Digital Edition question

Report · Jun 22, 2011

Just installed Digital Edition on my Mac. I can upload my .epub files to the Library but all the pages show up as blank pages. any ideas? Thanks.

Report · Jun 23, 2011

Where did you get the .epub file from (ie what can you view it in besides ADE?)

Report · Jun 23, 2011

I got the .epub file from InDesign, File > Export to Digital Edition.

I can put the file into Calibre and convert it to a MOBI file and view the MOBI.

I want to be able to view the .epub and make manual changes when necessary.

Thank you for responding.

Doug

Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:20:25 -0600
From: forums@adobe.com
To: doug_kinney@hotmail.com
Subject: Digital Edition question
Where did you get the .epub file from (ie what can you view it in besides ADE?)

>

Report · Jun 23, 2011

Doug, let me deal with another side of your comments.

Regardless of where the .epub file came from, you can't make changes to it.

The structure of an .epub file is read only, and thats the way it was

designed. Once a publisher generates the .epub ebook, that's it.

=================

Report · Jun 23, 2011

I was reading the Adobe white paper "eBooks: From Adobe InDesign to the Kindle Store" and it specifically says that you can manually style the .epub file after the export. Guess that's not true?! I'm the owner of the InDesign file so it seems that I should be able to make tweaks here-and-there.

One of the problems that I'm having is that my book chapters are run together, i.e., new chapters do not start on a new page, and line spaces drop out between paragraphs, chapter heads etc.

Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:09:39 -0600
From: forums@adobe.com
To: doug_kinney@hotmail.com
Subject: Digital Edition question
Doug, let me deal with another side of your comments.

Regardless of where the .epub file came from, you can't make changes to it.
The structure of an .epub file is read only, and thats the way it was
designed. Once a publisher generates the .epub ebook, that's it.

=================

>

Report · Jun 24, 2011

I sympathize with you on the display issues. However, the encoding of

ebooks does not preserve print formatting - that is left in part to the

ereader you use. Most have variable text size displays, and they must rely

on a 'stream' of data in order to do that. I believe that this is the

'styling' discussed in the white paper, although I haven't read it.

Tweaks and such are not permitted because of the Digital Millenium Copyright

Act of 2000. Once the publisher puts out an ebook, it's the same as if it

were in print. No changes....

===============

Report · Jun 24, 2011

Frustated:

"Regardless of where the .epub file came from, you can't make changes to it."

This is only true if there is DRM involved. SInce this is file that Doug created (in InDesign), this is a whole different matter.

Doug I would suggest that you run the ePub file through FlightCrew or ePubCheck (ePub validators) to see if there is anything wrong with the ePub. Also what version are you using? - InDesign CS 5.5 produces better ePubs than InDesign CS 5.0 which in turn produces much better ePubs that InDesign 4.0.

You can edit the ePub after you create to manually tweak the styling and content. I would suggest looking into the Oxygen XML editor (which will open ePubs natively), or you can unzip and rezip the ePub file manually (but this is a bit fiddly because you have to be careful about the mimetype file).

Report · Jun 24, 2011

Thanks for the correction, Jim.

==================

Report · Jun 24, 2011

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll give them a try!

Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:49:19 -0600
From: forums@adobe.com
To: doug_kinney@hotmail.com
Subject: Digital Edition question
Frustated:
"Regardless of where the .epub file came from, you can't make changes to it."

This is only true if there is DRM involved. SInce this is file that Doug created (in InDesign), this is a whole different matter.

Doug I would suggest that you run the ePub file through FlightCrew or ePubCheck (ePub validators) to see if there is anything wrong with the ePub. Also what version are you using? - InDesign CS 5.5 produces better ePubs than InDesign CS 5.0 which in turn produces much better ePubs that InDesign 4.0.

You can edit the ePub after you create to manually tweak the styling and content. I would suggest looking into the Oxygen XML editor (which will open ePubs natively), or you can unzip and rezip the ePub file manually (but this is a bit fiddly because you have to be careful about the mimetype file).

>

Report · Oct 30, 2011

Jim --

Do you know of any alternatives to the oXygen editor? I don't have a huge IT fund to dip into, and almost $500 for a program I'll probably use twice a year is waaaay over my budget!

I tried unzipping the epub file, but, as you pointed out, that really doesn't work because when I rezipped the edited version, no reader would open it.

My problem is the hyperlink glitch in CS5.5, and it's driving me crazy!

Thanks...........

Report · Oct 31, 2011

Prior to finding Oxygen, I used a set of scripts for zipping/unzipping the epub on Mac ( see http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55681 ), and then used TextWrangler (from Bare Bones) for manually editing the files. It's nowhere near as slick as Oxygen, however it is free.

Report · Oct 31, 2011

...Except that I have a PC.

There's also a program called "Slinky" which allows you to edit an html file in the epub folder without unzipping it. But it, too, is for Mac only. As far as I can tell, there is no such program for the PC.

Thanks anyhow.

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Digital Edition question