1.0 Making Ebooks with InDesign – Introduction

Learn how to make ebooks with InDesign with this step-by-step guide from Laura Brady.

  • Subject(s):

    InDesign to EPUB

  • Resource Type(s):

    Step-by-Step

  • Audience:

    Introduction

Introduction

Hello and welcome. My name is Laura Brady. I have been making ebooks with InDesign for many years. I am going to guide you through creating an ebook using what is the most common starting point for ebooks — that is, the print layout file. InDesign is a terrific print layout tool but in order to get really good ebooks out of it, you need to understand how to work the gears. And even then, you will need to do some cleanup of the HTML and CSS that InDesign creates. 

I will walk you through that whole process from beginning to end. I will be demonstrating my own workflows that I use with a wide variety of publisher files and content types. This workflow is idiosyncratic in that it includes hacks that I’ve developed over more than a decade of nudging InDesign politely and then not-so-politely.  

We are going to start with some basic fiction to which I’ve added some more complex elements. The files will be available for you to work with if you wish as you move through the course.

Download the course files below:

I will work from InDesign 2023, version 18.1.  Other software packages that will make an appearance includes:

  • Sigil
  • oXygen Editor
  • EPUB Checker
  • Ace by DAISY
  • BB Edit
  • eCanCrusher
  • Scripts:
    • PageStaker
    • LiveIndex
    • Break Text Thread

A quick note about how InDesign looks: I use the dark mode with the typography settings. But I also customize the tools that are on the page so that I can see what I need quickly. I would encourage you to do the same. I generally keep paragraph and character styles popped out for the sidebar along the right. And I add scripts, conditional text, table and object styles. I prefer to work with the baseline grid turned off, but with invisibles, text frames and guides on. This is all a question of personal preference, obviously. 

And a note about InDesign. It is a highly technical, almost entirely visual piece of software. While I’ve done my best to make this video series as accessible as possible, I’m afraid I’m not able to make the same statement about InDesign. 

All right, let’s dig in!

Next Steps

1

Module 1, Step 1

1.1 Getting the File Ready

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 1, Step 1

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
2

Module 1, Step 2

1.2 Basic Styles

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 1, Step 2

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
3

Module 1, Step 3

1.3 White Space Items

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 1, Step 3

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
4

Module 1, Step 4

1.4 Non-breaking Spaces

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 1, Step 4

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
5

Module 1, Step 5

1.5 Semantics

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 1, Step 5

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
6

Module 1, Step 6

1.6 Images in InDesign

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 1, Step 6

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
7

Module 1, Step 7

1.7 Basic Metadata

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 1, Step 7

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
8

Module 2, Step 1

2.1 Advanced InDesign-to-EPUB

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 1

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
9

Module 2, Step 2

2.2 Cleaning up Styles

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 2

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
10

Module 2, Step 3

2.3 Index Hyperlinking

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 3

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
11

Module 2, Step 4

2.4 Creating a Long Description

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 4

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
12

Module 2, Step 5

2.5 Object Styles

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 5

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
13

Module 2, Step 6

2.6 Edit All Export Tags

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 6

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
14

Module 2, Step 7

2.7 Table Styles

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 7

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
15

Module 3, Step 1

3.1 Exporting an Ebook

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 3, Step 1

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
16

Module 3, Step 2

3.2 InDesign EPUB Export Options

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 3, Step 2

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
17

Module 3, Step 3

3.3 HTML & CSS

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 3, Step 3

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
18

Module 4, Step 1

4.1 Post-export Work

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 1

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
19

Module 4, Step 2

4.2 EPUB Tour

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 2

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
20

Module 4, Step 3

4.3 What InDesign Doesn’t Do Well

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 3

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
21

Module 4, Step 4

4.4 HTML Cleanup

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 4

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
22

Module 4, Step 5

4.5 Context Breaks

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 5

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
23

Module 4, Step 6

4.6 Navigation Cleanup

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 6

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
24

Module 4, Step 7

4.7 Building a Pagelist

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 7

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
25

Module 4, Step 8

4.8 Language Declaration Issues

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 8

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
26

Module 4, Step 9

4.9 Semantics and DPUB ARIA

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 9

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
27

Module 4, Step 10

4.10 Accessibility Metadata

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 10

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
28

Module 4, Step 11

4.11 CSS Cleanup

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 11

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
29

Module 4, Step 12

4.12 Quality Assurance

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 12

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
30

Module 4, Step 13

4.13 Validation + Accessibility Checker Tools

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 4, Step 13

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical

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