Exporting epub with InDesign: I lose blank lines!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Kindles, Kobos, and nooks do not hve settings to adjust paragraph spaces. That said, IMHO, it's best not to have them. If an eBook I want to read has them, I will rmeove them as they are really annoying.

I have used CSS to add extra space for a paragraph on request. I also removed the paragraph indentation. I'm one of those who feels you can one or the other but not both and my preference is the indent.

[Turtle91]

Certainly, if you are trying to achieve a specific effect, but use css to achieve it (as you mentioned). I agree, indent (preferable) OR spacing, but not both. The devices JSWolf mentioned which don’t have a setting for paragraph spacing are, by default, pushing the indent.

To clarify my response from above: inserting a blank paragraph breaks the paragraph spacing functionality on most of the devices/apps that support it. That functionality is intended to let the user set the reading environment as THEY wish. Empty paragraph markers don’t allow the user to have indents with zero paragraph space… and at least double the paragraph spacing the user selects (on devices with that functionality).

Manually inserting empty paragraphs to create space between paragraphs is, at minimum, bad form…

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Manually inserting empty paragraphs to create space between paragraphs is, at minimum, bad form…

Yes, it's rubbish and only for typewriters.
Similarly ANY other directly typed white space such as spaces or tabs is evil.

All decent wordprocessors allow paragraph styles:
Left margin
Right margin
First line indent
Top margin
Bottom margin
Padding separate all four sides or common
Outline per side or all and kind of it (curved corners might not work)
Orphans
Widows
Keep with next paragraph
Insert page break before
Set a heading level
List format (not all options work in conversion)
kind of layout (left, right, centred)
LtoR vs RtoL
Registered (for paper so lines on the other side line up)
Line Height (only use for PDFs)
Font stuff (face, family, size, spacing)

Etc. Any decent docx to epub will map all these to CSS 1:1, perfectly.


Too many people are using wod processors like glass typewriters.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I have used CSS to add extra space for a paragraph on request. I also removed the paragraph indentation. I'm one of those who feels you can one or the other but not both and my preference is the indent.

I have a client with a non-fiction book right now--no charts, tables, etc. (the sort of stuff that leads to using block-style, typically, for layout reasons) and he's insisting on using both--first-line indent AND line-between. I'm screaming inside, where you can't see it.

ALSO--you don't use non-breaking spaces or that nonsense for BLANK LINES. Utter bollox. Use CSS or don't do it at all. You have no way of knowing what renderers will do on various devices. Assuming that nbsp will work is..folly.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Certainly, if you are trying to achieve a specific effect, but use css to achieve it (as you mentioned). I agree, indent (preferable) OR spacing, but not both. The devices JSWolf mentioned which don’t have a setting for paragraph spacing are, by default, pushing the indent.

To clarify my response from above: inserting a blank paragraph breaks the paragraph spacing functionality on most of the devices/apps that support it. That functionality is intended to let the user set the reading environment as THEY wish. Empty paragraph markers don’t allow the user to have indents with zero paragraph space… and at least double the paragraph spacing the user selects (on devices with that functionality).

Manually inserting empty paragraphs to create space between paragraphs is, at minimum, bad form…

Even making paragraph spaces in CSS is bad form. A lot of people are unable to remove paragraph spaces due to DRM or no knowledge of how to do so.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I have a client with a non-fiction book right now--no charts, tables, etc. (the sort of stuff that leads to using block-style, typically, for layout reasons) and he's insisting on using both--first-line indent AND line-between. I'm screaming inside, where you can't see it.

ALSO--you don't use non-breaking spaces or that nonsense for BLANK LINES. Utter bollox. Use CSS or don't do it at all. You have no way of knowing what renderers will do on various devices. Assuming that nbsp will work is..folly.

Hitch

I've seen <p>&nbsp</p> as a paragraph space too many times. The good thing about it is that it's easy to search/replace out. The bad thing is it's bad code and whoever did it should be made to create stone tablets of that book. Same thing goes for anyone using Kindle Create or Vellum.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even making paragraph spaces in CSS is bad form. A lot of people are unable to remove paragraph spaces due to DRM or no knowledge of how to do so.

Yes, Jon--I mean, use margin-top/bottom.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Yes, Jon--I mean, use margin-top/bottom.

Hitch

p {
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  text-indent: 1.2em;
}

Yes, top/bottom margins do work well.