Intent in Document Setup when converting Print edition to ePub

Report · Dec 12, 2016

1. If I want to covert a print edition into epub, do I have to change Intent in "Document Setup" from Print to Digital?

2. I tend to have strange overrides in every chapter: a container in the body. Is it possible to get rid of it? The CSS style defines that the border width should be 0.

XHTML:

<div class="_idGenObjectStyleOverride-1">

CSS:

div._idGenObjectStyleOverride-1 {

border-width:0px;

ePub:

2.0.1

Reflowable

Programs in use:

InDesign CC 2015.2 Release

Adobe Digital Editions

Sigil

Report · Dec 12, 2016

You might be better starting from scratch.

Upgrade to 2015.4

Use Web as the intent

Export to ePub version 3

Report · Dec 14, 2016

Derek, thank you for your thoughts!

Do I understand correctly that after upgrade, I will open the ready INDD layout for a print book and set the intent to Web?

As the book has already been designed (for print, though) - designing from scratch doesn't seem reasonable.

Report · Dec 14, 2016

It's impossible to answer this without seeing the layout. If it's simple text in one flowing story it should be fine, but if you have multiple text frames, graphics and a complicated layout, you may well be better off starting from scratch with a new layout.

And Derek is right...use version 3. There's almost no reason I can think of to use 2.

Report · Dec 14, 2016

Thank you, Bob! I will give it a try with ePub v3. ePubs that were made for us were in v2, therefore we thought we should stick to it.

Most of our books are fiction, with simple layout.

So I only need to change the intent to Web if I want to start over with design? Or it is better to change it to Web for all layouts that I plan to export to epub?

Report · Dec 14, 2016

The only thing the intent does is give you a different set of presets for document size and changes the units to pixels. It has no real effect on the work you’re doing.

Report · Dec 14, 2016

The first thing to do is export the existing book to Reflowable text ePub, open the result in a viewer or two and see what the resulting ePub looks like. You can then see what needs to be done. Depending on the kind of design and content it may be fine or need a couple of tweaks or it may be better to completely redo the book for ePub.

Report · Dec 14, 2016

Thanks, Derek!

Report · Dec 14, 2016

I would add that it’s relatively easy to produce poor reflowable text ePubs. Creating ePubs is quite different from producing documents for printing, it’s not intuitive and it takes some effort. I strongly recommend you get some tuition. The best I know are the online video tutorials on Lynda.com, such as https://www.lynda.com/InDesign-tutorials/InDesign-CC-2015-EPUB-Fundamentals/374187-2.html

You can get a 10-day free trial.

Report · Jan 10, 2017

Hi,

You dont need to change the Intent in "Document Setup" from Print to Digital. Just right click in the rules and change the unit to pixels - in both rules (vert/horz). Changing the intent in most of the times change the page size and mess the layout.

Regards