table of contents. To do that, you have to go to Window > Interactive > Bookmark. Once you are done and ready to create your file on EPUB (like me), you have to make sure to:

    1) go to File > Export and choose "EPUB Fixed Layout" as the output file.

    2) After you click Save, a new panel will open: in the "General Tab" go to "Navigation TOC" and choose "Bookmarks"

     

    If anyone else who is more experienced in the community has other options, please kindly include them as well for the benefit of our community.

    Thanks 

      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      February 3, 2025

      This may or many not generate a validation-passing TOC. There are any number of techniques that "work" insofar as getting a result, but then create problems downstream, especially with the very fussy sales portals like D2D and Ingram. (And especially from InDesign's rather quirky FXL export.)

       

      If you're not proofing this in a good generic reader like Calibre or Thorium, you may get an unpleasant surprise from D2D's upload portal.

        Robert at ID-Tasker
        Robert at ID-Tasker
        Legend
        February 2, 2025

        TOC in InDesign - automatic version - is built from contents of paragraphs - by applied ParaStyles - so you would've to add this info on the pages.

         

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