Google Play Ebooks, centering issues, and added blank pages?

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 6:21 pm

My Ebook, Comic Book Superhero Collectible Pin-Back Buttons and Badges of the 1940s-1960s, which completely passed the epubcheck verification via Google Play Partners, isn't displaying properly when I view the preview file through Google Play. In the original Ebook, the title page and the table of contents are centered (As well as a few other things), and it doesn't have any blank pages, yet when viewed through the preview on Google Play those things are uncentered and I now magically have a lot of blank pages within the book. Am I doing something wrong here? I even tried to resize the text in the viewer, etc. and nothing helped. Everything works perfectly in Adobe Digital Editions. So, what am I overlooking? I don't have any indents in those particular paragraphs, and the center formatting codes are there....I don't know--should I be messing with widow/orphans or something? And is this something on the code side of Atlantis's Ebpub conversion, or possibly something on Google Play's end? Help?

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id ... pg=GBS.PP1

Post by **Robert** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 6:42 pm

Hi BrightEyes,
Have you tried viewing your EPUB file in other eReaders like the Sony Reader For PC, Calibre, the kindle Previewer, the Chrome Readium extension, etc.?
Since these display problems seem to occur only within the first 10 pages, I suggest you post the first 10 pages of your source document as attachment here so that we can examine what might be causing such mishaps in Google Play.
Cheers,
Robert

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:35 pm

I haven't tried any other Epub readers, but I'll try in a bit.

As for the source documents, prior to them being saved as an Epub? If that's what you're looking for, here's the following 1st 10 pages attached.

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:49 pm

PS--Just opened the Epub via Kindle Previewer and, like Adobe Digital Editions, it displayed perfectly. Centering was where it was supposed to be, no blank pages, etc. So, methinks something with Epubs created through Atlantis aren't playing nice with Google Play. For the life of me I just can't figure out what it is!

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:05 am

I have some additional info. to include. I have noticed, with that title in the Google Previewer, that A. Before page 1 there's some things that are listed as i., ii., iii., iv., and v. where the cover picture, table of contents, and disclaimers are and.... when it first opens, B: It automatically skips those things and goes directly to page 1. I'm not sure if that somehow is the reason for the issue of messing with the centering (And the occasional blank pages in dual-mode) or what....I also don't know if those roman numerals are being done by Google Play or by Atlantis. The only thing I see in the Atlantis options that has to do with Roman numerals is the page number settings, but I never set any page numbers in my options, sooo....I'm at a loss here....

Post by **Robert** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 1:14 pm

Hi BrightEyes,
The EPUB file format is a reflowable format. Accordingly, any attempt to force the eReaders to display the pages as defined in the source document is doomed to failure. The eReaders will reflow the EPUB contents as they see fit and as they have been programmed to do. eReaders are concerned with screen estate (screen “pages”), not with pages as they might print on paper. In other words, the “pages” that are being displayed on the eReader screens are not “pages” in the traditional sense. The size and number of pages will vary depending on the screen size and the way the eReader was programmed to display the EPUB code. The only thing that you can normally control is the display of a paragraph of the source document on a new page by applying the “Page break before paragraph” attribute to that paragraph. But even then, there is no guarantee that the eReaders will comply. It seems that the Google Play Reader simply ignores these “Page break before paragraph” attributes… Or makes a mess of them!

Also the Google Play Reader, along with most eReaders, has “Display Options” that can be tweaked. By default (on my system), it displays the EPUB files with the Georgia font face, and Justified paragraph alignment. You can choose to display single pages or double pages. So you should not nurture too many expectations regarding the way your eBooks will display on the end-users’ screens…
Note that some of the “blank pages” in the Google Play Reader are only due to the fact that this eReader sometimes displays double pages, and single pages at other times depending on its own layout algorithm. The actual page(s) being displayed are numbered on the bottom right of the eReader screen.
I am not quite sure but it seems that the Google Play Reader gets thrown off balance when the EPUB file begins with other than the cover picture. Hence the weird numbering and the odd starting page.

This said, I have revised your original source pages as posted here. I have tried to make a rational use of styles and page layout. When converted to EPUB, this revised source document displays as intended in ADE and the Sony Reader for PC. But in the Kindle Previewer and Calibre, for example, the “Keep with next” paragraph attributes are ignored. The only solution is to adjust the picture sizes in a graphic editor beforehand, and insert them into your source document only afterwards so that they will naturally fit within the screen estate of the targeted eReaders.
I have attached this revised document below. Please have a look.
HTH.
Cheers,
Robert

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:07 pm

Thanks for the information as well as the revision for me to look at.

I do know that when viewed through the Nook viewer and the Kindle previewers, they do generally seem to take notice of my page breaks and don't seem to mess up any of my formatting. So it's weird how the Google previewer does something entirely different. I am currently in talks with them about this to see if there's something that can be done about it, and also if the strange roman numeral beginning for some of my pages is somehow messing up their formatting.

Actually, I just noticed something. I tried to open your revised document once saved as an Epub via the Kindle Previewer and that took me directly to the introduction as well as opposed to starting off at the title page or cover. Why does it do that?

Post by **Robert** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:16 pm

The source document that you posted here does not contain any Roman numbering. If the Google Play Reader numbers some of the pages that way, it is something that is being done by the reader itself for reasons that could only be determined by its developers.

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:19 pm

Got it.

Hmm...I just noticed something when I was looking at your revision. I tried to open your revised document once saved as an Epub via the Kindle Previewer and that took me directly to the introduction as well as opposed to starting off at the title page or cover. Why does it do that? Are these previewers programmed to bypass that stuff, or is something else going on?

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:21 pm

I actually have an idea I'm going to try. I'm going to re-save my document as an Epub, but when it gives me the option to select a picture for the cover, say none. Then I'm going to upload it to Google Play and see if it does the same thing. Just curious....

Post by **Robert** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 4:39 pm

Correct. A lot of eReaders are programed to bypass anything that is located before the TOC. These elements can normally be accessed through the navigation pane or though the eReader’s own TOC.
But you can change this. Here is from the Atlantis help at Converting to Kindle:

When a Kindle eBook is created through Atlantis, the first chapter of the eBook is automatically marked as its "Beginning". And the "Go to... > Beginning" command of the Kindle will bring you to the first chapter of the eBook.

This is normally done without user intervention. Atlantis automatically decides which locations in the source document correspond to its "table of contents" and "beginning". All you need to do is to create actual content in the source document, i.e. add chapters and generate the corresponding inline table of contents with the dedicated command of Atlantis ("Insert | Table Of Contents...").

But you can still instruct Atlantis to mark a different location in your document as "table of contents" or "beginning". This is done by inserting special bookmarks at the desired locations in the source document. Simply click in the source document at the location that you want later to be displayed by the Kindle's "Go to... > Table of contents" command, then press the Shift+Alt+B hot key in Atlantis, type "toc" (without quotes), and click the "OK" button:

To mark a special location in your source document as its "beginning", click this location in Atlantis, then press the Shift+Alt+B hot key, type "start" (without quotes), and click the "OK" button:

In this way, you could tell Kindle that the "beginning" of your eBook is not "Chapter 1" but the title page, or the prologue, etc.

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 4:48 pm

Ah! Very helpful! Especially the start command. That's what I've been looking for--thanks!

Post by **Robert** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:05 pm

Not so helpful with the Google Play Reader. If you edit “sampleforatlantisboard (revised).doc” so that the cover picture is associated with a “start” bookmark, the Google Play Reader will display the cover picture in the resulting EPUB file as an empty placeholder…
For a cover picture to be displayed as such and as the first page of an eBook, the picture in the source document must be a standalone picture in a standalone paragraph. No bookmarks. At least with the Google Play Reader.

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 2:30 am

Just thought I'd send an update. Even though I tried your edits to an extent the Google Previewer is still giving me issues when it comes to what I had centered in my document. Yet when viewed through the Kindle Previewer everything works fine. (This also has me wondering what my document looks like through iTunes--I use an aggregator (Draft2digital) and do not have a Mac, so who knows whether or not it's messed up through there as well since I have no way to view things through the iTunes store.

Anyway, I did manage to fix one problem, though. I figured out what was making things spit out roman numerals. Apparently, I had a bookmark in there in my source doc file in Atlantis that said something like ebook_cover or something like that. (Maybe something another program created a while back when I originally made this?) Anyway, I removed that boomark, created an epub and, lo and behold, the roman numeral pages are gone and the book preview in Google Play shows the cover as page #1, although it still opens it up on the title page, which is page 2.

So, one thing fixed. Now I have to figure out how to fix the other problem as well. I'm looking at my toy books that I also sell and created those using something else about a year ago (Perhaps calibre and then messed with things in Sigil) and don't see one thing out of alignment via google play previewer, so I'm still stumped as to what's doing this with this book.

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 2:39 am

Can't believe I didn't notice this before....but in the Google Play previewer for this file the only thing it's allowing to be centered are the headings (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.)

Post by **Robert** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 6:41 am

If you convert “sampleforatlantisboard (revised).doc” as I posted it on this forum to EPUB in Atlantis, and upload the resulting EPUB file to Google Play, the paragraphs that are associated with the “Body Text Centered” and “Body Text Bold Centered” styles should remain centered. So you don’t need to use Heading styles to make sure that Google Play will display your centered paragraphs.

You can download and install iTunes on a Windows PC. Please, have a look at Download iTunes and How To Install iTunes On Windows 8 And Windows 8.1

The bookmarks in your original document are typical of the bookmarks created by MS Word. If you look at the bookmarks in “sampleforatlantisboard (revised).doc” as I posted it on this forum, you should notice that they have been named quite differently by Atlantis.

A lot of the available eReaders automatically open up the eBooks on the title page. People are supposed to have already seen the book cover on their virtual “library shelves”.

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:42 am

Ah--I was trying to emulate what you did in my original document, and I think I forgot to do the bold centered text style. That's probably what was preventing me from doing it. Looks like you made a custom style. Anyway, I'll try to mess around with that a bit more. That's probably the culprit.

Anyway, as for Apple iTunes, oh, it'll allow me to install it as well as search for things, but when trying to download a sample of a book it won't let me do it, saying I need an iOS device in order to do that.

Post by **Robert** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:54 am

If you want to use the styles that I designed for “sampleforatlantisboard (revised).doc”, you could simply import them into your working document. For this, use the “Import styles” button on the bottom toolbar of the “Styles” panel on the Atlantis Control Board. Please have a look at The Styles Panel of the Control Board

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:37 pm

I just came across that option right before you wrote that, actually!

Anyway, thanks for all of your help! I learned quite a bit!

brighteyes70s · Post by **brighteyes70s** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 11:28 am

As a side note (Although I seriously do not understand HTML so this wouldn't have helped me anyway) Google recently sent me the following. Also, as for what they told me, I'm not sure if there's something that can be done within the Atlantis programming code to help with the issue of translating when posting an Ebook to Google Play with this new information, but I thought I may as well mention it just in case...

Here's what they had to say...

"I'm writing about your book showing formatting issues on Google Play. I just heard back from our specialists that the web reader is overriding paragraph alignment using the ".gb-segment p" selector, which allows enabling/disabling of text justification on paragraph elements. This book is relying on the root paragraphs to have the center element instead of using a more specific CSS selector to provide the centering, adding "text-align: center" to the ".p0" class selector _should_ cause the text to remain centered in the web reader as well.

I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to let me know if you need further assistance."