New Create Index for ePub Script

  • Sumo

 

Ben Milander has released a new Javascript called Create Index for ePub that will help you create a clickable index for EPUB files. Given the difficulty of creating a linked index when exporting from InDesign, this script may be valuable to many.

Here are the details from the purchase/download page:

This is a sophisticated script which creates a clickable index when exported to ePub.  The trial version is free to download and is fully function for a single document with index.

Features:

  1. Works equally well with either an index generated by the InDesign index tool or a third party tool.
  2. Works with a single document containing multiple stories and an index or with an InDesign Book file containing multiple documents. Book Function not available in trial version.
  3. Transparent for export to PDF.  Export to PDF or to Epub or to both.

Requirements:

  1. The index must contain a title with a unique paragraph style assigned to it. The index must be a single story. The document containing the index must be open and active when starting the script.
  2. Page numbers in the index must have a unique character style assigned to them.
  3. Must start the script with the document containing the index open and the current document.

The script costs $50, which seems a bit steep (unless you have had to add all the links to an index manually), but if the script saves you an hour preparing an EPUB index, it probably pays for itself. You can download a free trial version if you want to try it, though the trial will only work with a single document, not with an InDesign Book file containing multiple documents.

I have not tested the script yet, but plan to in the near future and will report results.

What do you think of this script? Have you downloaded it and tried it? Will you use it again?

10 Responses to “New Create Index for ePub Script”

  1. LordMax says:

    Hahahaha

    50 bucks for something tha writer2epub (an libreoffice extension) do perfectly and free.
    The power of open source… you can’t imagine.

  2. Kai says:

    What sounds good to me is the part that says, this script adds page anchors to every page before exporting to EPUB. That’s a thing I’ve always wanted – and that’s more than writer2epub does, isn’t it?

  3. venugopal says:

    i want that tool, where i get it

  4. Papiya says:

    I need that tool. Where i can found it???

  5. blotter says:

    Tested free-trial version of this script in IDC5.5. I used a single ID document with an index built from a text document (ie. the index was not generated by ID).

    Happy to report the export to epub worked well, aside from one rather troublesome issue: for multi-page index entries, such as 156—59, the index will link to page 156 and page 59 (not page 159 and 159). Which meant manually editing hundreds of these entries down to, eg: 156.

    If someone could devise a useful GREP that would remove all page numbers following an en dash (stopping at either coma or a para break), this would be really useful.

    Thanks for sharing the script, pub indexes have long been a problem for me, this is a big step in the right direction.

  6. Brand Arrows says:

    Really worth spending $50 on this script as it saves so much and make work much easier.

  7. KANAGARAJ says:

    Hi,
    I am trying to fetch the data from online using ajax in epub.I tried as much as possible i couldn’t able to solve it. if any one found the solution pls share it.

  8. SEPTIA NIRMA says:

    Success is an achievement While struggling is a must

  9. Salim Ahmed says:

    Informative and helpful post. Thanks for sharing…….