Two questions about InDesign ebooks

I wasn't clear enough — let's start with the understanding that space-above works differently in InDesign (layout, print and PDF), EPUB and Kindle. (There's some overlap between the e-book formats, but enough difference to need caution.)

What that means is that what works in ID — specifically, the rule-above workaround — doesn't work in EPUB export. The line just disappears or appears as a rule right across the top of the text. (Even more specifically, that rule-above trick is 100% unique to InDesign, and I really wish the developers would add a more standard method, such as a checkbox saying "respect space above at page top." But never mind that now.)

For spacing above in EPUB and Kindle, you have to (1) specify actual spacing above — which I said in my prior post, but ambiguously — and, quite often, (2) use the document splitting technique as well. When I create dual-format documents intended for print, Kindle and sometimes EPUB, I use all of the methods simultaneously — rule-above to get the spacing in ID/print, space above defined in ID to get a start on e-book spacing, CSS spacing and padding rules to enforce the spacing on all EPUB reader and Kindle, and then doc splitting to enforce it for EPUB. No, the settings don't collide with each other, so you don't have to have multiple source versions for each platform, not on this point at least.

So, you're amost there. Use—

• The rule-above method to set spacing in your InDesign layout, for visual purposes and print or PDF export. Apply a page break as well; all of the processes are different if you want space above mid-level heads that may not always break to a new page.
• Space above definition in ID, which will be ignored at page tops there but will export to EPUB at that 2:1 ratio.
• Document splitting on those headings to force the spacing to be honored. (Not needed for Kindle EPUB.)

There's a fourth level of using CSS style definitions, in which adjusting the spacing and adding a padding definition can allow fine-tuning of the e-book layout, but you probably don't need that. (Technical aside: ID does not export padding, so you have to add it for certain style adjustments.)

BTW, the reason doc splitting works is this: Since EPUB pages are just HTML, there's only one real "page top" at the very beginning, and you'll find that most spacing works fine there. But further down, since there is no page top, most EPUB readers ignore the space above after a page break. By splitting the document, you're creating a new internal HTML file, with its own hard page top, and thus the spacing works.

Yes, this can mean the EPUB has 20 or 50 internal content files instead of one, which is usually no big deal but is best to avoid if you don't need this workaround. That is, don't use file splitting unless you have to.

Does that make (more) sense? 🙂