Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 1
Subject(s):
InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s):
Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
Before reading this, you might want to read:
A pagelist is a fundamental piece of the accessibility puzzle when it comes to ebooks. It is a print corollary list. Just as it sounds, it is a list of all the pages in the book. And it can be an extra level of navigation for your book.
This is a book opened in Adobe Digital Editions. Along the side, there are three levels of navigation — the table of contents, the Landmarks, and the “Pagelist.” A pagelist is literally a print corollary page list. When I click on page 21, for example, the reading system will jump to the start of page 21. A variety of readers using different formats can literally be on the same page. This is particularly important in an educational context, but also for book clubs. And it is extremely important for the print-disabled reading experience because it’s another nice level of navigation.
There is a script in your assets called PageStaker. When moved directly into the scripts folder, it will be active for InDesign users.
From within InDesign, open the scripts palette, and double-click PageStaker.jsx.
An orange caret now appears at each the start of a page break. That caret is connected to this character style called com.rorohiko.pagestaker.style. Rorohiko is the name of the company that developed the script. The style is .1pt with a strikethrough — so small enough not to cause any reflow, but with an actionable style sheet onto which the correct code can be layered in the ebook.
It’s actually a piece of Conditional Text. When activated in the Conditional Text palette, it becomes live in the file and the orange caret disappears.
When ready to export this to EPUB, be sure to toggle on the conditional text by activating the eyeball, and the export will have those page numbers in the text right at the spot of the page break. We will use that foundation to build a page list later on.