Import from Word and Pages

Lars M_8802

Hello. I'd like to have the ability to have documents imported from MS Word and Apple Pages in PubCoder, maybe also OTD from GDocs. I do not use InDesign or any other Adobe product and it does not seem logical having to use those tools because they in themselves are tools in competition with PubCoder in many ways. Using PubCoder as a preprocessor is nice but having to cut and paste is tedious when you can import to InDesign and from there to PubCoder it seems like an unwanted extra program and a waste of time. Why not have the ability to import directly from MS Word and Pages, maybe even from the different presentation programs like GPresenter, PowerPoint, and others. In this way, one can use ones other devices to do the work in Scrivener, Pages, PowerPoint and other workhorses and finalize in PubCoder doing the templating and add niceties to ones work.

Angelo S

Hello Lars,
importing from InDesign makes perfect sense for many publishers who want to convert their paper books already made with InDesign to a digital and interactive format. We know InDesign allows to export fixed-layout EPUB on their own, but moving to PubCoder allows to add interactivity, read aloud, multiple languages, and export also as native iOS/Android app, html widgets or XPUB.

We're a small team, so we need to carefully select what features to implement. InDesign import was added because a lot of users asked for it. At the moment, there's not such demand to import from the tools you mentioned. But maybe we will add support for that some times later, though it is not actually on our roadmap.

Aldo D

Hello, everybody,

I've been studying Pubcoder for a day and I think Lars is right.

The application is perfect for adding widgets to a layout that doesn't have the features of authoring software. For example, I don't think we can automatically flow text from one page to another or easily place a pgn image in text wrapping. This should be done with other software, OK. In your case only with In design which, by the way, has is own plug in to add widgets, and it works very well exporting in epub3.
90% of Pubcoder's competitors import PDFs generated externally: it is an option. Importing Pages will be more and more important if you think that Apple is transferring the functions of iBook Author to pages. I understand the position of Angelo, I just wanted to express an opinion having produced for the Apple platform a lot of books.
thanks and stay in touch
Aldo

Angelo S

Thanks for you feedback Aldo. We are always evaluating new features.
Just to understand, would it be ok to import a PDF as one high-res image per page in PubCoder, then you add layers of other objects and interactivity on top of it?

Aldo D

Dear Angelo,

Yes it is what we do at the moment with other software. a good pdf is the base to have a proper editorial graphic design and not a "webish page". I have to confess that i will go on with pubcoder. As trial i just re edit a previous book and, after two learning days i have a good result.
What i like more than others:
It works and it is reliable
it is clear what you can do what you can't
Rendition (fantastic tool)

What we miss:
wrapping text around a png (iBook author is perfect)
text flowing automatically through pages with column and page interruption if required (scrolling page is an alternative but not very bookwise)

I am waiting as all publishing market for Apple to allow pages to import .iba to see what happen.

ciao
Aldo