Controlling the Way Text Flows

After you’ve converted your eBook to tagged PDF, you may discover that the page elements don’t flow properly, especially when the page is viewed on a smaller screen. For example, a text caption for a graphic might appear above the image rather than below it. In other cases, you might have an image that has a text wrap around it, but you want to have the image appear after the text when it is reflowed. In such cases, you can use the TouchUp Order tool in Acrobat 6 to edit the reflow order of tagged items in the document. The TouchUp Order tool is located on the TouchUp Text Tool pop-up menu. You can select the tool by either choosing it from this pop-up menu or by holding down the Shift key and tapping the T key to cycle through the TouchUp tools until the TouchUp Order tool appears.
To change the reflow order of elements on a tagged PDF page, follow these steps:

1. Open the eBook file and navigate to the page containing the elements for which you want to change the reflow order.
2. Choose View➪Navigation Tabs➪Content to open the Content Navigation pane. The Content Navigation pane displays the content structure tree of your eBook document. When you click the Expand button (+) attached to your eBook icon, the pages of your eBook appear on the next level with Expand buttons of their own. Clicking these buttons displays containers that hold the separate elements on the page in the order that they appear in your eBook document. You can then drag the page elements either individually or their whole container to new positions in the structure tree to reorder the page elements.
3. Drag the desired page element or container to a new position in the page structure tree. As you drag a page element or container, the mouse pointer changes between an International No symbol and a red downward arrow, indicating the positions you can or cannot drop the desired page element when you release the mouse button. A red underscore mouse pointer is displayed to indicate you are moving an element to an upper-level position.
4. Repeat Step 3 until you’re satisfied with the reordering of the eBook page elements, and then click the Close button to close the Content Navigation pane.
5. To view your reflow order changes first, choose View➪Reflow or press Ctrl+4 (Ô+4 on Mac). Use the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons to observe how the elements reflow under different page magnifications.

Using Link Properties options

The Link Properties toolbar, like all Properties toolbars in Acrobat 6, pops up when you select an editing tool. This toolbar lets you specify the appearance of a link and what action occurs when you click the link. As you can see each button on the Link Properties toolbar has a pop-up menu button (black triangle) attached for selecting the following options:

• Color: Click the Color button to choose a color for the link border on the palette that appears.
• Line Style: Click the Line Style pop-up menu to select No Line, Solid, Dashed, or Underline border style.
• Line Thickness: Click the Line Thickness pop-up menu (marked by either 1pt, 2pt, or 3pt line sizes in the Link Properties toolbar) and choose a Thin, Medium, or Thick outline border for the link.
• Highlight Style: The Highlight Style pop-up menu lets you specify a momentary change in appearance for a link when the user clicks it. The effect is displayed until the user releases the mouse button. These options are available for both visible and invisible links. Choose None to have no change in appearance, Invert to invert the colors of the link, Outline to highlight the border on a visible link or to display a thin line around an invisible link, or Inset to create a 3-D button effect.
• More: Opens the Link Properties dialog box with the Actions tab selected. Choose from the 16 options in the Add an Action drop-down list, which define an action that occurs when the user clicks a link. The Go to Page in the Document option is the default and is used for internal links. The other choices on this list are used to perform a variety of actions when a link is activated, such as opening a file, playing a sound or movie, or running a JavaScript. he majority of the actions are either impractical or not appropriate for eBook use

Adding an internal link

You create all links with the Link tool, which is found on the Advanced Editing toolbar. To select the tool, click its button on the toolbar or press L.
To add an internal link to your eBook, follow these steps:

1. Open the eBook file and navigate to the page in which you want to add a link.
2. Select the Link tool and use its cross-hair pointer to draw a rectangle in the area of the page you want users to click to activate the link, and then release the mouse button. The Create Link dialog box opens, as shown in Figure. When you select the Link tool, any links currently in the document temporarily appear even if they are hidden. The Link Properties toolbar also opens, as shown in Figure. See the next section for details on the options provided in this toolbar.
3. In the Link Actions area of the Create Link dialog box, select the Open a Page in This Document radio button, enter the page number for your link’s destination page in the Page text box, and select a Zoom setting from the Zoom drop-down list. The zoom settings determine how the destination page is displayed in the PDF reader after clicking a link and are the same as those provided in Acrobat 6 — Fit Page, Actual Size, Fit Width, Fit Visible, and Inherit Zoom, which uses the same view setting for the destination page as the page containing the link.
4. Select the Open a File radio button to have the link open an external file. Click the Browse button to locate and select the file. If the file is not a PDF document, those who click this link must have the associated program installed on their computers to view the file.
5. Select the Open a Web Page radio button and type a URL address in the Address text box. See the “Adding an external link” section, later in this chapter, for more on this option.
6. Select the Custom link radio button to create a link with JavaScript actions attached to it, such as playing a sound file or movie clip. These actions are specified in the Link Properties dialog box. See the next section for more about the Link Properties dialog box.
7. Click OK to close the Create Link dialog box and test your new link.

You can also use the Hand tool to test the link. Note that when you hover the Hand tool pointer over a link, it changes to a pointing finger.

Managing PDF Links

Hyperlinks add interactivity to an eBook by providing a means of navigating to desired information quickly and easily. Using links, an eBook reader can jump to a different place in the current page, call up other pages in the eBook, and even retrieve other documents on a network or download pages from the World Wide Web. When you create a link in Acrobat 6, you define an area in the document for the link, choose whether it appears visible or invisible to the user, and specify what occurs when the user clicks the link. Acrobat 6 lets you create internal links that navigate to destinations in the current document —a table of contents link, for example — as well as external links that retrieve other documents on a network or Web pages from the Internet. One of the main goals in using an eBook authoring program that can export its documents to PDF is that the majority of links you might need in your eBook can be set up in the authoring program and automatically converted to PDF during the export process. There are times, however, when you’ll want to edit those export-generated links or add new links to your eBook. The following sections take you through the process.

Adding a library thumbnail graphic to your PDF eBook

After you’ve created your Library cover thumbnail, you need to attach it to your eBook in order for it to appear in My Bookshelf in either Adobe Reader or Acrobat 6. Here’s how:

1. Open the eBook file and select the cover page graphic in the Pages palette (it should be the first page in the document) and then reduce the magnification so that the work area surrounding the page is visible. A magnification of 75% usually works well for this with a screen resolution of 800 x 600.
2. Select the Attach File tool located on the Advanced Commenting toolbar. You can also hold down the Shift key while pressing the S key to cycle through the tools found on this menu. The cursor changes to a paperclip icon.
3. Click in the workspace surrounding your cover page (not on the cover page itself), and in the Select File to Attach dialog box (Windows) or the Open dialog box (Mac) that appears, locate and select your Library thumbnail graphic, and then click the Select button. The File Attachment Properties dialog box appears.
4. Accept the default settings for your attachment and click OK.

A paperclip icon appears in the workspace next to the cover page, as shown in Figure. Make sure that the paperclip is in the workspace and not on the cover graphic page. After you’ve attached your Library thumbnail graphic, you can open My Bookshelf in Adobe Reader or Acrobat 6 by choosing File➪My Bookshelf to view the thumbnail, as shown in Figure.

Adding a cover graphic to your PDF eBook

Because an eBook cover graphic is designed to fill the Acrobat eBook Reader window, it’s nearly impossible to add this graphic to your eBook in a layout program, let alone a word processor, and achieve satisfactory results. Imagine placing a 300 dpi graphic that covers the entire page (beyond the margins) into a document created in your favorite layout program and then hoping that Distiller will compress it nicely for full-screen display in the eBook Reader. It’s best to create the graphic separately and use Acrobat 6 to insert it into your eBook after it has been exported PDF. Here’s how:

1. Open the tagged PDF eBook file you exported from your layout program.
2. Choose Document➪Pages➪Insert.
3. Locate and select your JPEG cover image in the Select File to Insert dialog box and click the Select button. (Note that you may have to choose JPEG in the Files of Type drop-down list to see your graphic in the dialog box window.) The Insert Pages dialog box appears. This dialog box lets you choose where in the eBook file you want the eBook cover graphic to appear. Luckily in this case, the default is before the first page in the document, which is where you want your eBook cover graphic to appear.
4. Click Before in the Location drop-down list, and then click OK. The cover image is imported into the PDF file as the first page in the document.
5. Click the Pages palette tab to verify the location of the cover graphic at the beginning of the eBook document.
6. Note that because the cover graphic was appended to the beginning of the document, it was automatically given the first page number in the PDF. You can resolve this issue by choosing Number Pages on the Options pop-up menu at the top of the Pages palette.

Acrobat lets you renumber pages, as well as change numbering formats one section at a time, so that you can make sure the numbers you created for your eBook pages correspond to page numbers that appear in the page navigator bar in Acrobat eBook Reader.
Whenever you convert a document to PDF that is either a multisection book with different numbering schemes or a single document that starts with a page number other than the number one, you must use the Number Pages command in Acrobat 6 to renumber the PDF so that its page numbers mirror your original document’s numbering scheme.
When you add a front cover graphic to your Adobe eBook, it’s important to insert an inside front cover page, though this page could be blank as well. Also, make sure that you end up with an even number of front-matter pages, using a blank page at the end of the front matter if needed. This ensures that your Adobe PDF eBook displays properly in Adobe Reader 6 and Acrobat 6, when viewing two pages at a time (by using the Facing Pages view), with odd-numbered pages on the right.

Designing Library and Cover Graphics

You can definitely integrate graphics and digital photos into the design of your Adobe eBooks, especially those you create solely for viewing in Acrobat eBook Reader, Adobe Reader, or Acrobat 6. Because there is no added expense for color use in an eBook (as there is with printed books), you can feel free to embellish your eBook with colored text, borders, and fills. In addition to the graphics you might use to illustrate your eBook, you also need to consider the use of library and cover graphics. There are three different kinds of library and cover graphics: your actual eBook cover and two thumbnail versions of the eBook cover. Although none of these graphics are required to create a functioning eBook, they add to the overall look and feel of your eBook and are required if you plan to market your eBook commercially.
When specifying color conversion settings in either the Distiller or the export settings of your eBook authoring program, always choose the sRGB model. Because computer screens use the RGB model, this device-independent color setting ensures that the graphics and colors in your eBook appear accurately in a wide variety of displays.
The Cover thumbnail is used for marketing purposes when you distribute your eBook online. E-book sellers use the Cover thumbnail on their Web sites to identify and advertise your eBook. The Library thumbnail is displayed in the Acrobat eBook Reader Library, as well as the My Bookshelf feature in Adobe Reader 6 and Acrobat 6, and is used as a navigation button for selecting and opening an eBook. The actual eBook cover graphic is set as the first page in your eBook in Acrobat 6 and appears full screen (momentarily) in Acrobat eBook Reader when a user double-clicks the library thumbnail graphic to open the eBook. You can create these graphics in any editing program, though recent versions of Photoshop (5.0 and up) have the advantage of using the sRGB color model as a default.
Here are the basic specifications for these three graphics:

• Cover thumbnail: Create a thumbnail of your cover graphic in GIF format. The image should be 100 pixels wide. A 3:2 aspect ratio works well, so at that width, your image would be 150 pixels tall by 100 pixels wide. Make sure to adjust the image resolution to 96 dpi, so that the thumbnail display is sharper with fewer artifacts or pixel distortions when viewed online in a Web browser.
• Library thumbnail: The image that appears in the Acrobat eBook Reader Library is slightly different than the Cover thumbnail. For this graphic, create a thumbnail of your cover graphic in JPEG format. The image should be 100 pixels wide with the same 3:2 aspect ratio as the Cover thumbnail. Make sure to use the sRGB color model if possible (RGB otherwise) and adjust the image resolution to 96 dpi.
• eBook cover: You should also create your eBook cover in JPEG format. To fill the Acrobat eBook Reader window, it should be 600 pixels tall and 400 pixels wide, using sRGB color and 96 dpi image resolution.

The graphics and illustrations you create for the body of your eBook can be developed in any graphic or photo editing program, such as Illustrator or Photoshop. When you export your eBook to PDF, these graphics are optimized for viewing via the Distiller job option you choose during the export process. Because the Library and cover graphics are added to your eBook in Acrobat 6 after it has been exported or converted to PDF, make sure to create GIF and JPEG format graphics and use the sRGB color model so that they are fully optimized for the Web when you upload the cover thumbnail to a bookseller’s server or insert the cover and Library thumbnail in your eBook.