InDesign introduced new features for EPUB files with the release of the 2014.1 version. The feature I will discuss in this blog is the EPUB Interactivity Panel. This new panel allows you to see what your document will look like as a Fixed Layout EPUB. This feature is important because it doesn't show you Reflowable EPUBs.

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InDesign: EPUB Interactivity
Panel

2. InDesign: EPUB Interactivity Panel
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InDesign introduced new features
for EPUB files with the release of
the 2014.1 version. The feature I
will discuss in this blog is the EPUB
Interactivity Panel. This new panel
allows you to see what your
document will look like as a Fixed
Layout EPUB. This feature is
important because it doesn't show you Reflowable EPUBs.

3. InDesign: EPUB Interactivity Panel
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The main focus of the panel is to create the ability to
preview how a document's animation and other
interactive elements will display on eBook readers and
other devices, before exporting. Features like this have
existed since CS4, but they only exported to Flash
formats to the SWF Preview. Now that users can export
to EPUBs, Adobe has a different preview panel:
Window menu > Interactive > EPUB Interactivity
Preview.

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5. InDesign: EPUB Interactivity Panel
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EPUB Interactivity Preview Panel Controls
The controls for this feature are simple, as you only have a couple of options at the
bottom of the panel.

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• Play Preview: This will take you to the interactive preview by
rendering in the panel the same code that is produced when you
export a document to EPUB. Preview allows you to play
animations, audio, and video and will open any
hyperlinks. Note: by holding Option (mac) or Alt (pc) while clicking
the Play button you can replay a preview.
• Clear Preview: Allows you to clear the preview animation, and to
make modifications to the file and then re-render the page or
document.
• Navigation Controls: Allows you to review the next or previous
page, or to jump to a specific page.

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• Spread Mode: Allows you to preview a single spread.
• Document Mode: Allows you to preview the entire
document. Note: This option is the only way you can preview
interactivity that goes from one page to the next, such as a Go To
Next Page button or a cross-reference.

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The InDesign team has made it more convenient to
open either of the two preview panels by adding
Preview icons at the bottom of the Animation panel,
the Buttons panel, and the Timing panel.
Click the Preview icon at the bottom of those panels
and choose either Preview Spread: EPUB or Preview
Spread: SWF. This opens the preview panel and
automatically clears the previous preview.

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Conclusion
This new panel creates greater time savings for users. An important item to
keep in mind, however, is that the EPUB Interactivity Panel will use
the settings from the EPUB export dialogue box. If you are working on a
complicated project, such as a translation project with several languages, this
will be of great help to control the animations before exporting the document
as EPUB. This is a fantastic feature, and I look forward to what InDesign will
introduce next.

11. InDesign: EPUB Interactivity Panel
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Additional Resources on Document Translation
At Globalization Partners International (GPI), we have written many blogs that
focus on document translation and multilingual DTP challenges. Here are a
few blogs which you may find of interest:
8 Steps to Optimize InDesign files for translation
8 Ways Unstructured FrameMaker 10 helps Translation
Extracting Word Format Source Files from PDF
Using PDF in Illustrator When Source Files are Lost
Please contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874
with your specific questions about your project goals. A
complimentary Translation Quote for your project is also available upon
request.

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