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dero14
dero14
Participant
June 7, 2018
Answered

InDesign CC 2018 - Exporting to epub 3.0 with popup footnotes - convert to Mobi

  • June 7, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 1395 views

Hey everyone. I have a document that contains 100 or so footnotes. I have everything formatted for a proper epub export. Upon exporting and selecting the popup footnotes feature, I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on if this is strictly meant for iBooks only or if this works for other platforms such as Amazon Kindle?

When opening the epub file within Adobe Editions, it seems that the footnote popup feature doesn't work. It instead links the footnote reference number to the footnotes that exist at the end of the section (Chapter). What seems weird is that the footnotes at the end of the section are just "there" without any context or numbering. They seem out of place.I

So my end goal here is to be able to properly convert this epub with popup footnotes over to Mobi to work on Amazon Kindle devices. To do this, I imported the epub into Amazon's Kindle Previewer software. Everything seems to look decent and the popup footnotes feature even works. My only concern is that all the footnotes are lumped together without any sort of context or reference numbers at the end of each section. Why is this? Everything else looks and works great but it seems odd when reaching the end of a section that all the footnotes are just placed directly after the main section content without any numbering or header identification or anything. Maybe this feature isn't meant for Kindle but it seems to get most of the functionality right.

I just wanted to post this here to see if anyone else is more familiar with this than I am. There doesn't seem to be any good info out there regarding this subject.

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Derek Cross

This feature only works in the iBooks reader.

2 replies

M
MarineCLT
Participant
March 7, 2022

Hello,

4 years later I've got the same issue. I have import my .mobi file in my Kindle to test the display and the pop-up fonction for footnotes doesn't work. When I click the number, there's no pop-up opening but I am redirected at the end of the ebook with the similar display than dero14 : just a weird list of the content of all the footnotes with no number before or context. 

I have exported in epub 3, with the pop-up option activated so I am puzzled. I never had this issue before. Please can someone help me ?

 

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
March 7, 2022

MOBI is still the base for the Kindle format but KDP deprecated and all but abandoned it as a separate format more than a year ago. I wouldn't include it in any current workflow or usage. despite the plethora of tools and continuing suggestions to do so from the e-book community.

 

Kindle is a bit frustrating in that you cannot get a genuine, end-form document on a reader until it's up for sale and you buy a copy. The whole ecosystem needs at least a limited "author copy" and preview facet.

 

I've found Kindle Previewer to be highly accurate, though, especially if you keep it updated. I don't use pop-up footnotes (just too many issues) but *in general* if they link and test correctly in Previewer (by jumping to the notes at the end) they will work correctly (pop up) in the reader.

 

—

M
MarineCLT
Participant
March 8, 2022

Thank you for your answer. I didn't know .mobi was deprecated by KDP! That's some news!

Still the problem of pop-up was the same with the .epub format tested on Google Books and Thorium. It was only working in Calibre's display system. 

Someone found a solution for me that might help others, it worked for me : in the html file in Calibre, I inserted between the <a href> </a> element of each footnote (aside) a non breakable space with the number of the footnote before. Givng : <a class = ....>1&nbsp;</a>, than <a class = ....>2&nbsp;</a>, and so on.

Indesign is an excellent program to create epub easily for non developer but it sometimes has its limits.

dero14
dero14Author
Participant
June 10, 2018

[Still scratching head over this] Anyone?

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Derek CrossCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
June 10, 2018

This feature only works in the iBooks reader.

dero14
dero14Author
Participant
June 12, 2018

Thanks Derek. I was thinking that was so but wanted to make sure. I really wish this stuff would be standardized across the board.

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