Forma Translate Entire Phrases to English?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by mramosch

But that is for a static format, but what if you had the chance for dynamic content on demand?

I've seen dynamic content on web sites. Interferes with the flow of reading. I hate it.

Also distributed ebooks by all the main retailers, and eink ereaders and many apps don't support dynamic content. Popup footnotes work erratically in ebooks on all supported platforms.

[mramosch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've seen dynamic content on web sites. Interferes with the flow of reading. I hate it.

Well, maybe you just haven’t come across a good implementation yet ;-)

Originally Posted by Quoth

…many apps don't support dynamic content.

Well, on iOS Apple Books does, on all mobile KOBO does, BookFusion does - I guess that’s enough potential readers to be made happy by me ;-)

Originally Posted by Quoth

Popup footnotes work erratically in ebooks on all supported platforms.

Well, that’s why I love the JS approach because standardization is very slow and isn’t acknowledged by most app developers anyway, so I’d rather help myself than to wait another decade for expectations and promises MAYBE to be fulfilled ;-)

If I can do it in the epub itself, why relying on the host?


Well, well, well… ;-)


Actually my initial question was rather directed at @enuddleyarbl because he brought up the issue with missing translations.

So I quote myself:
“Under the assumption that an author has valid reasons to keep parts of the text in another language, what would your preferred way of displaying a translation be?

As a pop-up? Endnote? Footnote? etc.”

Of course anybody else is very welcome to talk about their preferred choice (if they could have one).

[Quoth]

I format ebooks with multiple languages. The docx source uses a right justified "marginalia" style (only short alternate paragraphs as common in good dialogue). It translates perfectly to epub with no additional editing. Works on all epub readers and apps. The mobi (kf7), azw3(kf8) and KFX from Amazon (which is over 90% of the WORLD English Language ebook market) all work.

It works well also for some kinds of footnotes. Otherwise footnotes are each a paragraph at the end of a chapter, the link to it includes the word proceeding [5] etc, and the footnote has a link back. Any footnote used more than once is repeated so back works as most ereaders have no "back". Again this is easily done in the wordprocessor source and the automatically created epub needs no editing. Works on EVERY app and ereader that supports hyperlinks & anchors in a file. A few ereaders have no hyperlink support (honest!) and in this case the reader sees the footnotes at the end of the chapter anyway.

Apps are for being clever in. An ebook should be simply the most compatible and easy to use reflowable alternative to paper. Almost all fiction ebook sales are simply people wanting the ebook version for phone, tablet, ereader (in that order) instead of a physical paper book. They don't want anything extra except easy search and dictionary look up.

The non-fiction market is different, especially textbooks, because a school or college will mandate either a larger iPad (minimum version) or Chromebook (minimum version) and content is mostly fixed layout and there is a special deal with the content suppliers. That is the overwhelming non-fiction market. The Amazon DX and later DXG was their attempt at the University market with eink & PDFs and was a total failure. The Scribe is aimed at a different market and also totally unsuitable for corporate non-fiction.

The more cunning you are with ebook formatting:
1) More hand edit of epub. Repeat on every revision. We might have 40+ before publising. No proofing except on epub.
2) Much smaller market. You can't decide which app the consumer uses.

That's why an actual iOS or Android app works better for "clever stuff". Less work for you too as you simply pour in new content to the "edit once" framework (some game engines are free and work perfectly for Plot your Own Adventure, multimedia encyclopedias, interlinear texts, pop-ups etc). Then the Title works for every device supported by the Apple iOS or Android Store (Most Fire Tablets can install Android Apps as can Chromebooks)

Edit:
Some of our actual footnotes via links to a paragraph at the end of the chapter will actually "pop-up" on some platforms and apps. Assuming that this always is the case is fantasy.