Custom Chapter Breaks

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    • #91640

      I watched Anne Marie Concepcion’s series of InDesign tutorials, and I’m now working on David Blatner’s series. I was confused at first, but now it’s starting to fall in place fairly rapidly.

      One thing I’m a little confused about is Chapter Breaks.

      I created a paragraph style named “Top” and applied it to a heading I want to appear at the top of the page. I exported it as an epub, and it worked even better than I expected; not only did it appear at the top of the next page, but InDesign did NOT turn it into a separate file, which really surprised me.

      But here’s where it gets a little tricky. I would like my headers to have proper header tags (h2, h3, etc.). So I opened that file with BBEdit and replaced the paragraph tags with h3 tags. Then I found the style that creates page breaks and duplicated it, like this:

      h3.Top {
      page-break-after:auto;
      page-break-before:auto;
      }

      However, my makeover doesn’t work; the header now doesn’t appear at the top of the page.

      Does anyone know how to make this work, or am I pursuing a lost cause?

      Thanks.

    • #91641

      David, are you sure, that you view AMs videos carefully?

      1. Map your styles directly in InDesign, not in BBEdit > paraStyles menue > Edit all export tags
      2. Activate “split document” per para style
      3. Activate “split document” based on export tagging in the export dialog

      Notice, that is good practice, to check your html first and activate “split document” at a later point. Otherwise you must check you html in several docs instead of one.

      Kai

    • #91652

      Thanks for the reply.

      I could have sworn it was working for me at one time, so I must have gone astray somewhere.

      I created a paragraph style named “Top” then went into Edit Paragraph Tags and confirmed that it’s the only style designated “Split Epub.”

      When I export my project as an epub, I check “Split Document.”

      If I then choose Single Paragraph Style, the only choice listed is [Basic Paragraph]. So I selected “Based on Paragraph Style Export Tags” instead.

      It exports HTML with <p class=”Top”> and corresponding CSS styles, but it doesn’t appear at the top of the page.

      I’ll watch the video again, then create a new document/epub if necessary. If it still doesn’t work, I’ll just break my file into separate files, with each file beginning with items I want to appear at the top of the page.

      Thanks for the tips.

    • #91653

      OK, I created a new document, recreated the style “Top” and enabled it for splitting chapters. This time when I exported the project as an epub, my new style (Top) is present when I select Single Paragraph Style. Or I can instead select “Based on Paragraph Style Export Tags;” it works either way.

      However, I see that it creates new files, rather than magically splitting the chapter with CSS. I could have sworn that I earlier split a chapter without creating a new file, but I must have been mistaken.

      At any rate, I can see how it works now, so I can either fix it in my original file or just manually create separate files. Thanks again.

    • #91655

      This is how it works! If you play with Keep-options you get in newer versions of InDesign css page breaks. But a lot of readers will ignore them. So it is always a good idea, to split your document in multiple files.

      Kai

    • #91656

      Thanks for the tip about keep-options; I think that will solve another problem I’ve been wrestling with.

      Out of curiosity, have you ever heard of people using simple CSS to make elements appear at the tops of pages, rather than literally splitting files into subfiles? I like having my chapters in the form of separate files, but I hate splitting a chapter full of subheadings into a dozen separate files.

    • #91657

      It is not a problem, if you have at the end 50 xhtml-files in your zip. It is a matter of organizing your workflow!

    • #91658

      OK.

    • #94041
      Carole Allen
      Participant

      I have a different problem with Chapter Breaks starting at the top of a page in ePub…I had already split my book into chapters and after watching the video a few times, my chapters are still not starting at the top of a page. I have forced pages within a chapter to start at the top by using a style and export tags but the separate chapter files are still not starting at the top of a page.

      Any suggestions? In the video when Anne-Marie split her book into separate files, there was no such problem Each chapter started exactly where it should.

    • #94042
      David Blatner
      Keymaster

      Carole, just to clarify: When you say the chapter files are not starting at the top of the page, do you mean they aren’t starting on a NEW page? Or they are starting on a new page, but not at the top?

    • #94046
      Carole Allen
      Participant

      Oh, sorry for not being clear. They are not starting on a new page. Thanks for replying.

    • #94053

      Carole, I assume, you did not click on the checkbox during the export? If you set the right checkboxes on para level and during the export, a headline MUST be on a new page.

      If you crack up your file, how many normal xhtml-files do you have?

      Kai

    • #94064
      Carole Allen
      Participant

      Thanks Kai…I had conflicting break boxes checked. I have resolved the issue. Appreciate the help.

    • #94078
      Carole Allen
      Participant

      Another problem with chapters that I just realized after getting my chapters to begin on a new page…I now have duplicate chapters added to the end of my eBook. I’m beginning to think I should start over. I haven’t yet dealt with cracking open and checking code. It seems that I fix one problem and I create another.

    • #94080

      Carol, it is difficult to give you an answer about such comments ;-)

      Here is the idea:
      1. Clean up your document (remove empty textframes, apply styles, map styles to tags, anchor images …)
      2. Export your EPUB (without splitting your document)
      3. Check in iBooks, ADE the look and
      4. in BBEdit the code of your EPUB
      5. Note every error, go back to InDesign, solve the problems and start an export again
      6. If everything is ok, then export with chapter breaks

      If you haven’t dealt with the code yet, I assume you use the ugly CSS that InDesign will generate for you. To be fair with you: If you do not examine the code, you will sadly never produce beautiful books and maybe more important, find those errors as you described in a short time.

      Kai

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