Best test reader for amazon publishing

[increase]

After creating epub3 and testing the epub in kindle previewer 3, all of my popup footnotes are blank and yet in kindle create they work.

1. Which is the most reliable viewer to test epub prior to submission.

2. Any suggestions as to why the notes appear blank n the popup

Here is my link
<p style="text-indent:0; line-height:2; margin-top:0; margin-right:0; margin-bottom:30; margin-left:0;">This is a test link;<a epub:type="noteref" href="#n11" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14pt;">testing this/a></p>


and my popup footnote
<aside class="hidden" epub:type="footnote" id="n11">This is a popup note in kindle previewer 3.</aside>

[Barbara1955]

epub is NOT an Amazon format.

[increase]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

epub is NOT an Amazon format.

I converted to .mobi but got the same result, but it seems this is my problem is this class="hidden" when I remove it, it displays, but really my question is what is the best viewer to check .mobi to ensure it will look correct when published?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by increase

I converted to .mobi but got the same result, but it seems this is my problem is this class="hidden" when I remove it, it displays, but really my question is what is the best viewer to check .mobi to ensure it will look correct when published?

Well, of course "hidden" hides it; that's what it's supposed to do.

The BEST viewer is a real device. A paperwhite, Voyage, or Oasis is pretty affordable, but that won't tell you how the Book appears on a Fire or on KCR, or anything else.

We use Kindle Previewer 3 at my shop, but we also test on real devices. There's no replacement for real devices, IME.

Hitch

[Turtle91]

I wish there was an easy answer to that question. The viewers you are using are close...but the BEST way is to actually put it on the device(s). Ask the professional book makers (Hitch, et al) and they spend a pretty penny buying all these devices to check against. For us lowly plebes... we use the tools we have: Sigil, Calibre, ADE, etc. to check the ePub code, then our own personal devices, and the software viewers you mentioned to check the amazon conversion.

edit: dang! Ninja'd by hitch!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I wish there was an easy answer to that question. The viewers you are using are close...but the BEST way is to actually put it on the device(s). Ask the professional book makers (Hitch, et al) and they spend a pretty penny buying all these devices to check against. For us lowly plebes... we use the tools we have: Sigil, Calibre, ADE, etc. to check the ePub code, then our own personal devices, and the software viewers you mentioned to check the amazon conversion.

edit: dang! Ninja'd by hitch!

LOL, yeah, that's me, the creakiest stealth ninja in the biz. (For some reason, today, I feel every single year and about two dozen more, for good measure.)

You can find a second-hand eInk pretty affordably. Now, the problem with all the damn formats that Amazon's gone haring off on is that Previewer just isn't as reliable as it used to be. We see odd glitches, that display this or that. Or, for example, here's one--image sizes on the HD/HDX devices, compared to how they look on Previewer.

We have a book right now, and in Previewer, with the images sized at 600, 50%, they're displayed, in Previewer, at 100% width. No idea WHY, but they are. On real devices, they seem fine--but on the HDX, even with "auto" they're tiny-ish. (sigh).

So, it's tough to publish something other than a novel or simple "text" book, without having a few devices to use for testbeds.

Offered FWIW.

Hitch

[increase]

I had no idea what i had taken on, I just want to write a book without becoming a kindle Guru.

It seems now that I have to settle for simple popups. Is the best way to proceed to move all my notes out of the chapters and put them in a separate notes page with bookmarks to the chapter, something like

href="chapter1.xhtml#ch1n1"

Thus I could have all the chapters in one notes page?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by increase

I had no idea what i had taken on, I just want to write a book without becoming a kindle Guru.

It seems now that I have to settle for simple popups. Is the best way to proceed to move all my notes out of the chapters and put them in a separate notes page with bookmarks to the chapter, something like

href="chapter1.xhtml#ch1n1"

Thus I could have all the chapters in one notes page?

Well...I'm sorry, but perhaps I simply don't understand what all the fancy is, that you're trying to add. You seem to want them to be two-step footnotes, or contain this or that, or be hidden...what, EXACTLY, are you trying to do?

Hitch

[increase]

I was trying to add nested footnotes which work in moonreader, but not in kindle previewer, so I have given up on that.

I am simply trying to have a chapter that is not cluttered with visible footnotes and have popups available throughout the narrative

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by increase

I was trying to add nested footnotes which work in moonreader, but not in kindle previewer, so I have given up on that.

I am simply trying to have a chapter that is not cluttered with visible footnotes and have popups available throughout the narrative

I'm not sure what eReader you're using that "clutters" up the page with visible footnotes; I don't have any that do that. No Kindles, no Nooks, no iBooks' reader and none of the Droid readers that I occasionally try/use. Where are you seeing on-page footnotes, in the main narrative, that clutters up the page, please?

All the devices that I've used and tested do exactly what the Kindles do. You have the superscripted number at the footnote location. In older/less-advanced devices, the reader taps the note, jumps to the note, reads it, taps the return link which is the superscripted number AT the footnote itself, jumps back to his last location in the text.

In the more advanced devices, the footnotes popup.

That's it.

I'm honestly not sure what you're trying to do with "nested footnotes." So, as I don't really get what you're doing or why, with those, I can't proffer a solution.

I would lastly note, don't assume that everybody has javascript-enabled devices that can do this or that--they don't. The simple link to/link back works on EVERYTHING. The aside language in Kindle is rendered so that it's the link to/back in the older devices.

Hitch

[increase]

Thanks for your help Hutch and your patience trying to fathom my mixed up thinking, its because in writing apps I can do lots of fancy stuff, but I am learning that kindles and e-readers are extremely basic.

The notes popup works fine, but at the bottom of the page there is a whole section of notes which supply the popups, so when the reader reaches the bottom of the chapter, they will see all the notes, which are nothing to do with the narrative.

I was wanting to hide these notes, so that all you see is the actual chapter text, but still have popups

I cannot figure out how to hide the notes section, so I have now simply put a heading 'Notes Section' above them

If you could tell me if it is possible to hide the notes, then that would be great, if it is not possible, I will settle for the heading 'Notes Section'

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by increase

Thanks for your help Hutch and your patience trying to fathom my mixed up thinking, its because in writing apps I can do lots of fancy stuff, but I am learning that kindles and e-readers are extremely basic.

The notes popup works fine, but at the bottom of the page there is a whole section of notes which supply the popups, so when the reader reaches the bottom of the chapter, they will see all the notes, which are nothing to do with the narrative.

I was wanting to hide these notes, so that all you see is the actual chapter text, but still have popups

I cannot figure out how to hide the notes section, so I have now simply put a heading 'Notes Section' above them

If you could tell me if it is possible to hide the notes, then that would be great, if it is not possible, I will settle for the heading 'Notes Section'

Well, to make it easy on you, the short answer is NOPE.

You can't hide them, at the end of the chapter or the end of the book, without hiding them in the footnote. I mean...for example, if you make a word in your footnote BOLD, at the footnote, it would be BOLD in the popup too, right, as one is the echo of the other?

Well, same thing with the visible/invisible. There isn't a magic if/then switch, that says "hide this at the end of the chapter, but display it in the footnote."

Now...one answer, of course, is simply to move all your chapter footnotes to endnotes, and put them at the end of the book, where your reader shan't see them until the very end. That's a pretty simple solution.

I do want to say, for those of us in the world that DO read footnotes and endnotes, that seeing the footnotes at the end of the chapter is hardly some breach of book-y etiquette. We see them in print, when they are endnotes and nobody's hair has caught on fire yet. We see footnotes, ON THE PAGE! The HORROR!, in print and ditto. We're all still alive.

At the bottom of the page (footnotes) or the end of a chapter (chapter/end notes), you simply use a horizontal line, that extends a short way from the inside margin and you put the notes below it. You don't have to label it "NOTES." (For book-end notes, though, I typically agree it should be labeled.)

So, honestly...as a very voracious reader of non-fiction, I think that you may be overthinking it. However, if you are determined to spare your readers the horror of seeing the foot/endnotes, outside of the popups, then make them all true endnotes and they won't see them until the very end of the book.

Hitch

[Barbara1955]

Dumb Question WHY would you even Want to Publish Your Notes? When I read a book I want to Read The book. Not a bunch of Notes. If I in class I Want to Make my own notes to Remember certain things. You Publish notes defeat any reason for me to even Read the book.

[Deskisamess]

For non-fiction, decent Footnotes are important. Many of us read them.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

For non-fiction, decent Footnotes are important. Many of us read them.

Of course. I prefer non-fiction with thoroughly noted sources and bibliographies and references. Who wouldn't?

Hitch