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• • November 13, 2010 at 6:20 pm #57728
    soulartist

    Member

    InDesign CS5; MacOS 10.6.5

    When I export my TOC document to ePub, the TOC doesn't show—only the last two pages containing text and an image.

    The TOC has defined paragraph styles. I think I have my export settings correct.

    Help in isolating this issue is appreciated.

    Note: Viewing other documents in the book via export to ePub do show up correctly—although the book does need formatting tweaking for ePub.

    Also, when I tried exporting the entire book via the book panel, InDesign begins the export, but no activity in the progress bar; I have to force quit to get out the endless loop. Then, when I restart InDesign, untitled files begin to open—10, 20 and so on; I then have to manually close each file.

    I suspect the TOC is causing this issue.

  • November 14, 2010 at 2:58 pm #57733
    soulartist

    Member

    Let me add the following to this issue:

    1) My book has 53 chapters (each within its own file), some 500 pages.

    2) I did a preflight and no errors.

    3) I exported the book as a PDF with no issues.

    4) When I try exporting the book to ePub, apparently InDesign is looking for something it can't find to complete the process; creating an endless loop—application not responding. So, I then have to force quit. I let the beach ball run for over 10 minutes with no export happening in the progress bar.

    5) Is there a known bug in this instance? Or a setting in the export options dialog box that needs correcting?

    A) Digital Editions Export: I've also tried exporting with the default TOC style, but no help there, either.

    B) Book palette: After I set up for ePub export (but cancelled), the palette indicates that a number of files are open—they are not!

  • November 14, 2010 at 3:58 pm #57734
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    I don't think it's a known issue… that is to say, it should work. There's a possibility that it's a problem with one or more of your files. Can you export a single document? What if you select just a few chapters in the book panel?

  • November 14, 2010 at 4:19 pm #57735
    soulartist

    Member

    Hi David:

    Your books and videos are great. I've recommended a number of your titles to readers, and will be including your lynda.com InDesign CSF training in an upcoming InDesign article.

    I can export a single document from the file menu, but not via the book panel. I've tried new preferences, but that had no effect.

    However, when I export the TOC doc via file>export>ePub, no TOC appears—only the last two pages that contain a quote and an image; so, I don't know if the TOC is missing because it can't link up with anything as a single open doc.

    Thanks,

    Eden

  • November 14, 2010 at 9:40 pm #57736
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Not sure… people don't usually put a toc page in their epub because the epub file can have its own TOC. Create a TOC Style (from layout menu). You don't even have to place your toc in your document. But choose the TOC Style when exporting the epub, so that it shows up in the epub reader as a real toc.

  • November 15, 2010 at 8:50 am #57739
    John McKercher

    Member

    I wasted several hours on a bright sunny Sunday trying to get a TOC to export properly when creating an ebook. It wasn't until I came across a line in the Adobe help system (it might have even been a comment rather than an actual entry in their system) telling me that the TOC would not export if the style used to define your TOC was in a folder in your style palette. It seemed like a ridiculous limitation to me but once I moved the chapter title style I was using to generate my TOC out of the folder it worked perfectly.

    Very frustrating…

  • November 15, 2010 at 8:59 am #57740
    jpannier

    Member

    @soulartist: John M is right. Don't organize styles in folders when dealing with ePubs.

    If you want do add a 'classic' TOC in your ePub – meaning floating text where you can click on to get to a specific page – you have to built it using cross references.

  • November 15, 2010 at 4:38 pm #57750
    soulartist

    Member

    John M said:

    I wasted several hours on a bright sunny Sunday trying to get a TOC to export properly when creating an ebook. It wasn't until I came across a line in the Adobe help system (it might have even been a comment rather than an actual entry in their system) telling me that the TOC would not export if the style used to define your TOC was in a folder in your style palette. It seemed like a ridiculous limitation to me but once I moved the chapter title style I was using to generate my TOC out of the folder it worked perfectly.

    Very frustrating…

    ---

    Hi John:

    Would you please be more specific on how you moved the TOC style file from what folder to where—as an example for me to follow.

    Thanks.

  • November 15, 2010 at 4:39 pm #57751
    soulartist

    Member

    jpannier said:

    @soulartist: John M is right. Don't organize styles in folders when dealing with ePubs.

    If you want do add a 'classic' TOC in your ePub – meaning floating text where you can click on to get to a specific page – you have to built it using cross references.

    ---

    Hello:

    Thanks for that clarification and tip!

  • November 15, 2010 at 4:55 pm #57752
    soulartist

    Member

    David Blatner said:Not sure… people don't usually put a toc page in their epub because the epub file can have its own TOC. Create a TOC Style (from layout menu). You don't even have to place your toc in your document. But choose the TOC Style when exporting the epub, so that it shows up in the epub reader as a real toc.

    ---

    I “think” I'm beginning to understand the concept.

    As you suggested, I created a new TOC style. Since the ePub export only looks at level 1 styles, I configured the new style to include the chapter number and chapter title on level 1 so both items would display in the ePub version—this sound logical, but I don't know if it would work.

    Then, I got as far as saving the style, which, for some reason no longer showed up in the TOC style pull down menu. After creating the style, I didn't place it into a document, as you noted.

    And, of course, the new style doesn't show up as option in the ePub export dialog box. So, where is this new style hiding?

    Thanks,

    Eden

  • November 16, 2010 at 7:13 am #57760
    John McKercher

    Member

    soulartist said:

    Would you please be more specific on how you moved the TOC style file from what folder to where—as an example for me to follow.

    Thanks.

    ---

    I often organize my styles in folders in my paragraph styles pallette. I'll have a front matter, master pages, back matter and heads folders in my pallette to help things stay organized. I used to keep my TOC styles within a front matter folder. But if you do that, when you set up your InDesign-generated TOC and pick a TOC style or a head style that resides in a folder in your pallette, it will not generate your TOC properly in your epub.

    So when it comes time to make you epub, just make sure that any styles you are using do not reside within a folder in your paragraph styles palette.

    Hope that helps.

    John

  • November 16, 2010 at 1:59 pm #57767
    soulartist

    Member

    John:

    So, where then do you store your TOC-related styles? And how does InDesign know where to look for these styles outside the paragraph styles palette?

    Also, would you please see my question (a couple of posts up) to David Blatner about my disappearing TOC style. Do you have any insight into this?

    Thanks,

    Eden

  • November 16, 2010 at 5:52 pm #57771
    John McKercher

    Member

    They are still in the pallette, just not in a “group” in the pallette. You can create style groups and place individual styles into these groups to organize your palette. But your TOC style cannot be in one of these groups or it will not export properly to your epub. It's probably a good practice to take all your styles out of their “groups” when exporting to an epub. Seems silly but it makes a difference apparently.

    Sorry if I confused you by using the word “folder” instead of “group.” I see that the button refers to a style group but it has a folder icon and that's why I used the word folder.

    I can't help you with your disappearing TOC…sorry.

  • November 16, 2010 at 6:24 pm #57772
    soulartist

    Member

    I understand now. None of my styles are group folders.

    I created a new book with my files and that did allow me to finally export to ePUb. However, the file with the TOC, except for an image and some text, is ignored. As there is no need for a traditional TOC, I'm presuming InDesign is ignoring these pages—and it's not an error of some kind.

  • November 24, 2012 at 6:27 am #63613
    Margaret

    Member

    Hi everyone, I've had a very frustrating time with getting a clickable TOC (table of contents) when exporting to epub from indesign cs6 (and I think similar things are true for cs5.5) thanks to those of you who posted before I found quite a bit useful.

    But I have found the following:

    It's tricky and small changes remove the TOC when you export to epub. So here is what I've found that works:

    You have to have a TOC inserted into the main document before you export.

    It has to be not linked to the rest of your book.

    It has to the very first thing after your cover image. Even inserting 1 page ahead of it removed the TOC on export to epub.

    This will give you a linkable TOC when you export to epub and one you see in your document won't be there (so you can have one with page numbers in the main document but not in the epub).

    It can be a different style to the actual TOC in your book so you can use different paragraph styles to define the print and the epub contents.

    Make sure you change TOC styler to the one you've made on export (it automatically comes up with none).

    Hope this helps – I had to sart with a complely clean document and spend hours finding out these gems.

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