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natalielauren45
Participant
March 24, 2023
Answered

I am getting errors in EPub Checker for my endnotes

  • March 24, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 521 views

I would prefer to fix these within the document vs trying to navigate the .xhtml. Thank you in advance for any help.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer James Gifford—NitroPress

End notes are just unbelievably problematic.

But if you only have three, yes, by all means, re-doing them in ID is the way to go. Copy the note text. Delete the note and make sure you get all of the text reference — delete a whole little section of text and retype the end of the sentence to make sure. Insert new note, paste the note text. Repeat for the other two.

 

Validation is largely an artifact of the "build it from scraps" era of EPUB creation, when it was likely/possible to make many mistakes in the structure of the document. Exporting from tools like InDesign all but eliminates those errors, leaving only a small class of formatting glitches, most of which have zero effect at the reader level. But yes, EPUB distributors can often insist on a perfect validation. Just to make sure, the only validator you should bother with is EPUBcheck. The others either just wrap that same code in their own interface and "improve" it (not), or are outdated or specialized in useless ways. (Or charge for the privilege, something I find obnxious when the core, standard validation code is public-use.)

 

Sounds like you have it all in hand, once you fix those notes.

 

1 reply

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
March 24, 2023

End notes in EPUB are fragile. I am going to guess this originated as a Word doc, from which several aspects, including end notes, are even more fragile.

 

Option one is to just ignore the validation results, if the end notes are in place, intact and the links work correctly. Validation is... overrated.

 

Option two is to rebuild the end notes, one at a time, in ID. That will fix the broken links and other problems. It is, obviously, something you want to do with a relatively small number of notes.

 

Other fixes get more involved; fill in some details like the workflow of the doc and the number of notes if additional options are desired. It's easier if starting over from scratch is on the table — that is, if the work that would have to be redone isn't excessive.

 

N
natalielauren45Author
Participant
March 24, 2023

Thank you @James Gifford—NitroPress It works on every device with no issue, just fails to validate. I got worried it might be rejected when added to Ingram Spark for distribution. There are only 3 so I am trying to rebuild for my own knowledge but the endnotes keep rejecting. Footnotes however, ordered to the end of the document, validate just fine. So confusing.

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPressCorrect answer
Legend
March 24, 2023

End notes are just unbelievably problematic.

But if you only have three, yes, by all means, re-doing them in ID is the way to go. Copy the note text. Delete the note and make sure you get all of the text reference — delete a whole little section of text and retype the end of the sentence to make sure. Insert new note, paste the note text. Repeat for the other two.

 

Validation is largely an artifact of the "build it from scraps" era of EPUB creation, when it was likely/possible to make many mistakes in the structure of the document. Exporting from tools like InDesign all but eliminates those errors, leaving only a small class of formatting glitches, most of which have zero effect at the reader level. But yes, EPUB distributors can often insist on a perfect validation. Just to make sure, the only validator you should bother with is EPUBcheck. The others either just wrap that same code in their own interface and "improve" it (not), or are outdated or specialized in useless ways. (Or charge for the privilege, something I find obnxious when the core, standard validation code is public-use.)

 

Sounds like you have it all in hand, once you fix those notes.

 

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