exporting to flowable epub, from indd cc, the epub doesn't show up on my desktop

[MystiMac]

If I export and indd cc book as a flowable epub, the epub file doesn't show up on my desktop. I looked in windows explorer too. The desired epub tries to open in Acrobat Pro. Any suggestions?

[Derek Cross]

What happens when you try and open it with Adobe Digital Editions or iBooks (if you're on a Mac)?

[MystiMac]

I'm on a pc. Sorry if my nickname mislead you. You're not the first. 

[MystiMac]

I'll download ADE, but how would I stop indd from trying to open the epub in Acrobat? I can't even find the file in the windows explorer, only the files that are acrobat files created when I export. 

[MystiMac]

Anyway, I don't need to edit the file. It's all edited in indd. Are you suggesting that with ADE I can save it with as an epub? If you know the answer quickly, it would save me a lot of time experimenting.

[Derek Cross]

Some questions:

Which version of InDesign and OS?

Have you created your Reflowable ePub using Paragraph (and Character) Styles on all your text and anchoring any images?

You understand that Master Page content is not used in Reflowable ePubs?

You've exported the InDesign document as a Reflowable ePub and the document has epub as a suffix?

Have you tried validating the epub? http://validator.idpf.org

[MystiMac]

I have the latest indd cc - ver 16.01; newest win 10 os. I did create the reflowable epub. I exported it as such, and it resulted not in an epub file, but has an Acrobat file. Then it automatically tried to open the file in Acrobat, unsuccessfully (I have the latest Acrobat Pro). May be some darn "file association" thing. I had not put in styles, as I was in a big rush and had lost my old templates when my old computer crashed. So no, I didn't, and wouldn't, try to export from master pages.

Now, my os,  software and computer are all brand new.

In the past, I had created all the styles, and had no trouble exporting from indd to epub. Back then, amazon took the epubs and put them through their generator, converting the epub to a .mobi file, which could be directly uploaded to ones book shelf and previewed with a good previewer. The file could even be opened in the kindle reader if one had put the .mobi file on ones desktop. I just used the previewer that showed when you opted to "show preview" on the amazon screen. And it was just fine.

[Derek Cross]

Try applying styles.

[MystiMac]

I may have to do that. Maybe more time-economical to just use the Kindle
Create program, and manually set all the styles.

[Derek Cross]

Just to double-check; when you Export your ePub document, you have a dialogue box that looks something like this?

[MystiMac]

The screenshot is too big to upload. When I select export to epub, I just get the windows explorer window, that shows files already there plus I can add the supposed .epub.

If I reduced the size sufficiently, it would be completely illegible.

There is an additional issue too. A woman in the support community had figured out that in order for her epub to export properly, she had to remove all the hyperlinks in her footnotes. The book I'm working on has about 200 footnotes. Removing all of those presents not only a big risk, but is time consuming.

[Derek Cross]

To check the workflow:

In InDesign you select File > Export > and from the Export dialogue box you name your document (or accept the populated name) and from the Format drop-down menu you select EPUB (Reflowable) –  then when you Save there's a number of Export Options dialogues to complete before you select OK and produce your epub.

Is that what you're doing?

[Derek Cross]

Are you by any chance exporting from the Book feature to assemble your document rather than exporting directly from an InDesign a Document – if so you use the fly-out menu and choose Export Book to ePub and select Reflowable ePub from the subsequent Format drop-down menu.

[MystiMac]

I'm exporting from the book panel - the box that lists all the chapters,
then one clicks on the empty space at the bottom (not on any particular
chapter), and then clicks on the three horizontal bars top right, to get
the "export book to epub" option.

[Derek Cross]

Like this:

[rayek.elfin · Accepted solution]

What happens when you double-click an existing epub file? Does it open in an appropriate ebook reader app, or does it attempt to open in Acrobat?

It seems Acrobat might be defined as the default application to open epub files. You may have to change the default program settings for epub files.

Refer to: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-default-programs-in-windows-10-e5d82cad-17d1-c53b...

[MystiMac]

I was afraid it was an issue with default application. Thanks for the link
to change that.
As I said in an earlier part of this thread, if I click on an epub file, it
tries to open in Acrobat.