Adobe Creative Cloud Design Tools All-in-One For Dummies

Chapter 8: Creating Digital Documents Using HTML and EPUB

In This Chapter

• Digital document essentials
• Alternate layouts for varying devices
• Inserting HTML objects
• Exporting to HTML
• Exporting to EPUB

InDesign was built more than a decade ago as a tool for creating printed documents — not for creating digital documents and electronic books. As of InDesign CS6, however, Adobe added the capability to create digital documents for distribution on tablets, e-readers, and on the web. The overwhelming majority of the new features added to the previous version of InDesign were focused on creating digital documents.

Because publishing on tablets is still relatively new, the workflows, tools, and features are still in their infancy. In some cases, we find the process a bit clumsy — and the tools added to InDesign feel like an afterthought — but unless you want to learn to code HTML5 and CSS3, the Creative Cloud tools are your best bet for getting your content delivered onto a tablet or e-reading device.

Digital documents can be optimized to appear on a variety of devices, and in different formats. In this chapter, we discuss two such formats:

• HTML: HTML is emerging as the standard way to distribute electronic versions of documents that are distributed on the web, as web pages, replacing PDF and SWF (Flash) for two primary reasons:
  • Unlike PDF and Flash, HTML can be displayed on any device with a web browser.
  • The emerging standards of HTML5 and CSS3 allow for content to be customized depending ...