How can I create a kindle ebook with links to images and pop-up endnotes?

[DocHolliday2006]

Kindle Create won't allow me to link to internal images nor have pop up endnotes, as far as I can tell, though I have purchased kindle books that have these features.

So is there software that does this?

Do I need to learn a programming language to make it work?

Can anyone make any suggestions for how I should approach this?

Thanks.

[slowsmile]

@DocHolliday2006...If you're using Kindle Create, just create your links to images and create your endnotes in your Word doc. Then just load your Word doc into Kindle Create and they should work. Although its true that you cannot create or edit links to images or endnotes in Kindle Create you can certainly create them in Word first then load your Word doc into Kindle Create and those internal links and endnotes should work without problems in your Kindle ebook.

And as for creating endnotes in Word -- just create a footnote as you normally would in Word then, when you save it, select "Convert to endnote" in the dialog and your done. Do it that way for all endnote entries.

To set a link to an image in Word just click on your image and set a bookmark using Insert > Bookmark. Then you can set a link in text by just highlighting the appropriate text and clicking Insert > Hyperlink > Place in This Document and selecting the destination bookmark for that image link.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by slowsmile

@DocHolliday2006...If you're using Kindle Create, just create your links to images and create your endnotes in your Word doc. Then just load your Word doc into Kindle Create and they should work. Although its true that you cannot create or edit links to images or endnotes in Kindle Create you can certainly create them in Word first then load your Word doc into Kindle Create and those internal links and endnotes should work without problems in your Kindle ebook.

And as for creating endnotes in Word -- just create a footnote as you normally would in Word then, when you save it, select "Convert to endnote" in the dialog and your done. Do it that way for all endnote entries.

To set a link to an image in Word just click on your image and set a bookmark using Insert > Bookmark. Then you can set a link in text by just highlighting the appropriate text and clicking Insert > Hyperlink > Place in This Document and selecting the destination bookmark for that image link.

I do have a question for the OP (DocHolliday2006): when you talk about linking TO the image, how exactly are you doing that? Using what functionality? Are you linking to the image, itself, or to its caption or Figure/etc., identifier? And are you planning on a way to get the user back to where they were, from the image?

And presumably you don't mean using the images AS (outbound internal or external) links, is that right?

A last note, which slowsmile did not mention, for the love of your own sanity, do NOT EDIT in KindleCreate. People don't realize that there's no way to extract or save or export an updated Word file from KC, but there isn't. Now without a lot of brain-damage, so make sure that you completely edit or tweak or refine your Word document outside of KC.

If you do make edits or changes, when in KC, take a moment and make sure you make those same changes to your source (Word) document. Otherwise, we'll see you here or at the KDP forums, asking how to get an updated file from KC.

Good luck.

Hitch

[Quoth]

Best idea is to avoid Kindle Create.

[slowsmile]

@Hitch...

"A last note, which slowsmile did not mention, for the love of your own sanity, do NOT EDIT in Kindle Create. People don't realize that there's no way to extract or save or export an updated Word file from KC, but there isn't. "

Really Hitch? Then what is the purpose of the Kindle Create app? The main purpose of KC is to allow the user to finish-off and improve his/her ebook with better-looking interior styling than you would get if you uploaded a Word doc direct to Amazon. To do that you have to edit your ebook in KC. Right? This particularly applies to both reflowable ebooks and paperbacks created using KC. Fixed format is exempt here because it is another beast altogether that I will mention later.

And everybody seems to think that you must always find a way to export your Word doc or go back to your original Word doc if you have to either update or change your published reflowable ebook or paperback book if you use Kindle Create. Which is utterly wrong and complete bunkum.

In Kindle Create, when you've finished your ebook/book you MUST ALWAYS save it twice. First you should save all your KC work to the KC Project Folder on your computer. Then you should also save it as KPF file for Amazon upload. You already know all about the KPF file.

But hey what's this KC project folder all about?? The project folder contains your project file(*.kcb file) which contains ALL the edits from your original Word doc as well as ALL the edits from using Kindle Create. And if you click on that saved *.kcb file -- Hey Presto! -- it will automatically open in Kindle Create and you can then resume where you left off editing your project in Kindle Create. This applies only when you create reflowable ebooks and paperbacks using Kindle Create.

The whole point of having a project folder and project file is to be able to save ALL your work and then be able to resume or update your work later. Heck, I don't know why so many people -- especially on the Kindle Community Forum -- fail to see this and just don't get it. This ain't rocket science for goodness sake. I mean I'm pretty sure any Scrivener, Jutoh or even AWP users will know exactly what I'm talking about with KC because those apps also use the Project Folder -> Project File way of saving whole, complete projects created using those apps.

The only time you will ever have to go back to your original Word doc for any changes or updates after publishing is when you publish a Fixed Format ebook using KC. And the reason for that is because all inbound PDF pages are all automatically converted into page images in KC -- which you can't edit in KC anyway.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by slowsmile

The only time you will ever have to go back to your original Word doc for any changes or updates after publishing is when you publish a Fixed Format ebook using KC. And the reason for that is because all inbound PDF pages are all automatically converted into page images in KC -- which you can't edit in KC anyway.

You overlook some important reasons why someone may want to have a Word file with the edits applied after editing a book in KC. Since there is no way to export a Word file from KC, there is no clean way to obtain this without manually re-applying the changes made in KC again in Word.

If you are unhappy with the way KC produces a print book you will want to go back to a Word document and use that to create a PDF that looks the way you want.

If you want to publish your book outside of Amazon then you will need a source document for that.

If you find that you need to update a list, table, or anything else that KC is incapable of editing you will need to go back to the original Word document and start over.

[slowsmile]

Originally Posted by jhowell

You overlook some important reasons why someone may want to have a Word file with the edits applied after editing a book in KC. Since there is no way to export a Word file from KC, there is no clean way to obtain this without manually re-applying the changes made in KC again in Word.

If you are unhappy with the way KC produces a print book you will want to go back to a Word document and use that to create a PDF that looks the way you want.

If you want to publish your book outside of Amazon then you will need a source document for that.

If you find that you need to update a list, table, or anything else that KC is incapable of editing you will need to go back to the original Word document and start over.

"You overlook some important reasons why someone may want to have a Word file with the edits applied after editing a book in KC. Since there is no way to export a Word file from KC, there is no clean way to obtain this without manually re-applying the changes made in KC again in Word."
If we are talking about creating reflowable ebooks and paperbacks only using KC, why would I even want to export a Word file from KC if I can already save all my original Word doc edits + all KC edits in the *.kcb project file in my project folder using KC? So, as my argument goes, if you can save ALL edits in the KC project file then reverting to your Word doc for updates would seem to me to be completely unnecessary and pointless.

Of course, if you're talking about a Fixed Format ebook then you're right, the only way to update your published Fx ebook would be to go back to your original pre-PDF Word doc. I think I've mentioned this already in the last paragraph of my last post. And anyway who, in their right mind, would ever consider using KC to create a Fixed Format ebook with all its tragic downsides??

"If you are unhappy with the way KC produces a print book you will want to go back to a Word document and use that to create a PDF that looks the way you want."
Well, two things really. First, there are a lot of people using Kindle Create for print books now. Secondly, I think you might agree that most of the problems that appear on the Kindle Community Forum(KCF) now are usually all about problems uploading PDFs direct to KDP Print as print books. There seems to be very few indie authors having problems using KC for their print book uploads on the KCF. Indeed I would perhaps put it the other way round -- it might even be the case that frustrated indie authors, who cannot sort out their error-less PDF upload problems for print are now moving across to KC in droves to create their Amazon print books because it's so much easier with far fewer errors on upload.

What you're saying is also wrong -- you certainly don't have to go back to your original Word doc to update a published print book using KC. Why? Because if you create either a reflowable ebook or a paperback book using Kindle Create both workflows are essentially the same. See below:

Workflow for ebook using KC:
Word doc -> Kindle Create -> Save project folder and upload KPF to Amazon KDP

Workflow for print using KC:
Word doc -> Kindle Create -> Save project folder and upload KPF to Amazon Print

So what I'm saying is that for both reflowable ebooks and paperbacks you just load a prepared Word doc into KC. And you can save ALL edits(from Word and KC) -- for both your ebook and print versions -- in the project file within their respective project folders. Later, if required, you should be able to make any update changes to these published books/ebooks via their KC project files and republish them as needed viz. the original Word doc is NOT required for reflowable ebook updates or print book updates.

"If you want to publish your book outside of Amazon then you will need a source document for that"
That's true. It doesn't really bother me though. Even if you prefer to upload epubs to online retailers, you will always have to upload one epub version to Amazon and a differently formatted epub version for the rest of the epub retailers either individually or via a single aggregator like Draft2Digital. That's pretty much par for the course for Amazon Kindle. So, for me anyway, that's not such a big deal.

"If you find that you need to update a list, table, or anything else that KC is incapable of editing you will need to go back to the original Word document and start over."
That's also true. Lists are a bit finicky in Word, epub or KC anyway if your creating a reflowable ebook for Amazon. I don't normally use endnotes and I normally format tables as images in both epubs and Kindle Create which works fairly well.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by slowsmile

What you're saying is also wrong -- you certainly don't have to go back to your original Word doc to update a published print book using KC. Why? Because if you create either a reflowable ebook or a paperback book using Kindle Create both workflows are essentially the same.

The point I was trying to make about print books is that the author/publisher may be unhappy with the limited options KC has for adding features needed within print books, such as page number, header, and footers. If someone desires more flexibility they can obtain that by adding those things in the Word document and producing a PDF from that. That is probably the most common workflow for producing a print book.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by slowsmile

@Hitch...

"A last note, which slowsmile did not mention, for the love of your own sanity, do NOT EDIT in Kindle Create. People don't realize that there's no way to extract or save or export an updated Word file from KC, but there isn't. "

Really Hitch? Then what is the purpose of the Kindle Create app? The main purpose of KC is to allow the user to finish-off and improve his/her ebook with better-looking interior styling than you would get if you uploaded a Word doc direct to Amazon. To do that you have to edit your ebook in KC. Right? This particularly applies to both reflowable ebooks and paperbacks created using KC. Fixed format is exempt here because it is another beast altogether that I will mention later.

And everybody seems to think that you must always find a way to export your Word doc or go back to your original Word doc if you have to either update or change your published reflowable ebook or paperback book if you use Kindle Create. Which is utterly wrong and complete bunkum.

In Kindle Create, when you've finished your ebook/book you MUST ALWAYS save it twice. First you should save all your KC work to the KC Project Folder on your computer. Then you should also save it as KPF file for Amazon upload. You already know all about the KPF file.

But hey what's this KC project folder all about?? The project folder contains your project file(*.kcb file) which contains ALL the edits from your original Word doc as well as ALL the edits from using Kindle Create. And if you click on that saved *.kcb file -- Hey Presto! -- it will automatically open in Kindle Create and you can then resume where you left off editing your project in Kindle Create. This applies only when you create reflowable ebooks and paperbacks using Kindle Create.

The whole point of having a project folder and project file is to be able to save ALL your work and then be able to resume or update your work later. Heck, I don't know why so many people -- especially on the Kindle Community Forum -- fail to see this and just don't get it. This ain't rocket science for goodness sake. I mean I'm pretty sure any Scrivener, Jutoh or even AWP users will know exactly what I'm talking about with KC because those apps also use the Project Folder -> Project File way of saving whole, complete projects created using those apps.

The only time you will ever have to go back to your original Word doc for any changes or updates after publishing is when you publish a Fixed Format ebook using KC. And the reason for that is because all inbound PDF pages are all automatically converted into page images in KC -- which you can't edit in KC anyway.

Yes, "really," William. You have NO idea how many times per week, we get someone washing up on the shore of my firm, because, sure enough, they have a KC folder and they need their "Word file." And here's the thing--it doesn't matter why they need it. It doesn't matter what YOU THINK. What matters is, they need their source file, to do X, Y or Z.

This attitude that they should take what they get, with KC, and be happy and shut up is really intolerable. Why should they shut up and be happy with it? What happens if they want to do something 2, 3 years down the line? What if they want to send it to--OMG!--an EDITOR? What if they (gasp!) want an ePUB?


They do not understand, upfront, that having committed edits to KC, they're then bloody stuck with it. Anyone who actually works with authors, on a larger-scale basis knows damned well that the concept of a "finished manuscript" is a bloody oxymoron. I've had customers that have ended up with more than 5500 edits. Yes, that's not a typo--Fifty-Five Hundred edits.

I've had a shocking number of clients decide to hire an editor, AFTER we've done their layout, either in INDD or in HTML/ePUB/MOBI. After, not before. With professionals (or Word) they can do that without considerable brain-damage, but not with KC. Is it an ideal scenario, for someone that far into production to then decide that they want an editor? No--but it happens a lot more than you think.

And people are entitled to want more than KC gives. It's ridiculous to assert that somehow, KC is going to meet everyone's needs. It's not.

And in those circumstances where it's not, the user has to go through all sorts of gyrations to do nothing more than get his or her current "final" manuscript in a working document form."Oh, it's easy, just download Calibre, take this file and convert it to this other format and then convert it to this third format to get a DOCX file..." I mean, come ON. The people that are going to use KC, by and large--because it's EASY--are going to be intimidated by all that.

KC is nothing more than a piece of software that holds somebody's hand, whilst walking through assigning styles. Yes, it does one-two more things, but...it's not all that. And while I'm sure that Amazon would LOVE to go to a locked-in scenario, where everybody has to use KC, and end up with a format that is useful only for Amazon (similar to using iAuthor, which I see that Apple is abandoning, mind you), I feel that having all the options open to you--and NOT being locked-in to using KC--gives people the most options.

If you want to keep pitching KC, that's your prerogative, but don't tell people not to worry about edits that they make in it. That is disingenuous and assumes that everything that they want to do, is doable from KC and we all know it's not. It's not harmful to tell them to make sure that they're using a final file, or as final as possible, before they put it in KC. Sure, the KC output can look nice, or nicer than possibly the user could do themselves, but it's a pretty limited set of options.

Hitch

[Quoth]

It's dubious using Kindle Create for ebooks. Better to use Wordprocessor (edit/save in best native format), save as with Fonts as Docx, convert using Sigil or Calibre to epub2 (with font subsetting), upload the epub2 to Amazon. Amazon admits that works best.

But CRAZY to use Kindle Create for paper.

You get a very poor PDF for paper editions going the Kindle Create Route and the ONLY way to create paper editions is Wordprocessor -> PDF (either export, or via Indesign or any random PDF converter, but not Calibre) -> Publisher.

It's a mad idea to encourage lock-in to Amazon to use either Kindle Create or an eBook for an Amazon paper edition. Creates a poor paperback and lock-in.

[slowsmile]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Yes, "really," William. You have NO idea how many times per week, we get someone washing up on the shore of my firm, because, sure enough, they have a KC folder and they need their "Word file." And here's the thing--it doesn't matter why they need it. It doesn't matter what YOU THINK. What matters is, they need their source file, to do X, Y or Z.

This attitude that they should take what they get, with KC, and be happy and shut up is really intolerable. Why should they shut up and be happy with it? What happens if they want to do something 2, 3 years down the line? What if they want to send it to--OMG!--an EDITOR? What if they (gasp!) want an ePUB?

They do not understand, upfront, that having committed edits to KC, they're then bloody stuck with it. Anyone who actually works with authors, on a larger-scale basis knows damned well that the concept of a "finished manuscript" is a bloody oxymoron. I've had customers that have ended up with more than 5500 edits. Yes, that's not a typo--Fifty-Five Hundred edits.

I've had a shocking number of clients decide to hire an editor, AFTER we've done their layout, either in INDD or in HTML/ePUB/MOBI. After, not before. With professionals (or Word) they can do that without considerable brain-damage, but not with KC. Is it an ideal scenario, for someone that far into production to then decide that they want an editor? No--but it happens a lot more than you think.

And people are entitled to want more than KC gives. It's ridiculous to assert that somehow, KC is going to meet everyone's needs. It's not.

And in those circumstances where it's not, the user has to go through all sorts of gyrations to do nothing more than get his or her current "final" manuscript in a working document form."Oh, it's easy, just download Calibre, take this file and convert it to this other format and then convert it to this third format to get a DOCX file..." I mean, come ON. The people that are going to use KC, by and large--because it's EASY--are going to be intimidated by all that.

KC is nothing more than a piece of software that holds somebody's hand, whilst walking through assigning styles. Yes, it does one-two more things, but...it's not all that. And while I'm sure that Amazon would LOVE to go to a locked-in scenario, where everybody has to use KC, and end up with a format that is useful only for Amazon (similar to using iAuthor, which I see that Apple is abandoning, mind you), I feel that having all the options open to you--and NOT being locked-in to using KC--gives people the most options.

If you want to keep pitching KC, that's your prerogative, but don't tell people not to worry about edits that they make in it. That is disingenuous and assumes that everything that they want to do, is doable from KC and we all know it's not. It's not harmful to tell them to make sure that they're using a final file, or as final as possible, before they put it in KC. Sure, the KC output can look nice, or nicer than possibly the user could do themselves, but it's a pretty limited set of options.

Hitch

I think that we're talking at cross-purposes. We're not talking about the same thing. I was specifically referencing the incorrect common belief that many people still have(especially on KCF) when using KC that there is absolutely no way at all that you can edit and update your already-published reflowable ebook or print book using Kindle Create because the Word doc does not contain ALL edits -- ie people still wrongly believe that you always need to go back to the original Word doc to make an update to your already-published reflowable ebook or book on Amazon. That's what I've been talking about. And that's what I thought you were talking about in your original post.

I've since realized that you've been talking about suddenly discovering that you cannot publish on other ebook/book retailer platforms or whatever using KC and you want your Word doc + ALL KC edits to publish somewhere else. So you need to somehow extract the original Word doc with ALL KC edits intact. My view on that is that indie authors should always learn a new app's capabilities -- be fully informed about the pros an cons of that app -- BEFORE using it. And, yes, you're absolutely right using KC does lock you into Amazon which is not a good thing. But if you're just a know-nothing newbie author who only wants to publish his/her book/ebook as fast as possible on Amazon then what are you gonna do? Your gonna use the easiest application that gets you published as quickly as possible on Amazon. And it's almost guaranteed that the newbie author will also be clueless using MS Word as well as clueless using Kindle Create. We see problems like that every day on the KCF.

Just to clarify, you and I know that Amazon is after your dosh and just wants to lock you into their apps like KC. That's a given that will never change, right? We know that but does that newbie author over there know that? And if he doesn't know that and still uses KC(while also intending to publish elsewhere) then whose fault is that?

"If you want to keep pitching KC, that's your prerogative, but don't tell people not to worry about edits that they make in it. That is disingenuous and assumes that everything that they want to do, is doable from KC and we all know it's not"
I'm certainly not "pitching KC". Kindle Create also has plenty of problems, particularly their fixed format which is awful as you know. No, I've been pitching "informed free choice"(in case you missed it). That means, for instance, that if you already know all about the Amazon lock-in with Kindle Create and you don't intend to publish your book or reflowable ebook anywhere else but Amazon(plenty of indie authors do that) then using Kindle Create is probably the most ideal choice.

[slowsmile]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The point I was trying to make about print books is that the author/publisher may be unhappy with the limited options KC has for adding features needed within print books, such as page number, header, and footers. If someone desires more flexibility they can obtain that by adding those things in the Word document and producing a PDF from that. That is probably the most common workflow for producing a print book.

I would certainly agree with you that preparing and uploading a PDF is probably the most common way of producing a print book on Amazon. However, as I've already pointed out, there are alot of people having trouble with uploading a PDF as seen on the Kindle Community Forum. And alot of these PDF upload problems produce errors with no error messages. The difficulty factor is also much greater for PDF uploads than the difficulty factor when you upload a print book using KC. Indeed that's probably why so many people are using KC for their print book uploads now. Because using KC, it's so easy and usually error-free on upload because the whole process of calculating or setting values for trim, spine, margins, gutter, bleed etc is done automatically on upload from the metadata on your KDP Paperback Contents page. I would also agree with you that KC does standardize certain setting values like margins, gutter etc. And, as I see it, that just gives you a choice: Do you want to use the traditional and more complicated method of preparing/uploading your book as a PDF(with outside distribution) or do you want to use the quick and easy hassle-free method using KC(which locks your book into Amazon only)?

And, before you mention it, I realize that using KC for your print books will also perhaps limit your book distribution to Amazon only whereas if you prepare a PDF you can upload that to other online book distributors. But that's just a choice. I like choices. But before you make that choice you should also be fully informed as to the advantages and disadvantages of those two choices. And if you're not fully informed -- and you goof -- then who else can you blame but yourself?

I mean you and I both know that Amazon is after your wallet and wants to lock you into their apps. That's pretty much a given that will never change, right? We know that but does that newbie author over there know that? And if he doesn't know that and still uses KC(while fully intending to publish elsewhere) then whose fault is that?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by slowsmile

I would certainly agree with you that preparing and uploading a PDF is probably the most common way of producing a print book on Amazon. However, as I've already pointed out, there are alot of people having trouble with uploading a PDF as seen on the Kindle Community Forum. And alot of these PDF upload problems produce errors with no error messages.

They need to learn what they are doing wrong. Perhaps even order a proof copy from Lulu or 24bookprint.com which is a similar cost to ordering a proof from KDP. It can be cheaper to use 24bookprint.com if in Europe. Ingram spark is expensive as you pay up front just to create the proof.

Also they need to create the PDF themselves and preview on AT LEAST a full HD screen in Side by side true book mode.

They usually need to learn actual Wordprocessing skills, like styles. They need a different format with the ebook copy and pasted a chapter at a time and the images deleted and replaced. Then create the PDF.

Kindle Create is only creating the illusion that you don't need to learn anything. You DO need to learn some stuff about wordprocessing, or Layout, and ebooks and paper typesetting.
Otherwise better to pay someone, like in the old days.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

They need to learn what they are doing wrong. Perhaps even order a proof copy from Lulu or 24bookprint.com which is a similar cost to ordering a proof from KDP. It can be cheaper to use 24bookprint.com if in Europe. Ingram spark is expensive as you pay up front just to create the proof.

Also they need to create the PDF themselves and preview on AT LEAST a full HD screen in Side by side true book mode.

They usually need to learn actual Wordprocessing skills, like styles. They need a different format with the ebook copy and pasted a chapter at a time and the images deleted and replaced. Then create the PDF.

Kindle Create is only creating the illusion that you don't need to learn anything. You DO need to learn some stuff about wordprocessing, or Layout, and ebooks and paper typesetting.
Otherwise better to pay someone, like in the old days.

AMEN BROTHER!

I try to see if I can't show someone in our shop, at least ONE lousy thing that they didn't know when they arrived. Just ONE.

A little learning can go a long way.

Hitch