eBook Production: Covering All The Bases

A Foundational and Templated Workflow

The Templated Workflow Uses Consistent Styles

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Word ➔ InDesign ➔ ePUB Templated Workflow

PROS CONS

✔ Builds on most popular authoring, design platforms.

✔ Training, budget have already been invested.

✔ Ideal for templated content and content that may be reused.

✔ Scalable and customizable.

✔ Ensures QA consistency.

✘ It’s a linear workflow. Making edits in the ebook may require making the same edits on the earlier platforms, doubling or tripling the work.

✘ The more automation, the less creative freedom.

LET’S SEE HOW THIS WORKS

STEP 1.WORD

edit

order

tag

❍ Edit your content as much as possible.

❍ Finalize the order of your content.

❍ Consider the TOC: envision how it will help navigation in the ereader.

❍ Don’t use reference numbers: direct cross references to sections.

❍ Avoid local formatting: tag with paragraph and character styles.

❍ Watch your cases: key all-caps text with caps lock “on”.

❍ Invisibles don’t export: avoid multiple line returns, soft returns, tabs.

➽ Read Liz Castro: www.elizabethcastro.com/epub ➽ Watch Introducing Styles in Word on YouTube: http://bit.ly/StylesWord

Word Checklist + Author, Editor

STEP 2.ID

order

TOC

map tags

Importing the Styles: Word ➔ InDesign

Exporting the Styles: InDesign ➔ ePUB

Two Choices For Your InDesign Templates

EMPTY STYLES

Choose this option when the print design has to be unique.

Perfect for a single-title workflow.

The Word doc will map to the ID styles which will map to the CSS template. The ID styles can be edited in any way. The CSS template can be edited to match the design of the print book or can stay as-is to save ebook development time.

LOADED STYLES

Choose this option when the print design doesn’t have to be unique.

Perfect for a series-title workflow.

The Word doc will map to the ID styles which will map to the CSS template. When the text is imported into the ID template it will be styled. Development time for both print and ebook will be minimal.

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❍ Consult the Word checklist and ...

❍ Be mindful of navigation. There are two ways to build a table of contents and be sure to make cross references and hyperlinks live.

❍ Keep order. Be sure that art is anchored. Either flow the content in the correct order or use the Articles Panel to order it for you.

❍ Map your styles during import and export. Import with “Style Mapping” and export with “Edit All Export Tags”.

❍ Download the “Show Text Overrides” script from http://in-tools.com

➽ Watch Importing Word Files on YouTube: http://bit.ly/ImportingWord ➽ Watch an ePUB2 export tutorial on YouTube: http://bit.ly/ePUB2export

InDesign Checklist + Editor, Designer

InDesign Import Bugs

Before importing the Word doc:

❍ Check that your cursor is “clean” (does not have a character style or the local override sign [+] and is Basic Paragraph).

After importing the Word doc:

❍ Strip out import-applied character styles with Find/Change.

❍ Select all the text and click on the “clear overrides” button.

❍ Apply nested styles in order to retain for epub export with Find/Change.

STEP 3.EPUB

tag

design

review

Custom CSS is cleaner and more robust than ID-generated CSS

❍ Consult the Word and InDesign checklist and ...

❍ Create a Style Guide for your publishing team. This will be a working document and always in progress.

❍ Create a Spec Doc for your outsourcer and supply the CSS template with your InDesign source file for conversion. This will also be a working document and always in progress.

❍ Create as many CSS templates as you need for your content. This will be a working file and always in progress.

➽ Watch a basic CSS for eBooks tutorial on YouTube: http://bit.ly/CSSforeBooks ➽ Find epub examples at http://ebookarchitects.com/resources ➽ Consult a QA checklist: http://qed.digitalbookworld.com/why-qed/criteria

EPUB Checklist + Developer, Outsourcer

TAKEAWAYS

WORD 2011

+ AUTHOR, EDITOR

INDESIGN CS6

+ EDITOR, DESIGNER

EPUB 2, 3

+ DEVELOPER, OUTSOURCER

edit content

set order of content finalize order of content

consider navigation create TOC navigation edit TOC navigation

tag map tags tag

[design for print] design for ebook

review for quality

Templated Workflow Toolkit = Platforms + People

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• It tells both reading engines and human readers the importance and meaning for each part of the content.

• It streamlines the workflow: from author ➔ editor ➔ designer ➔ developer ➔ outsourcer, everyone is clear on how to treat the content.

AUTHOR/EDITOR/DESIGNER TERMS DEVELOPER/OUTSOURCER TERMS

paragraph style block element: <p>; <h1> — <h6>

character style inline element: <em>; <span class

numbered lists ordered lists: <ol>, <li>

bulleted lists unordered lists: <ul>, <li>

sidebars divs: <div>

Why is semantic, consistent markup important?

Documentation for Your Word and ID Templates

Style Guide

Spec Doc

CSS File