Pages, Apple's word-processing and DTP software, now available from their online App Store for £11.99 is an ideal way to move from Word doc to valid ePUB.
Liza Daly has described some of the latest improvements to it in 'EPUB export improvements in Apple Pages 4.0.5'
It seems perfect and a dream price for professional publishers and self-publishers alike, and as one of the comments posted in response to Daly's article asserts: with Pages and Sigil you can now construct the perfect ePUB. So why shouldn't publishers leap in head first and start having their teams work with Pages when it is so cheap?
Ant: The answer is that most publishers don't simply want an ePUB.
Tony: Not a problem, I can use KindleGen to convert to Kindle format from ePUB.
Ant: Yes but you'll have to tinker with the CSS and XHTML to make it look perfect in Kindle (see earlier posts).
Tony: Fine I can do that.
Ant: What about the print version?
Tony: I can import Word docs into InDesign.
Ant: Yes, that is true but what about if you want to have an XML master version of text that you can store for the future or for use on the web.
Tony: I can 'Map Styles to Tags' in InDesign and export an XML file through cross-media export or amend the XHTML in the ePUB
Ant: All of what you say is true, but consider this - (1) you have tied your workflow to a single Mac-only piece of software (2) your code and stylesheet will never be as simple or transparent if you let a machine generate it (3) it is better in my view to work up a clean XML document to begin with than to arrive at one having passed through a number of hoops and spent all your time cleaning it up later
Tony: So what would your workflow be?
Ant: I'd start with the XML as I said - either created through a dedicated program or plug-in or text editor - then import this into InDesign and use 'Map Tags to Styles' to format it using a preprepared template, I'd then have this proofed and make all corrections in InDesign before exporting the XML, which will then be the basis of my XHTML for ePUB and Kindle versions, and for convenience I'd use Sigil to create these eBooks in combination with KindleGen.
Tony: Why is this better?
Ant: Aside from the points I made before, this way I'd only edit in one place - InDesign.
Tony: I'd only need to edit in one place too, either Word or Pages or I could even print a PDF to send to the author
Ant: Yes but this won't be the finished version, it'll just be a Word doc or a PDF of the Word doc. The author will want to see what the book will look like on the page after you've typeset it in InDesign, and your way errors are likely introduced in the typesetting.
Liza Daly has described some of the latest improvements to it in 'EPUB export improvements in Apple Pages 4.0.5'
It seems perfect and a dream price for professional publishers and self-publishers alike, and as one of the comments posted in response to Daly's article asserts: with Pages and Sigil you can now construct the perfect ePUB. So why shouldn't publishers leap in head first and start having their teams work with Pages when it is so cheap?
Ant: The answer is that most publishers don't simply want an ePUB.
Tony: Not a problem, I can use KindleGen to convert to Kindle format from ePUB.
Ant: Yes but you'll have to tinker with the CSS and XHTML to make it look perfect in Kindle (see earlier posts).
Tony: Fine I can do that.
Ant: What about the print version?
Tony: I can import Word docs into InDesign.
Ant: Yes, that is true but what about if you want to have an XML master version of text that you can store for the future or for use on the web.
Tony: I can 'Map Styles to Tags' in InDesign and export an XML file through cross-media export or amend the XHTML in the ePUB
Ant: All of what you say is true, but consider this - (1) you have tied your workflow to a single Mac-only piece of software (2) your code and stylesheet will never be as simple or transparent if you let a machine generate it (3) it is better in my view to work up a clean XML document to begin with than to arrive at one having passed through a number of hoops and spent all your time cleaning it up later
Tony: So what would your workflow be?
Ant: I'd start with the XML as I said - either created through a dedicated program or plug-in or text editor - then import this into InDesign and use 'Map Tags to Styles' to format it using a preprepared template, I'd then have this proofed and make all corrections in InDesign before exporting the XML, which will then be the basis of my XHTML for ePUB and Kindle versions, and for convenience I'd use Sigil to create these eBooks in combination with KindleGen.
Tony: Why is this better?
Ant: Aside from the points I made before, this way I'd only edit in one place - InDesign.
Tony: I'd only need to edit in one place too, either Word or Pages or I could even print a PDF to send to the author
Ant: Yes but this won't be the finished version, it'll just be a Word doc or a PDF of the Word doc. The author will want to see what the book will look like on the page after you've typeset it in InDesign, and your way errors are likely introduced in the typesetting.
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