text wrap for EPUB reflowable

[n19005336]

How do you format a text box that has text wrap applied to it? The text box exports between paragraphs instead of within the paragraph

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

I'm not quite clear on your question. I assume you're exporting to reflowable EPUB 3 — if you're not, answers and advice will be considerably different.

First, you have to consider that an EPUB document must have a single continuous text flow. (Yes, you can have multiple flows in a single document, but that's a level above this.) You can't just "stick things on the page" as you can for print. It sounds as if you might already know this, as a text box that's not anchored into the text flow will likely 'fall to the bottom' of the document, and that's not what you describe.

So you have a text box, and it's anchored to the main text where you want it. Default behavior, which is fairly strong in EPUB export, will place it between that paragraph and the next one. This is, honestly, best practice; all forms of trying to get material (text, images, text boxes, etc.) side by side on reflowable pages is tricky and may simply not work well on all readers or for all user settings. (If the user sets the font size too large, for example, your tidy text-with-text box will turn into a squished mess.)

Images and things like text boxes are best — IMHO — left to flow vertically and be centered on the page. Anything else is likely to be problematic (from unattractive to unreadable) for many users.

But if you insist on side-by-side content, it's not controlled by InDesign's text wrap settings. You have to select that frame (text or graphic) and assign it float characteristics and spacing  — much the same as you would do with a web graphic, if you've done any web page design. (EPUB is basically just a packaged web page, and EPUB readers are just limited-function browsers.)

Right click on the text frame. Click on Object Export Options. In the menu that appears, select the EPUB/HTML tab.

Click to set the Custom Layout checkbox. In the dropdown, select either Float Left or Float Right, depending on which side you want the text box to be on the reader screen. The text box will now float to that side, and the main text will flow around it.

The spacing around the text box is set, albeit a little indirectly, by the Text Wrap values. Keep in mind that InDesign measurements are exported to pixel values at approximately 144ppi, which means that physical dimensions will be about half that on the reader screen. (There are ways to be more precise about this, but it get quite complicated and a cut-and-try approach is usually more efficient.) So if you want about a quarter inch around the text box on the screen, set the text wrap to about one-half inch.

You will have to experiment with both the text box size in the layout, the text wrap values and the other settings in the Object Export menu to fine-tune the result. But again, this should only be done if the 'floated' object is fairly small  — no more than about a third of expected screen width — and really, should be avoided altogether for the most reliable, consistent display. You can fine-tune and control this setup to a greater degree if you use CSS styles when you export, but that's a "next step" in complexity, especially if you don't have at least some HTML/CSS/web design experience. This is, fortunately, one of the features that can be controlled almost entirely from within InDesign, although it takes the coordination of several menus/features.

Happy to answer further questions.

[Laura Brady]

You can float an image. Give the <div> or <figure> that the <img> is inside a unique class and then apply CSS such as:

figure.float {
float:right;
width:30%;
padding-left:1em; }

You can plan for this from InDesign by apply a unique object style to the frame the image is in but you must edit the CSS post-export. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Laura, for the severalth time, possibly a majority of your posts here so far, you have replied in a topic tagged EPUB with a answer that is both brief (one or two sentences or a code snippet) and highly technical... while ignoring all of the subsequent replies and discussion.

The first is not usually helpful here, on any ID question; most OPs wouldn't be asking if they were of sufficient skill and experience to puzzle out a setting or a complex feature from a brief note of its existence. The EPUB discussions here are even more often new territory for the posters, and givng expert-level drive-by answers contributes very little of use. If you don't give the OP some context, and why-wherefore, and options in some deep and very complex and cryptic menus, the answer is just confusing gibberish. (You might browse the last year or two of EPUB-tagged posts to form your own opinion here.)

The second, ignoring what are often full-fledged, complete answers (from myself and others) to drop your tech hint, without context or connection to anything that's been presented already, borders on rude.

I think you have a tremendous amount to contribute here, even in this narrow niche. But you are misreading the audience and pointlessly honking off your fellow contributors here.

Verb. sap.

[Laura Brady]

Wow, James, your arrogance is staggering. I will respond in private rather than a flame war, which you seem to be attempting to start. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, no, Laura, I've been unfailingly polite and encouraging to you in both posts and PMs, while you've snapped off rude, dismissive replies to me more than once. Never mind that ignoring prior posts to repeat information as if it's new is a disliked form of forum rudeness in itself.

I suggest you read the post above again, as sincere pro-to-pro advice. Post as you like, but as long as you fail to grasp the (narrowly focused and unusual) audience here, I'm not sure your brief, highly technical notes will be of much use. This is not a crowd that's memorized the entire and increasingly obsolete technical standard, or one that has ever heard of Sigil etc.

See ya 'round.

[noteon]

To get this out of the way up front and be transparent: Laura and I both have InDesign/ebook companies, and we've partnered to improve ebook accessibility and production. I have something like 15 years of ebook production experience, with my largest current ebook client being Scholastic Books.

James, you seem like a person who thinks of himself as evidence-based. I've poked around in a few of your other recent replies, and I challenge you to find examples of yourself talking to men who know more than you the same way you respond to women who know more than you.

In about five minutes, I found you telling one man " your judgment of how novices perceive things is probably better than mine," and telling another "this glitch can be fixed in seconds in any code editor."

But Laura gets dressed down for having a different judgment of what's needed by people you've decided are novices, and told that editing an ebook is the incorrect approach.

Evidence points to sexism and defensive territorialism. I suggest you read your own posts again, looking for those things. They are there to be found.

If you feel dismissed or disrespected, please consider that this is about 10% of your own level. I calibrated carefully.

Regards.