ADE adds blank pages?

[Psymon]

When I'm viewing my epub in ADE, if my chapter -- or, rather, the particular XML file I'm viewing at the time -- happens to end on the left page, then ADE always inserts a blank right-hand page afterwards so that the next chapter/file will begin again on the left page. This is really annoying, because I've got everything split up into so many separate files (for, say, the frontispiece, title page, CIP, table of contents, etc.) that I end up having all kinds of blank pages all over the place.

Is there any way to get it to not do this? I don't mean within ADE program itself (I don't see a setting for that anywhere), but rather some code I can put in my epub to tell ADE (and whatever other devices do this) to not insert blank pages between files, regardless of whether they end up on the left or right page?

[Doitsu]

Most likely the stylesheet is the culprit:

Open the ePub with Calibre Editor or Sigil, search the stylesheet for one of the following:

page-break-before
page-break-after
page-break-inside

and post the styles that use these parameters.

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Most likely the stylesheet is the culprit:

Open the ePub with Calibre Editor or Sigil, search the stylesheet for one of the following:

page-break-before
page-break-after
page-break-inside

and post the styles that use these parameters.

I don't have "page-break" (of any kind) anywhere in my stylesheet at all!

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Psymon

I don't have "page-break" (of any kind) anywhere in my stylesheet at all!

Does you book contain a page-template.xpgt file or another file with an .xpgt extension?

If not, post the frontispiece or title page html code and the definitions of all the styles used by these files.

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Does you book contain a page-template.xpgt file or another file with an .xpgt extension?

If not, post the frontispiece or title page html code and the definitions of all the styles used by these files.

No, no files at all with an .xpgt extension (I even unzipped my epub just in case there was something "hidden" somewhere.

It's not just my frontispiece file or title page file that does this -- it's EVERY file, any time I'm viewing my ebook in ADE and it happens that the file I'm looking at ends on the left-hand page, then ADE inserts a blank page afterwards. It doesn't matter whether that file is, say, a full-page image, or a single-page title page, or a 20-page chapter, or any other "type" of individual file that I have. And I've pored over my CSS, too, and there's nothing weird that I'm doing (let alone anything that's specific to how page breaks, etc.).

Doesn't ADE do this for your epubs, too? I was hoping, I suppose, that there might be some code that I could insert to tell ADE to not do this -- wishful thinking, anyway. :/

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Psymon

When I'm viewing my epub in ADE, if my chapter -- or, rather, the particular XML file I'm viewing at the time -- happens to end on the left page, then ADE always inserts a blank right-hand page afterwards so that the next chapter/file will begin again on the left page. This is really annoying, because I've got everything split up into so many separate files (for, say, the frontispiece, title page, CIP, table of contents, etc.) that I end up having all kinds of blank pages all over the place.

Is there any way to get it to not do this? I don't mean within ADE program itself (I don't see a setting for that anywhere), but rather some code I can put in my epub to tell ADE (and whatever other devices do this) to not insert blank pages between files, regardless of whether they end up on the left or right page?

How do you know it is a left page? What determines this? Are you viewing a 2 page layup? Do you have page numbers?

Dale

[dgatwood]

You're missing a critical detail. Page break behavior between files is implicitly defined by the specification. From the EPUB spec:

2.3.2: body Element

It is assumed, in formatting, that the default rendering for body is consistent with the CSS property page-break-before having been set to right (which behaves like always on one-page Reading Systems), but may be overridden by an appropriate style sheet declaration.

To avoid the extra pages, change the body tag's page-break-before property to always, possibly with an !important.

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

How do you know it is a left page? What determines this? Are you viewing a 2 page layup?

Yeah, 2 page layout in ADE (I couldn't seem to find anywhere to change it to a single page layout in the program, although I seem to recall that I did manage that before -- I just wanted to see if the same thing happened that way, too, of course).

Do you have page numbers?

Not sure what you mean? I certainly haven't inserted page numbering manually -- that just doesn't work in ebooks, of course.

It definitely is happening for every single file (and I've got 30 or 40 of them in my book), wherever the "chapter" (file) happens to end on the left-hand page -- then ADE inserts a blank page on the right and starts the new chapter/file on the left again. This doesn't happen if/when the chapter/file ends on the right-hand page, nor does it happen in iBooks, everything works just fine in the latter -- it's only ADE (haven't tested this in anything else).

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

To avoid the extra pages, change the body tag's page-break-before property to always, possibly with an !important.

Assuming I did this right, i.e. as per what you mean, then I added this...

page-break-before: always !important;

...to the style for "body" in my CSS file. It doesn't seem to fix the problem, I still get those page breaks. I just checked my other ebooks, too, that I've made in the past -- it's happening with them, too. Strange that I'm only noticing this now, actually!

This doesn't happen to other people?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Psymon

Yeah, 2 page layout in ADE (I couldn't seem to find anywhere to change it to a single page layout in the program, although I seem to recall that I did manage that before -- I just wanted to see if the same thing happened that way, too, of course).



Not sure what you mean? I certainly haven't inserted page numbering manually -- that just doesn't work in ebooks, of course.

It definitely is happening for every single file (and I've got 30 or 40 of them in my book), wherever the "chapter" (file) happens to end on the left-hand page -- then ADE inserts a blank page on the right and starts the new chapter/file on the left again. This doesn't happen if/when the chapter/file ends on the right-hand page, nor does it happen in iBooks, everything works just fine in the latter -- it's only ADE (haven't tested this in anything else).

I think I know what is happening. By the way, which version of ADE are you running?

If you narrow the screen by reducing the width of the window then it will revert to single page at a time and your problem will go away. The issue is the ADE and most ePub readers only actually work with one file at a time from your ePub document. Thus if your file runs out on the left side of the page then you will have a blank right side and then when you load the new file (new chapter) the document will start on the left side. Most people use only a single column on ADE so they don't see this problem.

Dale

[dgatwood]

Sure, doing a single-page spread works around the problem, but it's odd that adding the page-break-before property didn't fix it in two-page mode.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

Sure, doing a single-page spread works around the problem, but it's odd that adding the page-break-before property didn't fix it in two-page mode.

Sure, it would seem odd until you realize each file is a book unto itself and standalone without knowing anything about the next file (next chapter) until one is closed and the second is opened. And besides there are lots of books that do a similar thing on purpose always starting a chapter on the front side of the page (right side).

Dale

[Psymon]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

If you narrow the screen by reducing the width of the window then it will revert to single page at a time and your problem will go away.

Well, indeed viewing the book one page at a time made the problem go away, HOWEVER, when I sent the last/latest version of my book over to the iPad to check (in iBooks), all of a sudden I discovered that the same stupid problem started happening over there! Every file had an extra blank page after it!

And y'know what was causing it (as I discovered after much exasperation)? It was that "solution" that was given here before, to insert this into my body style...

page-break-before: always !important;

THAT causes an extra page to be added after every file in iBooks! So so much for that bit of code.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Psymon

Well, indeed viewing the book one page at a time made the problem go away, HOWEVER, when I sent the last/latest version of my book over to the iPad to check (in iBooks), all of a sudden I discovered that the same stupid problem started happening over there! Every file had an extra blank page after it!

And y'know what was causing it (as I discovered after much exasperation)? It was that "solution" that was given here before, to insert this into my body style...

page-break-before: always !important;

THAT causes an extra page to be added after every file in iBooks! So so much for that bit of code.

Yes, I would expect that to happen based on that CSS. Apple iBooks, by the way, does not load 1 file at a time. It loads the full book and is one of the few readers to do that. It is also an ePub 3 like implementation although not fully ePub 3 compliant.

Dale

[Jeff L]

You could set "oeb-column-number" to 1.

E.g.
<body style="oeb-column-number: 1"> or in the CSS for global settings.