My InDesign document looks normal but when I export to ebook it has introduced random full stops, paragraph breaks and hyphens

Forum|Forum|9 hours ago
June 5, 2026
3 replies
28 views

My InDesign document looks normal but when I export to ebook it has introduced random full stops, paragraph breaks and hyphens. How do I get it to look like the InDesign document? There are no hidden characters in there. I've tried a search but it can’t find anything. The author has said that it's been to a few different editors but I’m at a loss as to how to get it to look normal. I’ve tried exporting to pdf from the InDesign and then exporting to word and the word doc looks normal but then the same things appear when putting it back into InDesign and then exporting to ebook. If I export to rtf then you can see the ebook issues. So word and InDesign look normal but rtf and ebook don't. Any suggestions?

BobLevine

Community Expert

Please define ebook. That is a generic term that can mean almost anything. Is it an EPUB? If so, fixed layout or reflowable? PDF?

How are you viewing it? What version of InDesign are you using and what operating system.

Finally, please provide screenshots.

irama57948095Author

Inspiring

I’ve put that info below but in addition I’m viewing it via the Kindle Previewer app and the Mac Books app.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @irama57948095,

Sorry to hear you're running into this. Could you please confirm your exact InDesign version and OS details?

To help isolate the issue, could you try turning on Type > Show Hidden Characters and check whether there are any unexpected forced line breaks, manual line breaks, or hyphens appearing near the affected text? Also, please check whether the content is flowing through a single threaded story or if it is split across multiple disconnected text frames. If possible, export a small section or chapter of the document to EPUB and see whether the same issue occurs there as well.

It would also be very helpful if you could share screenshots showing the difference between how the content appears in InDesign and how it appears in the exported EPUB, along with a screenshot of your EPUB export settings dialog.

For reference, here is a couple of similar discussions where EPUB export issues were ultimately traced back to document structure or hidden formatting:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/weird-breaks-between-title-and-paragraph/td-p/12830787

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

irama57948095Author

Inspiring

Hi, I’m using InDesign 2026 and I’m on iOS Ventura 13.7.8. I’ve never encountered this before so I think it's the word document rather than the software. I can’t share screenshots as it's a customer’s book but its things like 1. appears as .1 and then random hyphens and full stops like “.opposite the house, Somer-”.set said” where there are no full stops or hyphens in that sentence in the InDesign or word document. Nothing is showing in show hidden characters. There are no carriage returns but there are in the ebook. I can share screenshots via email to you but not on a public platform. Its a reflowable epub.

irama57948095Author

Inspiring

Just to add its a short story of 40 pages and its in a continuous threaded document.

leo.r

Community Expert

What are your InDesign and operating system versions?

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded