Advice: InDesign to EBook: Stylesheets

Hey Gang

I need your advice and input on a few things. This concerns InDesign files being converted into eBooks. One of our major clients now has new certain rules for how the InDesign files have to be set up, and most of them are not a problem. Things like paragraph style sheets for everything, not using soft returns for line breaks, using character styles for things like italic, bold, small caps, etc. No problem at all with those things (which we already had been following).

As a note—our workflow is we get the design files and manuscript/word files from the client and we make good pages (fixing designer’s file first 99.9 percent of the time). We run macros to fix and tag the Word file or we have it double-keyed. And we do all the corrections/repage through until completion. When the job is all done and at the printers, we supply the client with the ID File, art, fonts, etc.

Now—there are a few new things they are insisting on so far as our ID files, and I’m wondering if they are really necessary. I only ask because the person in charge of the Ebooks is only familiar with eBooks and not what is involved in using InDesign to make books. I don’t think she knows what we have to do to make books.

Anyway, following are a few of the things they want done:

1) Do not use “keep together” options in style sheets to control/prevent widows at the top of the page.

2) Do not use the pallette or have the paragraph stylesheet make something all capital letters. They must be typed in all CAPS. [Things that we currently use the pallette or tell the stylesheet to make all caps include things like chapter titles, subheads, etc.

Now—I admit I don’t know much about eBooks, and maybe what they want is correct. But to me, it’s preventing my company from using InDesign’s features. I mean, why can’t we use “keep together” options? It makes life so much easier to know that I can basically check the bottom of pages and not worry about widows at the tops of pages. The page preceding it will run a line short and I will see it.

And we have to type all capped items as all caps? And can’t use the pallette or stylehseet to tell it all caps? This is crazy to me. Many times the chapter title is used for the runninghead and if the running heads are upper and lower case, then that will require separate master pages for all the chapters (which sometimes are dozens in one book). I know one can use “Title Case” for runningheads, but that doesn’t always work because of the words “and” “of” and “the” which are sometimes lowercase. I think In-Tools has something that should work, but I admit I’m not crazy on having to buy that plug-in for a dozen computers.

Anyway—Are those two requirements reasonable and necessary? Or is it something they should be able to do on their end when they process out files into eBooks. I’m sure they must have some kind of script or scripts.

As an additional note–we are always under the gun so far as deadlines. They send us the rush jobs and it’s not uncommon to get in a Word file and design file and have to crank out a 400 page book the next day. And time is of the essence. We can only charge ridiculously low prices to compete and any extra time we have to spend doing those jobs means we lose money in the long-run.

Also–is there a script that can look for pallette caps (nested or otherwise) and change to all caps? Or will I be forced to search and change to all uppercase by hand?

Dwayne