InDesign 2024 and Sigil

[disain]

Hello everyone. I use InDesign to export ePub files that are edited with tools such Oxygen, BBEdit or Sigil. From version 19, InDesign footnotes are exported as a <section> with a numbered list instead of a <div>, doubling the existing footnote references. This is annoying and requires heavy find/replace to return to the previous format. I have seen a couple of Sigil plugins to manage footnotes but don't know if any of them could do this. Any help is welcome.

Thanks!

[KevinH]

Would you please provide small snippets of code showing the links from the text into the footnotes and the footnote format and return link.

Why would a section tag vs a div tag matter?

[disain]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Would you please provide small snippets of code showing the links from the text into the footnotes and the footnote format and return link.

Why would a section tag vs a div tag matter?

Sure, thanks for your answer, Kevin. ID2024 exports the note reference in the text as:

<span class="noteref"><span><a id="footnote-01-backlink" class="_idFootnoteLink" role="doc-noteref" epub:type="noteref" href="TITLE.xhtml#footnote-01">1</a></span></span>

And it used to be:

<span class="noteref"><span><a id="footnote-01-backlink" class="_idFootnoteLink" role="doc-noteref" epub:type="noteref" href="TITLE.xhtml#footnote-01">1</a></span></span>

The footnotes block (after each chapter) is now exported as a numbered list:

<section class="_idFootnotes">
<ol class="_idFootAndEndNoteOLAttrs">
<li id="footnote-01" class="_idFootnote"><p class="note"><a class="_idFootnoteAnchor" role="doc-backlink" href="TITLE.xhtml#footnote-01-backlink">1</a> Text of the note</p></li>
</ol>
</section>

Thanks.

[KevinH]

Technically, the footnote itself is missing the epub:type="footnote" which can break epub3 pop-up actions. And if there is no aside tag used, the footnotes will be seen in plain text when you scroll down (just like a print edition)

Are these the things you want to change?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by disain

Hello everyone. I use InDesign to export ePub files that are edited with tools such Oxygen, BBEdit or Sigil. From version 19, InDesign footnotes are exported as a <section> with a numbered list instead of a <div>, doubling the existing footnote references. This is annoying and requires heavy find/replace to return to the previous format. I have seen a couple of Sigil plugins to manage footnotes but don't know if any of them could do this. Any help is welcome.

Thanks!

Is there a possibility of this eBook being read with software that's not ePub3 compatible enough? If that is the case, then you want...

<section>
<div class="_idFootnotes">

because ePub2 software won't use your class in the section. ePub2 software should ignore the <section>. This is ehy most ePub3 eBooks that are for sale do not put a class in <section>.

[disain]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Technically, the footnote itself is missing the epub:type="footnote" which can break epub3 pop-up actions. And if there is no aside tag used, the footnotes will be seen in plain text when you scroll down (just like a print edition)

Are these the things you want to change?

Sure, Kevin. The ePub:type="footnote" is a saved search I use in the post-process after InDesign export the ePub. Not only footnotes are in plain text, but the note ref is duplicated in the pop-up note:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is there a possibility of this eBook being read with software that's not ePub3 compatible enough? If that is the case, then you want...

<section>
<div class="_idFootnotes">

because ePub2 software won't use your class in the section. ePub2 software should ignore the <section>. This is ehy most ePub3 eBooks that are for sale do not put a class in <section>.

Thanks for the tip, JS. I'm afraid it need to be ePub2 compatible...

[KevinH]

"section" was not a tag under the epub2 spec. So the way to make an epub3 compatible with an epub2 only e-reader, JSWolf is correct. move the class to an enclosing div supported by both. You can keep the section tag for epub3 and epub2 will then safely ignore it.

So InDesign created epub3 only code for some reason.

[disain]

Originally Posted by KevinH

"section" was not a tag under the epub2 spec. So the way to make an epub3 compatible with an epub2 only e-reader, JSWolf is correct. move the class to an enclosing div supported by both. You can keep the section tag for epub3 and epub2 will then safely ignore it.

So InDesign created epub3 only code for some reason.

Thank you very much for pointing this out, didn´t know <section> was not in ePub2.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by disain

Thank you very much for pointing this out, didn´t know <section> was not in ePub2.

Download and install Adobe Digital Editions 2.0.1 for Windows. Then you can see how your eBook will look as ePub2.

Here is a working link for ADE 2.0.1. https://archive.org/download/ade-2.0..._Installer.exe