Hyper for Hyperlinks
Written by Deb Dorchak - February 10, 2010 6 CommentsThis week’s guest post comes from Davina of Shades of Crimson. Like me, Davina is an old school paste-up artist. She’s put her time in the trenches with cutting articles by hand before we had the joys of Quark or InDesign. I didn’t think there were any of us left who remembered the “good old days” of wax machines, straight edges and Exacto knives.
Today, Davina shares her first experience of creating an ebook with us. Enjoy!
Why I Was Hyper About My First Ebook
When I was a little girl I loved to go to the library; I was captivated by books. I loved how they smelled when I fanned the pages under my nose. I liked to slide the palms of my hands over the shiny, smooth pages.
I remember asking my mother how it was possible for the text to end in the same place on every line when there were different sizes and numbers of letters. I even counted the letters. The pictures and the stories I took for granted. The rest I did not.
Now I know that justifying text comes with a simple click of the mouse. I was working as a paste-up artist in the mid 80s when desktop publishing became the norm. I said goodbye to text galleys, the hot wax and roller, the Exacto knife and cutting boards.
I formatted textbooks for publishing companies. It was a breeze importing content from Microsoft Word and formatting it in QuarkXPress. I grew and thrived with the new technology. I was still captivated by books. Then, along came the Internet and the ebook. Technology changed things again.
Hyper for Hyperlinks
In 2009 I released The Quote Effect, my first ebook in which more than 30 people contributed over 90 quotes. I chose to format the 50-page ebook in Microsoft Word with the intention of creating a PDF for easy download. Sounds simple right? Wrong.
When I created the PDF the hyperlinks would not work. The reader was supposed to be able to click on the links and be sent to selected posts on the bloggers’ sites. I had set up bookmarks and an index to make navigation easy. None of those links worked either.
The only way the links would work was if the actual permalink of the published post was typed, including the www. If you’re a blogger, you know how long those links can be and that wouldn’t do for this ebook. I wanted to embed the permalink into the actual title of the post that was typed on the page.
After troubleshooting for more than a day, a friend suggested I convert the Word document to OpenOffice; software that I could download for free. When I converted the Word document to OpenOffice low and behold, the hyperlinks worked.
But there was another problem. The formatting had changed. There were different line breaks and fonts in headlines had changed size and position. Things had re-flowed and everything was off kilter. The footers were missing and so were the page numbers. It was a nightmare!
Frustrated, after numerous attempts I rebuilt the book in OpenOffice. Days later, things came together, but with a lot more time and effort than I had expected.
I took a lot for granted when I created this ebook. I didn’t have the most current software to work with and the knowledge I did have, in a way, hurt me. I was too confident about what I was doing and made assumptions about how things worked. Where was that curious young girl when I needed her?
When I scroll through the pages of this ebook there are no pages to fan under my nose. There is no captivating aroma of freshly printed ink. The text isn’t even justified. But the hyperlinks work. That I don’t take for granted.
Davina Haisell blogs at Shades of Crimson where she asks readers to “Forget everything they think they know about personal development.” Click over to read a mixture of poetry and personal stories where topics range from life coaching and blogging, to reflections about nature. When she’s not blogging or life coaching, she’s proofreading for Writer Sense Communications.
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Read the Comments
6 Outstanding Responses to "Hyper for Hyperlinks"
Brett Legree on February 10, 2010 at 6:23 am | Permalink
Ack! The “Software of the Beast” aka Microsoft Word strikes again…
Brett Legree’s last blog post… the terminal man.
Deb Dorchak on February 10, 2010 at 9:25 am | Permalink
It’s like the Spanish Inquisition, you never know where or when it will strike!
Davina on February 10, 2010 at 11:40 am | Permalink
Hi Deb.
Thanks for the opportunity to guest post here… and to walk down memory lane of that first ebook experience; now that I can laugh about it, that is. InDesign is on my wish list now. Though I kinda miss working with text galleys and wax. It was… meditative
Davina’s last blog post… Take a Spiritual Bawdy Break
Deb Dorchak on February 10, 2010 at 3:00 pm | Permalink
Davina! Thank YOU so very much for writing for us! I know what you mean, it brought back a few memories of my own. So rare these days that I find another person who remembers what it was like. It’s like swapping war stories
InDesign is great. Can’t say I miss working with (or is that “in”?) the galleys and wax. I’ll tell you one thing though, having done it by hand and learned that way to begin with gives a better understanding of the process while doing it on the computer. I think that’s what’s lacking with some of the new generation of designers who grew up on nothing but computer software to get the job done. What do you think?
Lori Hoeck on February 10, 2010 at 3:22 pm | Permalink
Running my college newspaper and part of my time at The Aspen Times newspaper were definitely “in the ‘good old days’ of wax machines, straight edges and Exacto knives.” My straight edge also doubled in college as my self defense weapon of choice walking home after those midnight deadlines. Thank you for the memories!
Lori Hoeck’s last blog post… The power of preparedness
Deb Dorchak on February 10, 2010 at 3:37 pm | Permalink
@Lori: T-squares were pretty wicked too.