[Brad Andalman]

I'm having a really weird problem with my latest file.

It won't generate... it can't seem to find the location I'm selecting.
Doesn't matter if I change locations, either.

And when I ask it to "show me" the file, I get this:

The application "Vellum" does not have permission to open "name of book."

How can I fix this?

It sounds like you are running against issues with the system by which macOS grants Vellum permission to access your files.

Please first quit Vellum. If you are able to save your files, please do so. Otherwise, Vellum will auto-save your files, so you should find them open again when you return.

Then, see if things are better after restarting Vellum. You should find that you can again access your files. If not, then a full reboot should resolve the issue.

 

[NoLongerPosting]

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.

 

[LeeMountford]

I pulled the trigger and picked up a used Mac and purchased Vellum. Loving it so far!

Yeah I made the leap a couple of weeks ago. Already used to the ebook formatting (which is gold), and will try out the paperback in the coming weeks.

 

[CandyCromwell]

Is it possible the "small caps" function isn't working? I'm working with my first possible print copy, so I have all the other settings set to default. I'm just trying to change all my acronyms to small caps, but it doesn't seem to change it (visibly) anywhere except in the editor. The resulting PDF (and vellum previewer) still have acronyms that look huge. I can provide screenshots if needed.

Side question, new to layout: if I want to tweak anything else, what do people typically use? Acrobat?

 

[NoLongerPosting]

Is it possible the "small caps" function isn't working?

I'm having the same problem. I just uploaded my most recent book from BookFunnel and all the small caps (which I inserted in Vellum) are gone. That's on a Kindle Paperwhite.

Why would that be?

 

[scott.marmorstein]

Sorry if this has been asked already, and I think it might have been, but I could not find it in my search, so I'll ask (again?): Brads, are you planning on making Vellum non-fiction friendly for authors? Is that at all in the works? Scrivener can do the links to citations and on and on, but the formatting and look is...well, left much desired. Thanks to anyone who already knows this answer and can smack me down with a 'duh' answer. I swear I couldn't find the answer I'm looking for! 

 

[CandyCromwell]

I'm having the same problem. I just uploaded my most recent book from BookFunnel and all the small caps (which I inserted in Vellum) are gone. That's on a Kindle Paperwhite.

Why would that be?

I'm glad it's not just me (also quick bump here).

Does anyone have experience with going back and tweaking a Vellum-outputted print PDF in Acrobat? I'm on a pretty tight deadline and I'm new to print layout, not sure if I can get away with just reducing the font size in Acrobat after the fact (on the acronyms).

 

[NoLongerPosting]

I'm glad it's not just me (also quick bump here).

Does anyone have experience with going back and tweaking a Vellum-outputted print PDF in Acrobat? I'm on a pretty tight deadline and I'm new to print layout, not sure if I can get away with just reducing the font size in Acrobat after the fact (on the acronyms).

On the Vellum file I just mentioned, the small caps came out fine in the print PDF. It's just on my Kindle that they've disappeared.

One thing I've noticed about small caps in Vellum: if you type the word originally in all-caps, it looks almost the same as regular type. You need to type the original word in non-caps for it to work.

E.g.: Don't type IBM in the original, type ibm, then apply the small caps coding.

 

[Used To Be BH]

Quoting myself for posterity's sake:

After Bill Hiatt pointed me in the direction of Word's underlying code, I think I identified the main problem. It wasn't double spaces, but I think an artifact of me sometimes selecting the spaces on either side of a word of phrase when I italicized it. The italicized spaces seem to be coded differently from normal spaces (they show a different little character). Word for Windows wouldn't let me easily copy/paste that kind of space into a Find and replace, it just found normal spaces when I tried. However, Word for Mac recognized the difference between an italicized space and a normal one, and thus I was able to find and replace them all with normal spaces. This seems to have knocked out the problem, although I'm still proofing.

Good to know. I never would have guessed spaces could be italicized or that such a thing would through Vellum off. I can add that to my checklist for the future.

 

[Used To Be BH]

I'm glad it's not just me (also quick bump here).

Does anyone have experience with going back and tweaking a Vellum-outputted print PDF in Acrobat? I'm on a pretty tight deadline and I'm new to print layout, not sure if I can get away with just reducing the font size in Acrobat after the fact (on the acronyms).

I've occasionally edited PDFs in Acrobat, but mostly to add or subtract pages, not to change specific content. PDF is a fairly rigid format that doesn't just reflow in response to that kind of editorial change, so I fear reducing the font size of part of a line would create justification issues. If the line weren't justified, you could do it, but the justification won't adjust to a font size change.

That said, I've never actually tried what you're suggesting. You could experiment, though if I were you, I'd try a less expensive alternative than Acrobat.

 

[CandyCromwell]

On the Vellum file I just mentioned, the small caps came out fine in the print PDF. It's just on my Kindle that they've disappeared.

One thing I've noticed about small caps in Vellum: if you type the word originally in all-caps, it looks almost the same as regular type. You need to type the original word in non-caps for it to work.

E.g.: Don't type IBM in the original, type ibm, then apply the small caps coding.

Thank you, I'll give this a try!

 

[CandyCromwell]

On the Vellum file I just mentioned, the small caps came out fine in the print PDF. It's just on my Kindle that they've disappeared.

One thing I've noticed about small caps in Vellum: if you type the word originally in all-caps, it looks almost the same as regular type. You need to type the original word in non-caps for it to work.

E.g.: Don't type IBM in the original, type ibm, then apply the small caps coding.

So here's what I've found so far, if I type 'ibm' and then small-cap it in Vellum:

PDF (via various viewers): Looks right
ePub (via iBooks app): Looks right, BUT, if I search the epub for IBM, the search results window will show all the hits as 'ibm'.
mobi via calibre viewer: Looks right
mobi via Windows Desktop Kindle app: Looks right, search results appear as 'ibm'
mobi via iOS Kindle app (iPhone): appears as 'ibm' everywhere including reading view
I don't have my hands on my physical kindle (paperwhite) so can't test that right now.

There are all off the same generation run.

As such I'm kind of nervous about trying to use small caps in any of the ebook versions; will probably do a separate run for the PDF and then, ugh, switch everything else back by hand. Or just save a separate Vellum project for the PDF, derp.

 

[Brad Andalman]

So here's what I've found so far, if I type 'ibm' and then small-cap it in Vellum:

[test results elided]

As such I'm kind of nervous about trying to use small caps in any of the ebook versions; will probably do a separate run for the PDF and then, ugh, switch everything else back by hand. Or just save a separate Vellum project for the PDF, derp.

On the Vellum file I just mentioned, the small caps came out fine in the print PDF. It's just on my Kindle that they've disappeared.

One thing I've noticed about small caps in Vellum: if you type the word originally in all-caps, it looks almost the same as regular type. You need to type the original word in non-caps for it to work.

E.g.: Don't type IBM in the original, type ibm, then apply the small caps coding.

Vellum, when small caps is applied to some text, will leave uppercase letters as they are and apply small caps to the lowercase letters. This is how many other word processing programs work, and allows you to set entire sentences in small caps. For example, you could set "My name is Cormac McCarthy" in small caps, and it would read a lot better than if it were in all caps. However, for acronyms like IBM, you probably just want to use all caps.

That said, if you'd like to use small caps, you shouldn't worry about using them in ebooks. According to our tests, they will work fine on all platforms. Unfortunately, testing on Kindle/iOS can be tricky, and if you don't do it exactly right then some formatting can go missing. This is likely what happened in Candy's and Rickie's tests. To proof on Kindle/iOS correctly, you'll need to follow the instructions we've outlined on our Proofing help page.

That can be a giant pain (thanks, Amazon!), so we recommend proofing using the desktop Kindle app instead. Candy and Rickie, if you do that, do you see your small caps?

Hope that helps!

 

[NoLongerPosting]

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.

 

[CandyCromwell]

I'm also slightly confused about how testing or proofing will resolve the issue. The file looks right on the Windows Desktop Kindle app, but doesn't on my iPhone Kindle app. Since some people read on the iOS app, that's a problem, even if it does work right on the desktop app.

All I'm doing is selecting text in the Vellum editor and using the "small caps" option. Where is the process breaking down, in the original Word formatting somehow?

Sorry if I'm still not understanding.

 

[NoLongerPosting]

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.

 

[NoLongerPosting]

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.

 

[Brad Andalman]

I'm also slightly confused about how testing or proofing will resolve the issue. The file looks right on the Windows Desktop Kindle app, but doesn't on my iPhone Kindle app. Since some people read on the iOS app, that's a problem, even if it does work right on the desktop app.

All I'm doing is selecting text in the Vellum editor and using the "small caps" option. Where is the process breaking down, in the original Word formatting somehow?

Sorry if I'm still not understanding.

You're right, testing or proofing won't resolve the issue, but making sure you are proofing correctly will ensure that you see all of the formatting that you've set up in Vellum. Sorry my previous post was not clear.

After conferring with the BookFunnel folks, I've found the answer to that particular problem:

http://authors.bookfunnel.com/help/mobi-format-and-kf8/

Turns out you have to tick the box that says "include the KF8" or else the readers won't see your "floopties".

Who knew? (Not me, obviously. ) I'm off to fix those files now. (Which you can do without re-uploading; check details in link above.)

Aha! That's good to know! You definitely want to make sure that the KF8 formatting isn't lost. We, too, have a help page on this topic:
https://help.vellum.pub/kindleformats/

 

[CandyCromwell]

Candy, I just checked one of my previous books using the Kindle app on my iPhone and the small caps look fine. They're also fine using the Kindle app on my laptop. Also, on my Kindle (Paperwhite) itself.

I wonder why yours is different? Something's gone wrong.

However, my small caps don't work in BookFunnel, which is really a pain. But they seem fine elsewhere.

I'll give it another go when I'm done wrestling with the print PDF. Just to make sure we're on the same page:

I'm talking about using small caps for acronyms (like IBM, as discussed), and following the advice of typing them in lower case and then using the small caps formatting option in Vellum. Are we still talking about the same thing?

 

[NoLongerPosting]

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.