Quote:
Originally Posted by Liudprand
Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. Two things are standard (in my experience, universal) in the nonfiction book-publishing industry where ebooks are concerned:
1. Notes are numbered within chapters - starting from one with the first note in each chapter - not in a single sequence running throughout the book.
2. Only the note cues themselves are formatted as links, as opposed to what (I think) you were suggesting - i.e. that more than just the cue should be formatted as a link, because people need a "larger area to tap on". I can see your point here - it's just a practice that no professionally published book I'm aware of actually follows; thus, my clients want the link to apply ONLY to the note cue.
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What I suggested allows 1. or indeed ANY scheme of labelling the notes.
On 2., that's not true. A link that's only a paper style superscript isn't an industry standard for ebooks and unless you make the font big, doesn't work! If you are obsessed with copying paper style there would be no link! But a style compromise is a Character Style (can be done in Word) that hides the customary link style for the preceeding word, but it is the link, so when the tiny number is tapped the UI really gets the tap on the adjoining word and the link to footnote works.
If you don't believe, PM an email address and I will send a word docx and you can make it to an epub in Calibre without any editing in Calibre.
Loads of big companies do stupid imitations of paper, often with InDesign, that don't work. That does not make what they do an industry standard.
We test on up to 5 makes of eink reader, including three kinds of Kindle, and also on Apps on 4.3″ to 10″ phones/tablets. Our ebooks work on epub, Kindle KFX, Kindle azw3 and are readable on the ancient Kindle models that only do mobi.
You also can't rely on footnotes working as "popups", so they must be 1 to 1 with the main text and each having a [back] text at the end to bookmark (Word, becomes HTML anchor) at the source paragraph.
Having footnotes at the end of each chapter is preferable to the end of the book for those that don't click or don't want to spoil the flow. Also a few ereaders have no hyperlinks at all, so the only way to read the footnotes is when you get to that page!
What you can't do ever on ebooks is have bottom of the page footnotes as are common in some fiction and reference. But you can insert right justified marginalia just after a paragraph which works for very short notes.
Ebooks have properties paper doesn't have (change font face, margins, font size, line spacing, links and a system TOC accessible on every page. Usually search within book, unlimited bookmarks, highlight and annotations too). But not all ereaders and not all apps have all of these features.
Conversely while drop caps,
SMALL CAPS, work on some ereaders/apps, they are a bad idea as they don't always work. Usually double-page spread to show info across two pages is impossible, similarly support for columns is possible but fails on most phones, and over 1/2 of ebooks read on phones. Many screens aren't big enough. People with poorer eyesight will maybe have twice the size of font you imagine. Tables are possible, but can easily be useless. More use of sequential alternate paragraphs than side-by-side columns needed together.
So Ebooks are wonderful, but you can't present the content exactly as on paper and give a good reading experience.
Get a 6″ Kindle and an 8″ Kobo pair of eink and read lots on them and test on them. Amazon has over 90% of English Language market, yet don't deliver as epub, but best upload to them is epub. They have three main formats for "real" ebooks, depending on Kindle model, app and delivery method.