An overview of an ebook workflow that builds on the most popular authoring and design platforms. From Digital Book World 2013.

1. eBook Production:
Covering All The Bases
A Foundational and Templated Workflow

3. The Templated Workflow Uses Consistent Styles
➔ ➔
➔ ➔

4. Word ➔ InDesign ➔ ePUB Templated Workflow
PROS CONS
✔ Builds on most popular ✘ It’s a linear workflow. Making
authoring, design platforms. edits in the ebook may require
making the same edits on the
✔ Training, budget have already
earlier platforms, doubling or
been invested.
tripling the work.
✔ Ideal for templated content and
✘ The more automation, the less
content that may be reused.
creative freedom.
✔ Scalable and customizable.
✔ Ensures QA consistency.

5. LET’S SEE HOW THIS WORKS

6. STEP 1.
WORD
edit
order
tag

7. Word Checklist + Author, Editor
❍❍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

8. STEP 2.
ID
order
TOC
map tags

9. Importing the Styles: Word ➔ InDesign

10. Exporting the Styles: InDesign ➔ ePUB

11. Two Choices For Your InDesign Templates
A B
EMPTY STYLES LOADED STYLES
Choose this option when the print Choose this option when the print
design has to be unique. design doesn’t have to be unique.
Perfect for a single-title workflow. Perfect for a series-title workflow.
The Word doc will map to the ID The Word doc will map to the
styles which will map to the CSS ID styles which will map to the
template. The ID styles can be CSS template. When the text is
edited in any way. The CSS template imported into the ID template it
can be edited to match the design will be styled. Development time
of the print book or can stay as-is to for both print and ebook will be
save ebook development time. minimal.

12. InDesign Checklist + Editor, Designer
❍❍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

13. 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.

14. STEP 3.
EPUB
tag
design
review
Custom CSS is
cleaner and more
robust than ID-
generated CSS

15. EPUB Checklist + Developer, Outsourcer
❍❍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

16. TAKEAWAYS

17. Templated Workflow Toolkit = Platforms + People
1 WORD 2011 2 INDESIGN CS6 3 EPUB 2, 3
+ AUTHOR, EDITOR + EDITOR, DESIGNER + 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

18. Why is semantic, consistent markup important?
• 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>

19. Documentation for Your Word and ID Templates
Style Spec CSS
Guide Doc File