Looking for help in developing workflow, css, InDesign template

[mcoleman]

I found this forum while looking for information on exporting from InDesign to the epub format. I work for a nonprofit education organization, and we're looking to convert some of our coursebooks. Does anybody here have expertise in this area?

[Aerys]

You might want to check Liz Castro's EPUB Straight to the Point and From Indesign CS5.5 to EPUB and Kindle books.

Are you looking to do it yourself or having it done professionally? There are many professional formatters here in the forums.

[mcoleman]

I'm hoping to hire somebody to do it right. I feel like I could muddle through it myself, but it wouldn't be very durable. We've got about 20 courses we'd eventually like to convert, so the template and workflow will need to be tight.

Currently, the books are either in InDesign, or in Quark in the process of being converted to InDesign. We'd like the same InDesign file to produce two print documents (additional instructor content on a separate layer) and two .epub files. The books have the regular text flow, with images, plus icons in the margins. Some words are bold and have definitions associated with them in a glossary.

One of the unique things about this project is that I actually have a budget, so yes, I'd love to hear from interested professionals.

[Tex2002ans]

Are the InDesign files styled exactly the same throughout the 20 books (using the same classes consistently throughout the works)?

If so, you could come up with a set of Regex to help clean up a lot of the code. Then you can have a single consistent CSS file which can be used in all 20.

This is what I did at work for one of our quarterly journals, and now hours of editing has been wittled down to clicking a button to run a set of Regex in Sigil.

Most of the time is then spent:

• Coming up with the universal CSS file.
  • Trying to emulate the look of the original document while sticking with maximum compatibility with most devices.
• Cleaning up code that the regex missed.
  • Adjusting regex so conversion of future journals will be even faster. (This is VERY dependent on the original designer being consistent with their style usage).
• Fixing/regenerating images.
• Checking on an actual ereader.

If you want to send me a sample or two of an InDesign EPUB + original document (PDF?), I wouldn't mind taking a look.

My Background: I work for a non-profit economics site, most of my work is going from PDF scans -> EPUB, and I have completed 150+ books so far. I do not have any experience with Quark output (doesn't hurt messing with something new), and I have a tiny bit of experience with output directly from InDesign.