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by: Kenneth Bossard
This tutorial teaches how to use Adobe InDesign to publish a document for reading on a Kindle. It is written for InDesign beginners and shown on InDesign CS5.
We will take the text of Edgar Allan Poe's, "The Raven", and transfer it into InDesign CS5 for formatting. We will then export it as a .mobi file readable on Kindle devices. This tutorial will also provide the tools to material for sale on the Amazon.com platform and other markets selling eBooks.
Formatting guidelines for Kindle are not the same as for the web, though the process uses HTML and CSS. Please see the booklet, "
Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines" to be fully aware differences when preparing EBooks for the Kindle platform. We will cover the basics today.
For setup, you will need to format the text. You may also need the Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign.
For our text, go to www.younggents.com/raven/raven.doc and download the document.
Once you have downloaded the text for "The Raven", check to see whether you already have the Kindle plugin. Open InDesign and go to the File dropdown menu. Look for the "Export for Kindle" option.
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| Export for Kindle must be in File Menu |
If so, you are ready to go. If not, go to Amazon.com's InDesign plugin for Kindle page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000234621
In the middle of Kindle's Publishing Programs page, find the InDesign plugin download.
Check, after reading the terms of use, "I agree." Download the plugin and follow directions to install. While you are awaiting install, if you do not have a Kindle reader, download a free Kindle reader for your PC or Mac.
Now that you are an official Kindle publisher, let's transfer raven.doc to the Kindle .mobi format.
Open InDesign. In InDesign, go to FILE, then NEW to open a New Document formatting window.
Set Document Preset to "Custom" and Intent to "Print." Our document is fairly short, so set Number of Pages to 10. We will later delete unused pages. Set the Start Page number to 1. Check "Facing Pages" to produce left and right printed pages.
Open Page Size to see all the options. You can set your document for any printable size or for web page output. InDesign is used by professional layout designers such as magazine or book publishers and also by web designers.
Set Page Size to Letter and Width will default to 8.5 inches by 11 inches. Set orientation to Portrait (first picture). Set Column to 1 and gutter width to .33 in(ches) and Margins to .5 in all around. Click "OK" to input these settings.
A new window opens with our blank document. The Tool Bar should be on your left. If not, go to the WINDOW drop down menu and click on TOOLS.
The "T" for Type tool has two uses. With your cursor, hold down the area in the bottom right of the "T" on your tool bar. You will see two uses: "Type," and "Type on a Path." We will be using the "Type" option.
Hold down your cursor inside the interior purple box inside the blank document. We are going to create a text box to hold "The Raven" text. As you hold the cursor, a cross appears. Place the Type tool down in the top left corner and pull—still holding the cursor down—a text box all the way to the bottom right corner. You shold now have a text box on your page.
Save this document onto your computer as, "raven.indd". The .indd indicates an InDesign document. I recommend saving after every step.
Open "The Raven" text in Microsoft Word. Go to EDIT, then SELECT ALL, then COPY. Close Word and return to InDesign. Under InDesign's EDIT drop down menu, click PASTE. The Raven text should load. If not, click in the text box to activate and retry.
Notice the red box in the bottom right. This is InDesign telling us there is additional text not being shown. InDesign also has an error checker at the bottom of the page. Doubleclick the bottom circle next to the "1 error" notice. Our "Preflight Checker," which reviews the document for errors before export, has detected the"overset text" indicated by the red text box.
To correct this, we will have to extract the remaining text from the red box and flow this through the rest of the document.
In the tool bar, click to activate the top arrow Selection Tool. Place the Selection Tool in the top left corner of the red overset text box on the bottom right of your page. Click once. This will capture the text in overset.
The text will stay attached to the arrow as you scroll down to the next page. As you scroll down, you will see facing pages 2 and 3. We want to insert our text on the left page, page 2.
Place the arrow so that the top corner of the text fits into the top left corner of our page two text box. Don't worry if you don't place it perfectly. You can adjust placement by highlighting the text box with the Selection Tool and moving into place on your page.
While holding down SHIFT and OPTION (Mac OS), or SHIFT and ALT (Windows) keys, click once to insert the overset text into the text box on page two. If you do not hold down SHIFT and OPTION, the text will only fill into page 2. SHIFT-OPTION flows all of the remaining text into the rest of your document.
Now, we can beging formatting our document. Your error button should be green with "No errors."
InDesign uses "Master Pages" to control formatting for all page documents. Go to the WINDOW drop down menu and click PAGES to open the Pages formatting window. In the Pages Window, double-click the left of the two A-Master page icons in the top section. This will open a A-Master template as a new page.
A key component of converting a document to EBook format is inserting character styles and paragraph styles. EBook readers formulate their tables of contents and recognize formatting through imbeeded styles.
We are going to add header titles to our Raven EBook. Master pages are used to input recurring information such as page numbers, headers, or footers.
Go to the WINDOW drop down menu and click on STYLES then CHARACTER STYLES. Characterstyles will allow us to format the header text we'll create.
Create a new CHARACTER STYLE by clicking on the CREATE NEW STYLE box at the bottom of the CHARACTER STYLE WINDOW.
"Character Style 1" will appear in blue on a new line. We will change the name to "title" in the next step. Doubleclick to open the Character Style Options window.
Click on the second menu item, Basic Character Formats. Change Style Name to title, Font Family to Georgia, Font Style to Bold, and Size to 10 pt.
Click OK to close the Character Style Options window.
In the open A-MASTER window, click on the "T" Type Tool. In the top header area, over your text box outline, create a text box and type in, "The Raven: Edgar Allan Poe." Highlight this text and click on the newly created "title" character style in your Character Styles window. This will embed the "title" character style format.
Click on to activate the top arrow Selector Tool. Click on the the header text box you just created and resize as necessary. Do the same on the right side, but insert "Cohort 13: American University" to appear on your right side page.
Return to the pages window. Since this is an EBook we will not add page numbers to appear on our pages. Click on page 1 in the lower section of the PAGES Window. This opens page one of our Raven document.
Now we can begin formatting. Because EBooks are resizable, they are not sectioned as printed books. Your EBook's page length will vary by size of the reader and their current window size.
An EBook's primary navigation is through Table of Contents. To formulate a Table of Contents, we must include PARAGRAPH STYLES.
Go to the WINDOW drop down and click STYLES, then PARAGRAPH STYLES.
Click on the CREATE NEW STYLE button on the bottom of the opened window.
A new blue Paragraph Style 1 will appear. Double click the new Paragraph Style 1 to open the Paragraph Styles Option window.
Click "Basic Character Formats" on the left. Change Style Name to h1, Font Family to Georgia, Font Style to Bold, Size to 18 pt, and Auto for Leading. If your measurement is different, enter the measurement given and InDesign will make the adjustment.
Click to open the Indents and Spacing window. Set Alignment to Center. Set Space After to .2 in. This will insert distance or "padding" between h1 text and text underneath. Make sure "First Line Indent" and all other values are set to "0".
Click OK to close the Paragraph Styles Options Window.
Create another new paragraph style, this one named h2. These are the two styles that will appear in our table of contents. Open the Paragraph Styles Options window and under Basic Character Formats enter h2 for Style Name, Georgia for Font Family, Bold for Font Style, 14 pt for Size, and Auto for Leading.
Click to open the Indents and Spacing Window. We are going to make two changes. Set Alignment to Center, and Space Before, and Space After, to .2 in. Ensure all other values are 0.
Click OK to close the Paragraph Styles Options Window.
Create a new paragraph style named text. Input Arial, Regular, 12 Pt, and Auto. In the Indents and Spacing tab, set Alignment to Left, and the First Line Indent to .2917 in. All other values should be 0. Close the Paragraph Style Options window.
Create one more paragraph style. Insert byline, Arial, Italic, 10 pt, and Auto. In the Indents and Spacing Tab, set Alignment to Center, check all other values are 0. Close.
We now have the character and paragraph styles to format our Kindle document. We are missing subheads for the table of contents. Type in Stanza 1 as a subheading over the first stanza. Insert numbered subheads over all eighteen stanzas. Remember when you scroll down to the next page, page two will be on the left of your screen so you may have to scroll to the left.
Go back to stanza 1 and, using the Type tool, highlight it. Click on h2 in the Paragraph Styles menu to apply the subheading attributes to your new subhead. Continue to apply the h2 style to all Stanzas.
Now we will apply h1 to our heading. Highlight The Raven text at the top with the Type tool and check h1 to apply the heading paragraph style.
Now, highlight the remaining header text applying the byline paragraph style.
Finally, highlight each of the 18 sections of poetry and apply the text style.
Almost done. Now we have to format the table of contents. Before we do, let's insert chapter divisions to show the table of contents navigation better.
After stanza 6, type, "Chapter 2," on a new line. Do the same after stanza 12, inserting "Chapter 3" on a new line. Give both the h1 paragraph style.
Now to finish and export.
Go to the LAYOUT drop down menu, click PAGES, then DELETE PAGES and insert 5-10, to delete unsed pages. Click OK.
Also in the LAYOUT menu at the bottom, click Table of Contents Styles. When the Styles box opens, click New (right side).
In TOC Style, type, "raven." Next to Title, type, "Table of Contents." In the Style drop down menu, click on TOC Title.
The next section is, "Styles in Table of Contents." Our paragraph and character styles are loaded. Click "h1" and the "<<Add" button to move h1 to the Include Paragraph Styles box. Next, click h2 and "<<Add."
Be sure to click OK. The Table of Contents Style window will close.
Go to FILE, and click EXPORT FOR KINDLE. We will be prompted to save our Kindle readable raven.mobi. Save to your desktop.
A new screen will open. Leave Book Title as raven. Check Include InDesign TOC (Table of Contents) entries. In the TOC Style drop down menu, check raven. At TOT Title, type in Table of Contents. TOC Format is Indented. Click the button next to Cover Image and upload "cohortcover." Check View eBook after Exporting.
Click Export.
Your eBook will open if a Kindle is on your device.
Click on the fourth table, "Go To Another Location," tab and click on Table of Contents. You can jump to the beginning or our inserted chapters by clicking them.
Congratulations. You've found a new way to communicate through Kindle.
