Want chapter notes advice

[Elfwreck]

I'm converting a book with extensive notes for each chapter. Some of the notes are several pages long. I'd like some advice on the best way to deal with that. The easy option is "make the notes into their own chapter, with maybe a link from each note in the main text to the individual note at the end." But I'm not sure how the reader gets back to the main text then; will I need to put in a special "return" link, or is there a way to set that up automatically?

Are there simple, automated ways to set this up, or does it involve extensive hand-coding of the HTML?

Alternately, is it better/easier to have notes at the end of each chapter than all combined together at the end of the book? I might consider footnotes, except (1) I don't think most ebook formats support them and (2) as mentioned, some notes are pages long themselves.

Secondary question, not related: Is there any reason not to use jpgs for images? This book only has a couple of images, so I'm not worried if I should be making multiple image types for different ebook formats, but the next book I've got in line has potentially many images.

[DaleDe]

There is no perfect way to deal with this. Some ePUB readers do not support links at all and many do not support automatic back functions. There are a couple of choices.

Provide both a link to the data and a return link at the beginning and the end of the note to return to the text. Works well if only linked from one source. It is also possible to provide a page number. ADE at least assigns a distinct page number to the eBook and this can be used with built in Goto function.

Provide a link to skip around the note and set the note apart from the main text in some fashion. This way, those that have readers that don't support links can still read it. People that have links will be able to skip it if they wish and no return is required.

Which you use, I think, depends on how important the note is to the information. It may be that the author expects people to read the note, in which case, setting it apart but remaining in the flow would be appropriate.

As to your image question the size is really the only negative and generally images are worth the price of increased size to the document. There is no reason to have 8 Megapixel images however, and many readers will not support images this big anyway, even if they can scale them down. One and 1/2 megapixel will suit most readers and 1/2 megapixel may be fine. Most eReader have screens of only 800 x 600 pixels and even the large screens are only less than 2 Mega pixel in size. Keeping the images small will keep the size of the book small.

Dale

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

There is no perfect way to deal with this. Some ePUB readers do not support links at all and many do not support automatic back functions. There are a couple of choices.

That, I got. This goes under "Why Ebook Readers Will Not Be Taking Over The Academic World Anytime Soon." Lack of efficient ways of dealing with references means they're not really useable for serious research.

Provide both a link to the data and a return link at the beginning and the end of the note to return to the text. Works well if only linked from one source. It is also possible to provide a page number. ADE at least assigns a distinct page number to the eBook and this can be used with built in Goto function.

They're linked from one source (or I can leave them as linked from one source) like footnotes. I can also put the notes sections in the TOC so they'll be accessible from the main contents nav page (whatever that is for various devices) if internal links aren't supported.

I don't think I can deal with page numbers; I'm not that fluent with epub. Also, I want to make mobi versions as well.

Which you use, I think, depends on how important the note is to the information. It may be that the author expects people to read the note, in which case, setting it apart but remaining in the flow would be appropriate.

Main body of book: ~40,000 words.
Notes: ~25,000 words.

As to your image question the size is really the only negative and generally images are worth the price of increased size to the document.

Images:
Book cover: I've got it set at 900x1200 pixels but could make that smaller.
Author photo: Tiny. 150x300 pixels or so. Could leave this out, but don't need to.
Chart: one line-drawing table. Could make it a b&w tiff, except I think a lot of readers won't deal with that. But it's tiny filesize.

Just wondering if I should be paying attention to any pros-and-cons of jpg vs gif vs png vs other options.

I've also got some tables, but I'm converting those and going to deal with formatting the tables in HTML. (Hopefully, I will find a program that helps with this; I hate manually coding tables. It always takes me a dozen tries to get it right.)

I've got a next book lined up that has *lots* of tables, and I'm trying to decide if I need to convert those to text (and deal with screwy table formatting in various ebook formats) or make them images, and if so, gah, how do I best make them usable on different screen sizes.

[DaleDe]

Hmm, tables - perhaps a spreadsheet program and then save as a html table would help here. XCEL 97 is my favorite. Later version start really making messy html. Tables can be images of course but both ePUB and mobi do support simple tables. (Not tables within tables for mobi). It is best to make the tables not too wide. The reader will attempt to make it within the margins of the book but may not do it and then make it too wide to read easily. Not all readers can pan a tables well.

Tables will be split for pages but headers are unlikely to repeat on the new page.

Images, smaller file size is usually better. This means jpg most of the time but gif or png on line graphics may be even smaller. Jpg is often a bit fuzzy on line graphics.

The small author image is fine. I would keep it in. It can be left justified and float in the paragraph if you wish.

Dale

[Elfwreck]

The current book has only a few tables, and relatively simple ones. And the one chart that needs to be a picture, is about as simple as a bell curve--as long as the basic text on the sides is readable, it'll be fine.

The next book has nightmarish tables, and lots of them; I'm considering whether to redesign some of them entirely & split them into multiple parts so they'll fit on ereader pages more easily.

[DaleDe]

I think a redesign to simpler tables would be a good idea. Dense numbers can be difficult to read and use.

Dale

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I'm converting a book with extensive notes for each chapter. Some of the notes are several pages long. I'd like some advice on the best way to deal with that. The easy option is "make the notes into their own chapter, with maybe a link from each note in the main text to the individual note at the end." But I'm not sure how the reader gets back to the main text then; will I need to put in a special "return" link, or is there a way to set that up automatically?

As DaleDe says, not all readers have a "back" function. The Cybooks have, ADE doesn't. That is, in my opinion, a serious usability flaw. But not supporting links is even worse. But my advice is do not degrade the book quality just to cater for flawed readers which should have never existed. My option would be something like this book, with all notes at the end (with a separate chapter for each chapter's notes, because there are so many), and with return links (multiple, if the footnote is referenced in multiple places).

Are there simple, automated ways to set this up, or does it involve extensive hand-coding of the HTML?

Maybe you can use some HTML editor that makes it easy. I believe Sigil does not have the hyperlink editor yet, but it may help when it does. Anyway, it can be done with some good text editor and a couple of regexes, provided the initial file is not a complete mess.

Secondary question, not related: Is there any reason not to use jpgs for images? This book only has a couple of images, so I'm not worried if I should be making multiple image types for different ebook formats, but the next book I've got in line has potentially many images.

As a general rule, use JPG for photographs or pictures with many colour changes. For pictures with a few plain colours (screenshots, line figures, graphs...) use PNG (or GIF), they will usually compress better and the JPG artifacts are quite visible here.

Don't add unnecessary weight to the pictures. If they are all grayscale, make sure they are defined so (in Photoshop, Gimp, or similar). Don't use very high quality in the JPG compression (high quality = large file) if not needed. If you are working from a scan, with a white background, make sure it is really white, and not some grayish spotted thing.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by Jellby

My option would be something like this book, with all notes at the end (with a separate chapter for each chapter's notes, because there are so many), and with return links (multiple, if the footnote is referenced in multiple places).

Thanks so much, Jelby. I've downloaded the book and will look inside it when I have time since what you have done looks like a good way to make an index.

So far as footnotes are concerned for what it is worth I always provide a link from the text to the endnotes, and a link back from the endnotes back to the text. The CSS and HTML are below

.fn { font-size: 67%; vertical-align: text-top; } /* With thanks to Weatherwax */

<span class="fn" id="C1F1"><a href="Endmatter.html#C1N1">[1]</a></span>


<p id="C1N1"><a href="Ch01.html#C1F1">[1]</a> </p>

I prefer to put all the endnotes at the back, in the endmatter, so that readers don't have to plough through them at the end of each chapter, but I know other people prefer it the other way.

Regards, Alex

[wannabee]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

The next book has nightmarish tables, .

I could imagine you getting by with the first table by breaking it up into three separate tables. One for boys another for girls and then both. However that second table needs to have the LH column condensed somehow.

I've been adding tables into the chapter files quickly and easily by creating them in WORD. Saving them to HTML then cut and paste them appropriately. Maybe Open Office is as useful but I haven't tried it.
I've been formatting the tables with CSS as needed. The headers only display once in everything I've tested them on. PC emulators and iPad apps.
Mobi files don't display images in tables.

@Jellby / @AlexBell thanks for some use info on footnotes.