English 680V: Visual Rhetoric in a Technological Age (Purdue)

For fun and experimentation, see you can make an ebook in one hour. Follow these steps to make a PDF ebook with all the right components.

1. Get your content. To to Project Gutenberg, pick out a book, then download or copy and paste the book body (including frontmatter). It's best to create a .txt version, for easy of import at the next step.

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/

2. Download the attachments to this post. There are templates for Adobe InDesign files (cover and interior) and two PDF files that show what the template looks like as a PDF file.

3. Open your content in Word. Strip out all the text (front and at end) that won't go in your book. Save the file as a txt file (using Save as Type). Keep the file open.

4. Open the Interior template with Adobe InDesign. Arrange your workspace so that you can see the pages panel, paragraph styles, and character styles. You may also need at some point the swatches, character, and paragraph panels as you work on your book.

5. In InDesign, import your book's content, starting with the front matter. You can cut-and-paste titles and such from the open txt file. Close that text file when you're done getting the frontmatter.

6. When you are ready to "place" the main book body, go to the preface/introduction or chapter 1 page. In the existing text box, delete the current placeholder text. Keep your cursor positioned in the text box. Select File > Place (or cmd-D), navigate to your book content, and then select it. The first part of your book should be inserted into the text frame in InDesign.

7. Flow the rest of your text. First, select the arrow tool. Then click on the little red box in the lower-left corner of the text frame on page 3. An icon will float next to your cursor. Scroll to page 2. Position your cursor in the upper left corner of the next page. Hold down the shift key and you'll see the icon change to a curly (that means that when you place it, it will flow the whole book, creating more blank pages as necessary). With your cursor still positioned, click. Your whole book will be placed.

8. Create all of your master pages, one for set for each chapter. Use the Chapter 1 master, then duplicate it as many times as you need. (Be sure that the master pages pane is visible.) You create master pages by choosing from the drop-down arrow the "duplicate master . . ." after you have selected both master pages (verso and recto). Change the name of each master set by selecting it, then choosing "master options for . . .". Once your masters are created, go to each one and insert the running headers. Be sure to apply the proper paragraph styles to each of them (place your cursor on the line, and then click on the relevant paragraph style). Later, you will apply these master pages to each chapter set in the main book.

9. Divide your main book block into chapters where appropriate. Start each chapter on a new page (right click and select Insert break character/page break to manually insert new pages.

10. Do the layout on your book using the paragraph styles palette. Apply the Chapter Title style to your chapter title. Apply "body copy flush left" to all paragraphs after headers. Apply "body copy" to all regular body paragraphs. You can apply styles quickly by highlighting the relevant text and clicking on the relevant paragraph style.

11. Go to the end of your book to see that the book has flowed completely. If there are extra blank pages delete them (using the pages pane). If the text needs to flow onto new pages, create the new pages (see step 7).

12. Apply the master pages to the chapters. Apply the title master to the chapter title pages. Apply the relevant chapter master to the chapters (select all the pages in the chapter, right click and choose "apply master to pages" and choose the relevant master set to apply.

13. Create your Table of Contents. Use the layout/table of contents function. Go to your existing contents blank page (v). Choose layout/table of contents from the menu bar. The only paragraph styles you want listed in the left pane are "chapter titles." (Click on "more options" if you need to.) Under the Style section, you want to list "contents chapter title" and choose "contents page number" as the style to apply. Next to page number, select "after entry" and then "between entry and num" choose "right indent tab" (you may need to erase any existing characters there). The style should be "none." Click "okay" when you're done. Your TofC will show up as an icon next to your cursor. Place it on page v, 2" from the top margin, by click at the insertion point. If longer than one page, you may need to flow it to the next page (click on the little red box, etc.)

14. Do your final quality control check. Fix stuff. And then you're done.

15. Export your book as a PDF file. Use the File > Adobe PDF presets and select "smallest file size."

Now create your cover!

1. Open the template file in InDesign. Add all the relevant text. Add images, etc. When finished, export your book as a PDF (smallest file size).

Now combine your two PDF files to make the ebook.

1. Open the main book block in Adobe Acrobat. Once open, make sure the pages pane is visible (it may be a tab to start with).

2. Insert the cover pages by choosing "insert pages" from the drop down arrow at the top of the pages pane. Put cover pages at the top of your book.

3. Save your file again, giving it a name like "Frankenstein.pdf."

You're done.

Other steps: Stamp the book with logos, navigation, etc.
Make the PDF page numbering match the book pagination.
You could trim the cover spread by slicing it into just a front and back by using Acrobat's crop function (trim and save the front under a new name, then open the original spread again, and then trim and save the back). Put the front and back pages at the front of your book.

First one done gets a free Parlor Press book. The book has to be functional, with no major problems with layout, presentation, missing pieces, etc. Post the PDF book to a blog entry with a descriptive title and then a short post letting readers know what to do to get the book.