eBooks from HTML

[Slistress@adobeforums.com]

Hi,

Pulling my hair out on this one so would appreciate some pointers. I need to convert several thousand html pages each with 9 images set in a table into a number of eBooks.

I know that you cannot get html directly into InDesignCS but going via Word is a disaster as apart it just crashes ID. Converting to PDF is flaky as you can only do one page at a time and it compresses the jpegs, then you cannot reformat so half the page is off the Indesign page.

If I ever get the conversion done, how will I manage updates? Inserting new images into the tables. etc.

I want to stick with Adobe eBooks rather than one of the other formats.

Perhaps AdobeCS is not designed for this sort of job. To copy and paste a couple of hundred thousand captions seems unreal in this modern age but at the moment it seems the only way.

[Marilyn_Langfeld@adobeforums.com]

No need to bring anything into InDesign, if I understand what you want to do. If you have GoLive, check out it's export html to pdf command. That might do the trick. I've gotta say I've never tried it, so I don't know if there is a set of ebook options, so you'll have to try it and let us know if it works.

[Slistress@adobeforums.com]

A straight move to PDF just produces a mess with the pages breaking over two pages I cannot find anyway of scaling it to fit the 250x200mm page and of course you cannot modify the pdf!

The Html is plain vanilla HTML and it needs some decent typography and a lot of fine tuning.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to set up a page from scratch.

The basic grid is a 4 x 7 table per page with different cell mergings to accommodate different size graphics.

I want to be able to set the table up with basic skeleton but I cannot use tags in table cells! Getting the images into a cell is a pain too, particularly as I cannot tag the frames. I counted about 15 actions: Place > select file > set point > paste > adjust height to 58mm > adjust width to 58 > fit proportionally > center > select > copy > text tool > position > paste > delete first frame... several tool changes not noted.

I did a quick page in Corel Ventura took about 30 mins to get a close approximation. So far spent an hour trying to do the same in in ID. I have got 2 images into the table but cannot get either of the to position well - not yet worked out how to get rid of the margins in the cells. But tweaking each frame with multiple adjustments is taking forever! I have a fair way to go on the learning curve. Is there an easy way to get images fitted into a table? Or is there another approach that I do not need tables?

The reason I am not doing this in Ventura is because it is Version 8 which is a bit crashy on Win98 and half the functions cause it to crash under XP where I am now. I know they have now got a new version but I expect its future is short-lived. As I now need to produce eBooks that can be dual purposed for print, thought that CS would be up to the job.

In the 80's I used PM but after version 4 get fed up with its weak typography and switched to Ventura. It suffered badly after Corel bought it but I managed to survive a few upgrades.

[Marilyn_Langfeld@adobeforums.com]

How about another way altogether? Like setting up a template of dummy image and text frames plus para styles for the captions in InDesign (if all the pages in html use the same table layout). Copy/paste each item where it should go, per page into the dummy frames in the template? By the way, won't the image files be too small for print? So you'd have to relink them somehow anyway.

The only other thing I can think of is importing the html pages into a database program and using a catalogue plug-in to import the data into InDesign.

[Marilyn_Langfeld@adobeforums.com]

Or maybe it's time to ask some of the scripting gurus to take a look at your problem.

[Guy_Smiley@adobeforums.com]

Have you tried Acrobat's "Create PDF From Web Page" function? There you
can control scaling, font sizing, page size, etc.

[Slistress@adobeforums.com]

Marilyn,

I will have a try at your suggestions thank you. I glanced at the catalogue plug-ins and they look sensible for the job but seem to be a bit overpriced - more than the cost of CS.

Guy,

Tried the Acrobat option but it does seem to be able to do the job as you cannot change things after importing and when I force the page size text lines disappear behind the margins!

[Marilyn_Langfeld@adobeforums.com]

I agree about the price, but I guess it depends on your estimate for the job. Using one might save you enough time to pay for itself. There are folks on the forums who use these plug-ins, who could probably help with specific questions.

Good luck!

[Slistress@adobeforums.com]

Yes but apart from the plug-ins you need a database set up and a rough estimate is at least 5,000 dollars for the lot!

Unless someone knows of cheaper options? Also the Adobe advertised plug-in seems to be a bit limited in layout control.

[Marilyn_Langfeld@adobeforums.com]

Whew, I had no idea! I hope someone else has another idea for you. I'd try posting in the ID Scripting forum next, if I were you.

[Lynn_Grillo@adobeforums.com]

<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Slistress@adobeforums.com wrote:<BR>
<BR>
“<FONT COLOR="#000098"><I>A straight move to PDF just produces a mess with the pages breaking over two <BR>
pages I cannot find anyway of scaling it to fit the 250x200mm page and of <BR>
course you cannot modify the pdf!”<BR>
</I></FONT><BR>
Open the HTML page in GoLive CS, click the PDF Preview button at the top of the page, then take a look at the choices in the Inspector palette. You can scale the page there prior to exporting, add a margin, choose which flavor of PDF and so on. For styling the text, use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). To add a page break, look into the undocumented features in the GoLive CS ReadMeFirst.pdf. It says:<BR>
<BR>
PDF Page Break<BR>
When converting a file to PDF you can force a page break by adding the following comment in Layout / Source mode right before the element / text you want the page to break at. Example: &lt;!--GLPDF:Pagebreak--&gt;<BR>
<BR>
Hope this helps,<BR>
Lynn</SPAN></FONT>