Epub 3/lists export: indesign does not export the parenthesis after the number

[Marcello30825555lf3l]

Epub 3/lists export: indesign does not export the parentheses after the number "a)" but transforms it into "a." although in the paragraph style of the list, in the numbered lists section I set ^#)^t in the number style. 
What should I change/add in the CSS so that the parentheses remains? Here is mine (created by indesign):

li.nuovi_elenchi_elenco-num-a- {

-epub-text-align-last:left;

color:#000000;

font-family:Arial, sans-serif;

font-size:0.917em;

font-style:normal;

font-variant:normal;

font-weight:normal;

line-height:1.2;

list-style-position:outside;

list-style-type:lower-alpha;

margin-bottom:0;

margin-left:71px;

margin-right:0;

margin-top:0;

orphans:1;

page-break-after:auto;

page-break-before:auto;

text-align:justify;

text-decoration:none;

text-indent:0;

text-transform:none;

widows:1;

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Maybe this will help:

https://codepen.io/geekalert/pen/OJRzeMR 

CSS tab. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

EPUB export loses nearly all list formatting and styling and reduces the list to an HTML structure with no more than the paragraph style applied. It then leaves the list to be structured and formatted the way the browser/reader chooses.

There is very little you can do about this; InDesign dosen't even export the ul/ol definition, much less any spacing or global styling applied to a list at that level.

Your two choices to are apply CSS list elements in the CSS export file, or to switch to InDesign's "Export as Text" option, which reproduces the source list in fairly faithful fashion, but as text paragraphs needing careful style controls and, almost unavoidably, a bit of export surgery.

I just added detailed info on this to the book, most of which can be found here: http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/DPR/dpr_lists.php

Happy to answer further questions.

[Marcello30825555lf3l]

Thanks for the quick answer.
I've already tried with "Export as Text" but it creates tabulation problems between the number and the text (I've also tried to manually arrange the css on Sigil but the alignment still results inaccurate, or in the Kindle the parenthesis wrap). However, if I leave the mapping of the lists the alignment is always correct so I opted for this function. I'll try to find a solution by modifying the CSS in sigil (is it the right way to use the ::before pseudo-elements?).

Another question: Bulleted lists with "-" are exported with "•" instead. It's normal? Do you know how I could solve in CSS?
I thank you.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Pretty much everything I know is in the web essay; that's a fresh update based on two weeks of bare-metal work with list export. There are often no good solutions, as you simply cannot get InDesign's elaborate list control and styling across the export divide. It's very much converting from one document structure (ID's very complex XML layout, with styles applied left and right) to the very basic HTML structure, with only one paragraph style applied to each list item.

That the export preserves the standard list numbering options (including lowercase roman) is a bit surprising to me. 🙂

Your only two choices are to use the text export method and override it at the CSS and EPUB-surgery levels, or to manually format these list elements as static paragraphs. I can post some additional detail from the book pages on managing the text format (I left most of that out of the web version.)

But at a very fundamental level, there is no simple fix or process. It's one of the apple-vs-orange elements of source docs into EPUB.

[Marcello30825555lf3l]

@James Gifford—NitroPress Hi James, your advice was very helpful. By exporting lists as text I can achieve the level of customization that is comfortable for me. But I have a problem only on Kindle (converting the epub file via send to kindle): the parenthesis of the "a)" marker is wrapped for no reason like this:
a      text
)       text
        text
On other devices, however, it works fine so I think it depends on the export to Kindle format. I thought it depended on the width of the inline block but I tried to increase it and nothing changes.
Same problem with some bullets in some places it places in the second line for no reason (even in the same list, while the other bullets are right and have the same css without local formatting):
     text
•    text
Can you figure out what it's about? This thing is driving me crazy. Thank you.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'm afraid it's an inherent bug in Kindle. I threw every trick I had at trying to get Kindle to adjust that left spacing, and something fixed in its presentation code ignored every one. The text-export method breaks down on this one point, in Kindle at least.

If you absolutely have to match the book formatting, I am afraid the only way to do it is with formatted paragraphs that don't use any kind of automatic numbering or list management.

[Marcello30825555lf3l]

The problem is that it is already a non-automatic list (no style list, only paragraph <p> with inline-block). In my opinion, Kindle recognizes the inline-block and the following paragraph as a list and therefore transforms it into an automatic list to manage it but evidently there is a conflict with the inline block (it seems to minimize the width of the inline- block so all the elements following the first cannot find space and must wrap). The thing is even more serious if you have multiple numbers as markers (1.2.1 etc.) where I imagine all the numbers following the first wrap. At this point I'm afraid of having to go back to the automatic lists by adapting to the standard markers (a., 1. etc.) because it's certainly better than having incorrect numbering in Kindle. How do you usually proceed?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I don't think Kindle is making it into an auto list, but I balk at trying to disassemble Kindle files altogether. All I know is that it's applying rules or formatting that nothing (in several days of trying) could get it to eliminate that left-side spacing, and I suspect this fault is related., You may be right in that Kindle is just so smart it "knows" to make it a list, but the behavior for a true list (ol/ul export) and a text export is different. The regular list format works... but like HTML, recasts it into a list structure, menaing there's very little control over the marker formatting.

I'll try a very plain manually-formatted non-list to see.

[Marcello30825555lf3l]

Dreaming of a world of only epub files I thank you.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, EPUB is far from perfect. With some mastery, Kindle is at least consistent across all its readers, and has a few nifty advantages as well. But we need something better than both!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Nope, the lack of tabs and indent means a very ragged result with no adjustability.

Either live with the standard list formatting for your lists, or... only thing I can think of — use a bordeless table to hold and space the elements.

[Marcello30825555lf3l]

I thought about doing it in a table but in some books I have lots of lists and I would waste too much time doing them again in a table. I think I'll opt for the automatic lists, at least I'm sure they work. As long as the customer accepts a period instead of a parenthesis or a bullet point instead a hyphen.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

I thought about doing it in a table but in some books I have lots of lists and I would waste too much time doing them again in a table.

By @Marcello30825555lf3l

It can be easily automated. 

[Marcello30825555lf3l]

It could be but I don't think it's the best way honestly. I just hope that one day it improves the conversion from epub to Kindle or the formatting and exporting of automatic lists so we can work peacefully.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Other than a few glitches (such as the Kindle left-spacing problem), I don't think there's anything wrong with it, exactly, any more than there's something wrong with all the browsers that use a standard interpretation of ol and ul lists. The HTML model just doesn't have enough flexibility to accommodate all the formatting options InDesign allows, and other than fussy clients, I don't see this as a big crisis. It is possible to adjust and refine lists quite a bit, just not control the marker and marker punctuation with any degree of precision.