EPUB Export: Pages Displaying Right to Left Instead of Left to Right

[SamLC]

Hi! When I export a book (indb) to fluid epub format, the direction of the pages is reversed. Moving through the book pages from right to left. 

Curiously, if I export one of the book files (instead of the entire book) the direction is the desired one, from left to right.

Any idea or solution?
thanks!!

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[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @SamLC,

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention! I can understand how confusing it must be to have your EPUB pages displaying in the wrong direction. 

To assist you better, could you please let me know which version of InDesign you are currently using and the operating system details? Additionally, is this issue occurring with just one specific book file, or have you noticed it happening with multiple files as well?

If possible, could you share a screen recording that shows the InDesign document frames followed by the EPUB pages? This will help us understand the situation more clearly.

In the meantime, a common solution for this issue is to check the "Document Setup" in InDesign. Ensure that the page layout is set to "Left to Right" under the "Text Direction" settings. Sometimes, when exporting an entire book, InDesign might inherit settings from one of the documents that could lead to this unexpected behavior. 

I appreciate your patience, and I look forward to your reply with the additional details so we can get to the bottom of this!

Best,  
Abhishek Rao

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

You must be using the MEL edition of InDesign, or the book files were created on one. That version is the only one I know of that allows RTL-LTR page order switching.

If the component files are set up LTR (standard Western language flow) and the reversal happens only in the Book export, look through the latter for a page direction setting. (Don't have/don't work wtih the Arabic/Farsi/Hebrew version, so I can't check.)

Worst case — delete the Book and recreate it.

If the component files are RTL, you will need to fix them to solve the problem

[BobLevine]

My memory is a bit foggy on this but I seem to remember a binding option for right or left. This of course could be something I am completely wrong about.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

That's the gist of it, but without an MEL edition to look at, I'm going on memory as well. I have no idea how many layers of text-direction control there are in that version, but it seems to be "several." Binding direction would seem to be the right place to look for this solution.