Spoilers in epub book

[styler001]

Hi, all.

Is it possible, using MS Word as the editor, to include "spoilers" in an epub book? I've got a few Spanish stories I want to put into an epub for the little ones, and have them press a "translate" button which would then display the English translation.

If it's not possible with Word, is there a way to save as an HTML file and do something there?

Thanks.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by styler001

Is it possible, using MS Word as the editor, to include "spoilers" in an epub book?

AFAIK, that's not possible to include "spoilers" in an epub book with MS Word. However, it is possible to create collapsible text in HTML files, but that would require at least basic HTML editing skills and many older apps and readers won't display the collapsed text. (My test file works with Sigil, Calibre and ADE 4.5.)

Originally Posted by styler001

If it's not possible with Word, is there a way to save as an HTML file and do something there?

You could save your book as a .docx file, convert it to an .epub file with Calibre and edit it with the Calibre editor or Sigil.

[Quoth]

Or use "footnotes", I think in LibreOffice or Word they can map to links when you make an ebook. Some readers can pop them up in a box and others put it on a fresh page when you tap, then tap on footer or back button to return to original text.

I was looking at how to do format a "Plot your own adventure" in Word/LibreOffice. There is even an original mobi html element that marks an end you can't go past with "next page" thus navigation only by choice in links at end of each "chapter". I don't know yet if the epub2 or KF8/AZW supports it.

(LibreOffice may be better than Word now for making eBooks, even saveAs docx and using Calibre)

[styler001]

I've been using Mantano's Bookari Reader and lately Google Books (or whatever they call it). Not sure if either would accept collapsible text.

Just on my way to work now, so I'll have to check back in here later and give things a better look.

Thanks for the quick reply, guys! I left a similar question on StackExchange 17 days ago and it's had 43 views (a bunch are probably me) and no replies. Overnight here, I've already got two.

[styler001]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

(LibreOffice may be better than Word now for making eBooks, even saveAs docx and using Calibre)

Just curious about that. If LibreOffice is a free "knockoff" of MS Office, how could it be better? Have they added things Office doesn't have?

When I was using OpenOffice before, I found that it was close, but didn't have all of the features of Word. But that was years and years ago.

Can you convince me why I should switch? Believe me, I'm not a MS fanatic. I hate the fact that they use a few billion of us as their unknowing beta testers. Anything better than, or just as good as, Office would be a good enough reason to switch.

[Quoth]

StarOffice was the original "knock off" in about 1985 for CP/M and MS-DOS.
Then there was SunOffice
OpenOffice
LibreOffice

It can read & write many MS Office Format and has "native formats". IMO "Writer" manages paragraph, character, table, list, graphic and page styles better than MS Word. Sometimes imports / exports are bit strange and it may be good to edit formats/styles on imports.
It's best to use ODT to edit and only Save AS to export to people /apps needing DOC or DOCX.

You might do some less common things differently in Writer than Word.

The Graphs are easier to manage in the Spreadsheet than in Excel. Though I use Gnumeric for simple spreadsheets.
MS never did much with Powerpoint after they bought it. Impress is less annoying.

So anyway while LibreOffice can be used to import and edit existing work, and can Save As for Word and apps wanting Word format, and Export (decent HTML and PDF export), it's not a knock off or clone.

You can use traditional menus, docked or floating, or Ribbon like interface.
I'd not go back to MS Office. Esp the versions with Ribbon or MS's clone of Google Docs, the Office 365.
The last decent MS Office was 2003 and all future emphasis is on the Cloud and Office 365/Subscription.

I used LibreOffice for about a year on windows instead of MS Word & Excel before Linux only. I used to teach MS Office.
I've used Word for Windows since Ver 2.0a in the 1990s.
I'd used Wordstar, Word Prefect and MS Word on CP/M and MS-DOS (1981 - 1992)
I found Word 2002 / XP better than OpenOffice in the years before LibreOffice became the replacement.
OpenOffice as such is gone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org

Some parts of the original OpenOffice make no sense now:
Vector: Inkscape better
Images: Gimp better
Database: MySql, MariaDB or SqlLite
Image conversion / processing / display: ImageMagick (servers or workstations)

I've now written nearly 30 books and other docs and over 2 million words in LibreOffice Writer.

[JSWolf]

The best way to put in spoilers is to move the last chapter where we find out who commited the murder as the first chapter.

[styler001]

FrustratedReader,

I hear you. I didn't mean knock-off in a bad way. Just an imitation...and one that sounds like a better imitation than "the real thing".

I've used pretty much all of the old ones you were talking about...aside from the CPM version. I really loved WordPerfect.

And, I must say that I have become even more disenfranchised since Office has gone to the pastel, flat look. It's much too hard to differentiate where the menus begin and where the document begins.

We're forced to use the Office 365 at work and I hate it. Even simple things like inserting a bunch of cut rows seems impossible now.

I downloaded LibreOffice before I left for work, and now you've convinced me to install it and give it a go.

Doitsu, I downloaded your test document. I tried reading it with Icecream Ebook Reader, but it just kept jumping back to the contents. Then I tried it on my tablet using Google Play Books. It showed the hidden text for a split second, then went back to it hidden again, pretty much in less than the blink of an eye.

I did come across some footnotes in a book I just started reading that opened up a completely new page for the note, then went back to the story when I exited the bookmark. This might be an option, too. I'll have to see what I can find out by "disecting" that book and seeing how they did the footnotes.

If your option works, I'd definitely give that a look at, too. I like that option better than going to the blank page option.

Thanks, guys. I should have come here first. You've been a great help!

But I'm not opposed to anyone else chiming in with different suggestions, too.

Cheers!

[styler001]

So, I found this option (in the attached file) in a book and think it might work alright for what I'm wanting to happen. I've run the book through Calibre and converted to a Word document.

In my ebook reader on my tablet, when I press that number 1 after "August Editorial", it goes to a new page and displays the note for that number.

My questions are..."What is that?" and "How do you do that in Word?"

[Quoth]

you put an anchor / bookmark at start of paragraph of a note after the end of a document. No punctuation or special characters or spaces. Simpler too if all lower case, otherwise the case is important.

Then highlight a string (which can be [2] etc as superscript or just regular text), put a weblink to it with # replacing the http:// etc part

Reader uses "back" to return to highlight. In Word / Writer a Control + Left Click tests the internal link (bookmark/anchor).

[styler001]

Cool. I set up a few bookmarks in Word to test it. The Ice Cream reader I use on my laptop went to the bookmark, but it doesn't have a "back" option. I'll have to try it on Google's reader.

As simple as starting a new page, pasting the translated text to that page, highlighting the text (or some of it) and making a bookmark, then linking within the document to the bookmark. Doesn't look like there's any kind of http:// to be replaced this way.

Thanks.

[Quoth]

If the note is only used in one place:
1) Make an anchor at start of paragraph* at place where link to note is.
2) Add the text < Back at the end of the note and link it to paragraph Anchor.

In MS Word you can set an anchor inside a paragraph, or even to a selection. That causes errors in Save As "HTML", or import to ODT in Writer or upload to Amazon or eBook creation tools. An ebook (mobi, AZW, epub) etc is internally very like a webpage, properly an Anchor is only at the start of a paragraph, which is often a styled heading, but any bodytext paragraph can have an anchor (what wordprocessors call bookmarks).

You can use the same techniques in HTML view of any Website CMS editor, in which case links to an anchor on a different page have a relative or full path prefixed with # instead of HTTP:// (or HTTPS://)

[styler001]

Thanks. This gives me more options to look at and try.