Oh good, I’m glad you figured out why it was converting your PNGs to JPGs. Some of those export options can drive you crazy when you can’t figure out why its exporting differently than what you’re expecting.

Now Amazon is a different story. The support for transparencies in KF8 has been one that is driving a lot of ebook developers crazy in the #eprdctn group on Twitter. It has been supported it in the past and then one day it seems like wasn’t and there was no real heads up or reasoning why from Amazon (that I’ve seen or heard of). Unfortunately there is no fix for it, again, that I’ve seen or heard of :(

Oh my…

Well, one work around would be to hard code them in the HTML. Off the top of my head I would probably GREP all the <li> tags and change them to <p>‘s with a <span> or <sup> (of course) and a unique place holder within it like “XX” then use the Incrementor bundle for Sublime Text to change all the unique place holders within selections (sadly you would have to do this chapter by chapter) to numbers.

Getting rid of the <ol>‘s might not be too tricky to GREP out.

I really wish I knew of a way that would be faster or easier :(

Hey Mark,

A lot of ebook developers that I know either use Kindle Previewer or KindleGen. With Kindle Previewer I believe you can drop your ePub into it and it will convert it to a KF8 file. KindleGen is more for if you are familiar with using the command line. Both are from Amazon and have Windows and Mac options to download.

Kindle Previewer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_5?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765261&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-4&pf_rd_r=9PXNTX7CBSKYY2ECHTC0&pf_rd_r=9PXNTX7CBSKYY2ECHTC0&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_p=f07249e5-c1fc-44cb-a39f-6917153f8b9f&pf_rd_p=f07249e5-c1fc-44cb-a39f-6917153f8b9f&pf_rd_i=1000765211

KindleGen: https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765211

Aaron

Hey Johanna,

I don’t have experience with Android or Google Play Books, but there was a similar issue with numbered lists in either ADE or on the Nook awhile back. It’s been awhile so I’m forgetting which but it would either restart at 1 or drop the leading number after 9. So if it’s displaying correctly everywhere else you’ve tested it, I would say it’s more than likely a bug in Google Play Books, which is unfortunate if it is as you can’t really do anything unless someone knows a hack (besides static lists) to fix it or get around it happening. I’ve been Googling it and cant seem to find anyone who’s posted hacks, but I bet you’re not the only one to have run into this. I would submit a bug report and hopefully they can fix that asap.

Also, if you have access to Twitter, I would ask the #eprdctn group and see if anyone has come across that bug and might have a way around it.

Aaron

I’m not sure if how easy or possible it is with the vanilla version of data merge within InDesign, but off the top of my head I think Em Software (https://emsoftware.com/) has a few InDesign plugins that work exclusively with merging product catalogs like you’re talking about from Excel to InDesign. The plug-in’s are spendy but it might make you’re life easier (and possibly worth the cost) if you’re doing this monthly.

Just a note that I have no affiliation with Em Software, nor have I used their products, but thought I would at least mention them as their products sound relevant to what you’re working on.

oh ok, sorry, yeah it is a beast of a regex. Here is a simple digit:digit regex

\d+:\d+

George,

I would try uploading your file to Dropbox and sideloading your book that way, it’s less of a headache than using iBooks. One reason for not using iBooks, besides it being a cumbersome process, is that iBooks inserts a file into your ePub which causes it to not validate when you upload it to retailers, even to the iBook Store. Ironic but true.