Adding Interactivity to ePub File?

ldespain · 09-17-2010, 11:54 AM

I have a concept I'd like to throw out there - is it possible to create an HTML tag (maybe via id="") that would be searchable on an ereader?

For instance, my company has a Study Bible that classifies passages according to topic - it's still chronological but some passages are coded with a little icon to indicate subject matter: "Holy Spirit," "Faith," etc. I'd like the reader to be able to easily find each topic via search.

Could I do this via an alt tag for each icon image? Or possibly have a "drop down" search with all the available topics? There are 12 so it's not hugely complicated. Or would this be a better thing to try as an app?

Thanks!
Lisa

shall1028 · 09-17-2010, 05:05 PM

Back before the "Search Engine Optimization" crowd overused them to death you used to be able to specify keywords in a meta tag in HTML.

Place:

<meta name="keywords" content="Holy Spirit, Faith, etc." />

in the <head>...</head> section

Maybe this could be resurrected---as it were?

ldespain · 09-17-2010, 06:00 PM

That's an interesting idea, but wouldn't that mean each instance of the icon would require a new HTML file?

Iain · 09-19-2010, 05:05 AM

I think the issue is more, 'is there an ereader which could make use of this information'?

For example, in my ePubs (converted from scanned books), I put an HTML comment at the start of each paragraph with the page and paragraph number so I can go diagnose problems in my conversion process. An html comment () is entirely legal and can contain anything you want.

However, I wouldn't expect any reader to be able to see or display it (I look at the source to find out where a problem is and then set my converstion to break there).

I have toyed with the idea of an editing ePub reader which would allow proofing and copying on device and more intelligent markup, but that seems like a lot of effort at the moment!

Iain

Jellby · 09-19-2010, 06:36 AM

Well... you could add some image/text as a CSS float, and make it an anchor, then you can have some list of links. For adding things that appear in a search but not in the text itself, you could try "display: none", but that depends on how the search works.

09-17-2010, 11:54 AM	#1
ldespain Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: iPad, Nook, Kindle	Adding Interactivity to ePub File? I have a concept I'd like to throw out there - is it possible to create an HTML tag (maybe via id="") that would be searchable on an ereader? For instance, my company has a Study Bible that classifies passages according to topic - it's still chronological but some passages are coded with a little icon to indicate subject matter: "Holy Spirit," "Faith," etc. I'd like the reader to be able to easily find each topic via search. Could I do this via an alt tag for each icon image? Or possibly have a "drop down" search with all the available topics? There are 12 so it's not hugely complicated. Or would this be a better thing to try as an app? Thanks! Lisa

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09-17-2010, 05:05 PM	#2
shall1028 Nameless Being	Back before the "Search Engine Optimization" crowd overused them to death you used to be able to specify keywords in a meta tag in HTML. Place: <meta name="keywords" content="Holy Spirit, Faith, etc." /> in the <head>...</head> section Maybe this could be resurrected---as it were?

09-17-2010, 06:00 PM	#3
ldespain Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: iPad, Nook, Kindle	That's an interesting idea, but wouldn't that mean each instance of the icon would require a new HTML file?

09-19-2010, 05:05 AM	#4
Iain Enthusiast Posts: 49 Karma: 14 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Harrogate, England Device: iPad	I think the issue is more, 'is there an ereader which could make use of this information'? For example, in my ePubs (converted from scanned books), I put an HTML comment at the start of each paragraph with the page and paragraph number so I can go diagnose problems in my conversion process. An html comment (<!-- some stuff you like of any kind -->) is entirely legal and can contain anything you want. However, I wouldn't expect any reader to be able to see or display it (I look at the source to find out where a problem is and then set my converstion to break there). I have toyed with the idea of an editing ePub reader which would allow proofing and copying on device and more intelligent markup, but that seems like a lot of effort at the moment! Iain

09-19-2010, 06:36 AM	#5
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,516 Karma: 18512745 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	Well... you could add some image/text as a CSS float, and make it an anchor, then you can have some list of links. For adding things that appear in a search but not in the text itself, you could try "display: none", but that depends on how the search works.

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