Published
The Digital Hub’s latest update continues to improve the accessibility of ebooks produced within the Digital Hub.
These updates require an essential CSS update to avoid display issues. For all projects, download the latest default.css to use with any ePub created in the Digital Hub.
Alternatively, those who are using custom CSS files can update their files by adding the following two lines:
span.bk, span.bk1, span.bk2, span.bkht, span.bksect, span.cn, span.ct, span.ctbm, span.ctfm, span.pn, span.pt, span.un, span.ut {display: block;}
.bkbk1, .pnpt, .unut, .cnct {font-size: medium;}
HTML Markup Updates
- The <title> elements in each HTML file will more accurately reflect the contents of certain chapters to avoid falling back on the book title.
- The cover, title page, and half title page will have a dedicated title instead of falling back to the book title.
- Chapters that are split across files will include “Continued (x of y).”
- Chapters can also be manually set in the ScML file using the title attribute (<chapter title="Set Title">).
- The epub:type for the title page in the landmarks has been updated from bodymatter to titlepage.
- The bodymatter epub:type will now be labeled “Start of Content” and automatically applied to the first chapter following the front matter.
- This attribute is often used to set the page that a book will be open to the first time it is read in many reading systems.
- If the default location is not the best page for this purpose, it can be adjusted manually using the type attribute in the ScML file (<chapter type="startofcontent">).
- The Digital Hub will no longer code a cn followed by a ct as adjacent stacked h1 elements. In these cases, the cn and ct will be span elments placed in a larger cnct h1 element. This requires using the updated CSS to render correctly.
- Ebooks will include the xml:lang attribute on the <html> element.
- Table headers that have a rowspan or colspan will have a scope of rowgroup or colgroup instead of row or col.
- Endnotes and footnotes located at the end of a chapter without a dedicated head will be put into a new dedicated <section> element. The new element will have an aria-label of “Notes” and a role of “doc-endnotes.” An issue where doc-endnotes was applied to the wrong section has been fixed.
- bqh will open a new <blockquote> structure automatically in the ScML file.
Language Updates
Expanded support for language tagging from character styles to paragraph styles. The conversion from sam to IDTT will preserve the language metadata. A paragraph style using Scribe’s language scribing recommendations should convert from docx to sam, then to IDTT. (The language metadata on paragraphs will be retained within, and included in the export from, InDesign using the current Scribe Tools.)
New Hub Option: Add Chapter Structure Indicators
Adds chapter structure indicators around material that typically lacks chapter titles. Useful for automatically adding structure indicators to front matter chapters. This feature is best used when refining content during the scribing process.
This tool looks at certain style groups like series (ser), copyright (cip/crt), and review (rv). It will also add a structure division around toc styles if a chapter title is not present for Contents / Table of Contents.
The output should be checked, especially if an unconventional chapter break system is expected. The break between a half title page and a title page should typically be confirmed.
Updated Hub Option: Remove Tab Patterns
The Hub conversion option “Adjust Typesetter Tabs” has been renamed “Remove Typesetter Tab Patterns” and reworked to remove a much larger number of tabs based on known patterns. This setting has been enabled as the default on all projects (it was previously off by default.) An additional “Remove Tab Patterns” has been added for conversions from docx (off by default).
Some examples of expected tab pattern locations include toc entries, lists, and endnotes. Commonly, the pattern will be “[tab][number][tab],” and this setting will adjust this to remove the first tab and change the second tab to a space, resulting in “[number][space].” Because tabs are not used in digital environments, this feature can save time and effort when preparing files for conversions to formats like ePub.
Additional Improvements
- The Digital Hub has improved linking TOC paragraphs to the correct head level.
- Several bug fixes have been made to improve the reporting of TOC Mismatches.
- Fixed a couple bugs with the conversion of MathML markup between file formats.
- ScML files with embedded MathML will automatically have the MathML accessibility feature added to the OPF when converted to ePub.
- Conversions from Word will retain Wingdings characters that previously could be lost.
- Fixed a bug with incorrect aria-labelledby attributes on lists.