I'm thinking of doing a style survey

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

In a book of fiction, is a TOC necessary ?

[Thinking here more of the Chapter 1, Chapter 2 (blank variety) ...]

That's an excellent question, which I missed the first time through.

It irritates me to have to page through two or three screens of lists of numbers down the side of the screen, especially as ebook readers will almost always open at the same place that one closed the book. And even when the chapter numbers have chapter headings to them I don't think it adds much when reading the ebook.

I'm currently preparing Lorna Doone as an ebook, which has 75 chapters. That's a LOT of finicky work on the toc.ncx file, and I doubt that too many people take any notice of it.

I'll definitely work out some way of adding this item to the questionnaire.

Regards, Alex

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

That's an excellent question, which I missed the first time through.

It irritates me to have to page through two or three screens of lists of numbers down the side of the screen, especially as ebook readers will almost always open at the same place that one closed the book. And even when the chapter numbers have chapter headings to them I don't think it adds much when reading the ebook.

I'm currently preparing Lorna Doone as an ebook, which has 75 chapters. That's a LOT of finicky work on the toc.ncx file, and I doubt that too many people take any notice of it.

I'll definitely work out some way of adding this item to the questionnaire.

Regards, Alex

I remove TOCs when I build novel-style ebooks. I find them to be an inelegant way to get around the slowness of navigation. That data is much more useful in a menu than in the text itself.

[ath]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Are there any other questions I should include?

Some ideas -- may have covered already ...

do you prefer justified lines or ragged-right lines?

do you prefer good end-of-line hyphenation or bad to none at all?

do you accept intraword spacing that is wider than a captial 'M'?

do you accept widows?

do you prefer footnotes or endnotes?


They may need illustration to get across.

[Jack Tingle]

Pretty good questions. [my comments]

- Do you like to choose styles for yourself, or are you happy with whatever the publisher decides?
[Good question, but you may need to break it into several. I want to be able to override any publisher setting I find annoying. In most cases, I have no problems with publishers' styles.]
- Do you prefer serif or sans-serif fonts?
[Good question. Serif]
- I might give people a range of fonts and ask them to choose their preferred font - eg Bitstream Vera Sans, Georgia, Goudita Sans, Times New Roman, Verdana - any others?
[Troublesome question. Most people don't know font names. No one knows them all. I prefer standard-looking serif fonts. I have no brand loyalty.]
- Do you prefer justified or left aligned text?
[Good question. left aligned, ragged right.]
- Do you prefer paragraphs separated by white space, or marked by an indent, or both?
[Add, "either" to the list. Also note that not all readers handle this well. Another reason for allwoing viewer choice.]
- Do you prefer white space between lines of text?
[Good question, but give gradations, little, lots, etc. I prefer a quarter-line or so between the ascenders and the descenders.]
- Do you prefer side margins about the width of the hyphen on this line, or margins the width of the space between the left edge of the text and the D?
[Way to specific. Go with little/lots. I prefer a character's worth or so. No more.]
do you prefer footnotes or endnotes?
[Neither, I prefer hyperlinks.]

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[JSWolf]

ePub has the ability to have an external ToC. So there really is no need for an internal ToC for ePub.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Jellby

But is there something in the ePUB specification that mandates new files to be displayed in a new "page"? Sure, it makes sense, and any ePUB reader I know of requires a "next page" to go to the next file, but there could be other reader that only forces a pagebreak when an explicit CSS page-break is found. If that were the case, and if it's allowed by the spec, splitting at chapters wouldn't necessarily mean chapters start at a new page (which, on the other hand, could be useful if for some reason one is forced to split a very long chapter in two or more files).

Calibre's conversions do put in an explicit page breaks. But even so, since ADE works where a new flow starts on a new page, I seriously doubt anyone would make an ePub reader do it any different and if so, people would complain when ePub chapter ran into the previous text.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

ePub has the ability to have an external ToC. So there really is no need for an internal ToC for ePub.

Except if you happen to be using some reader software that doesn't support the external TOC fully.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I think this raises another question which hadn't occurred to me:
- Do you read most of your ebooks on the desktop or on your stand alone ereader?

Speaking only for myself I rarely if ever read ebooks on my desktop - except of course when I'm checking an ebook for publication. So the deficiencies of the ADE desktop reader are irrelevant to me. I'll have to make a decision as to whether to make the questionnaire specific for ebook readers or not.

So far as the 2% is concerned I guess I have been influenced by old habits from when I was designing websites. I've carried on before that ebooks are not print books, and I should remember that ebooks are not websites either. I'll think again about % or px for margins.

Regards, Alex

I do mostly read eBooks using my 505. But I've started reading a little bit on an iPhone if I don't have my reader with me.I used to read on the computer before I got a reader. I'd read on the desktop and the laptop (different laptop back then).

But you cannot assume what the user is going to be using for reading. Even if it's a reader, it could be one with a 4", 5" 6", 7", 8", 9.7", 10" or whatever size screen. If I was to read on my computer or the laptop, again, that brings yet more differences to the screen. So really, you cannot assume anything in terms of making an ePub.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Except if you happen to be using some reader software that doesn't support the external TOC fully.

What ePub reading software does not support an external ToC? Stanza perhaps?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What ePub reading software does not support an external ToC? Stanza perhaps?

I don't know, but the point is there might be. Up until the most recent firmware Bookeen firmware didn't support multi-level TOC's I wouldn't doubt it if some other Reader has problems as well.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I don't know, but the point is there might be. Up until the most recent firmware Bookeen firmware didn't support multi-level TOC's I wouldn't doubt it if some other Reader has problems as well.

But did Bookeen's firmware still show all the ToC entries externally even though is didn't support multi-level?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But did Bookeen's firmware still show all the ToC entries externally even though is didn't support multi-level?

Only the first/top level, which isn't always very useful.

[AlexBell]

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. Over the next couple of days I'll summarise them into a draft survey, and post it for a final check.

And then I'll work out how to make it into a survey.

Regards, Alex

[GeoffC]

you've done the 'easy' bit

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. Over the next couple of days I'll summarise them into a draft survey, and post it for a final check.

And then I'll work out how to make it into a survey.

Regards, Alex

One thing that would help is to have different photos of different layouts and then as us to pick which layout and then comment on our choice.