[Nobody222]

People have been asking for footnotes support for ages. Every month I run a google search on vellum footnotes, and I find lots of people requesting this feature, always with the same answer by the developers: "It's something we have in mind, but have no timeframe for it".

Since it's been a few years, would anyone from vellum actually tell us if it's really in "your minds", or if it's not, and thus vellum will stay exclusive for fiction writers?

Please, be sincere and honest. Either tell us that it will not happen because you're not (and never have) attempted to truly solve this problem, or that you really have it in your minds and are scheduling that update to be released @ MONTH/YEAR.

Thanks for understanding!

 

[WDR]

The problem isn't so much with Vellum as it is with ereading devices and the ebook file formats and how they render text.

The problem is there is no way to anchor the text block containing the footnote to the same displayed-page where the superscripted reference number appears in an ebook reader.

If you go to any page on Wikipedia, you will see they footnote extensively. Lots of nicely formatted footnote numbers appear and all the way down at the bottom of the page are the footnotes. Looks nice. The problem is, those footnotes are all the way at the bottom of the HTML webpage. They don't appear a few lines below the number citing the footnote.

Each chapter in your book is a single HTML page. So your footnotes would not appear until the absolute end of the chapter. This would make them endnotes, not footnotes.

It is possible that maybe in the EPUB-4 format or the EPUB-5 format that they may include a mechanism for footnoting. But for that to work would require the e-reader manufacturers to add in the programming that would allow this to work smoothly, so that a give footnote appears on the same displayed page as the reference number attached to it.

 

[writerc]

Hello

Quick query.

My chapter headings on my Vellum preview are centered but I just bought my book and on my kindle, the chapter headings are not.

Instead of      1         
                  -------

I have        1
              -----------

So the actual chapter number is off to the left of the actual centered line.
Any idea what this might be. I'm not sure how to fix it cos it looks fine on my computer?

ETA It also looks fine on the mobi I emailed myself to my kindle before publication to proofread.
Does Amazon sometimes make these things wonky?

Thanks for any help
Theresa

 

[ZanaHart]

My chapter headings on my Vellum preview are centered but I just bought my book and on my kindle, the chapter headings are not.

Instead of 1
-------

I have 1
-----------

I just took a look at Amazon for your book Garrick, and the chapter headings show as centered with Look Inside.

 

[Used To Be BH]

The problem isn't so much with Vellum as it is with ereading devices and the ebook file formats and how they render text.

The problem is there is no way to anchor the text block containing the footnote to the same displayed-page where the superscripted reference number appears in an ebook reader.

If you go to any page on Wikipedia, you will see they footnote extensively. Lots of nicely formatted footnote numbers appear and all the way down at the bottom of the page are the footnotes. Looks nice. The problem is, those footnotes are all the way at the bottom of the HTML webpage. They don't appear a few lines below the number citing the footnote.

Each chapter in your book is a single HTML page. So your footnotes would not appear until the absolute end of the chapter. This would make them endnotes, not footnotes.

It is possible that maybe in the EPUB-4 format or the EPUB-5 format that they may include a mechanism for footnoting. But for that to work would require the e-reader manufacturers to add in the programming that would allow this to work smoothly, so that a give footnote appears on the same displayed page as the reference number attached to it.

A lot of formats either allow for or prefer endnotes, anyway. (See for example CMOS, 17th edition, 1.62). The problem is that Vellum doesn't support endnotes, either.

Some formats [MLA, for instance, have moved to parenthetical notes (intext or inline citations/reference list) rather than footnotes or endnotes]. I just checked CMOS, and it now includes parenthetical notes as an alternative form of citation (CMOS 15). Given the difficulty with getting footnotes to appear correctly in an ebook, adopting this alternative may be the best way to get around the problem.

 

[writerc]

I just took a look at Amazon for your book Garrick, and the chapter headings show as centered with Look Inside.

Thanks for looking

Yes, it looks fine there too. Maybe my kindle is wonky or it got melted in the ether on the way to Devon

theresa x

 

[Brad West]

People have been asking for footnotes support for ages. Every month I run a google search on vellum footnotes, and I find lots of people requesting this feature, always with the same answer by the developers: "It's something we have in mind, but have no timeframe for it".

Since it's been a few years, would anyone from vellum actually tell us if it's really in "your minds", or if it's not, and thus vellum will stay exclusive for fiction writers?

Hi Nobody,

This is a long thread, but if you look a few pages back, you'll find that our last answer to this question was that we are planning to release something later this year. Please understand that this is a large, complex project. That's why, in the past, we haven't been able to prioritize footnotes/endnotes over more popular requests like print. And it's why, today, we can't give a more precise ETA. But we are working on it, and have been for quite some time.

My chapter headings on my Vellum preview are centered but I just bought my book and on my kindle, the chapter headings are not.

Instead of 1
-------

I have 1
-----------

So the actual chapter number is off to the left of the actual centered line.
Any idea what this might be. I'm not sure how to fix it cos it looks fine on my computer?

ETA It also looks fine on the mobi I emailed myself to my kindle before publication to proofread.
Does Amazon sometimes make these things wonky?

Thanks for any help
Theresa

Hi Theresa,

This appears to be the result of a bug in the rendering of Amazon's Enhanced Typesetting. Fortunately, Amazon seems to be in the middle of addressing it. As far as we can tell, the problem is no longer visible on the Kindle Fire, and an update for iOS was released earlier this week. Unfortunately, the problem can still be seen on a Paperwhite. We're assuming that will be fixed with a forthcoming update, but we don't have any information about when this might be available. You and your readers won't need to do anything to see the fixed behavior: once the update is applied, your books will again appear as you expect.

Hope that helps.

---

Update 10/3/18: Based on our most recent checks, this fix has since been applied to the Paperwhite

 

[rkbentley]

Question about page count, Vellum vs. Scrivener for print, I know font size and page size can make a difference between page counts but Scrivener gave me a paperback page count of 340 and Vellum is 430.

Which should I use?

Thanks!

 

[GirlWriter]

Question about page count, Vellum vs. Scrivener for print, I know font size and page size can make a difference between page counts but Scrivener gave me a paperback page count of 340 and Vellum is 430.

Use which ever you are using to format. If you are using Vellum, then you have to got with Vellum's page count. Also check Body, under Styles and play with the fonts. There can be a big difference in page count depending on Font, Line Spacing, book size and All pages starting on right or not.
I do not recommend going less than the middle tick for fonts/line spacing as they might be too small/tight on print. I tested them all and the middle tick is between PT 10 and 11.5 depending on the font.

 

[writerc]

Hi Theresa,

This appears to be the result of a bug in the rendering of Amazon's Enhanced Typesetting. Fortunately, Amazon seems to be in the middle of addressing it. As far as we can tell, the problem is no longer visible on the Kindle Fire, and an update for iOS was released earlier this week. Unfortunately, the problem can still be seen on a Paperwhite. We're assuming that will be fixed with a forthcoming update, but we don't have any information about when this might be available. You and your readers won't need to do anything to see the fixed behavior: once the update is applied, your books will again appear as you expect.

Hope that helps.

Hi Brad

Thanks for getting back to me. I had wondered if I had messed up the Vellum settings somehow as I am not the most computery person ever. So good to know it's Amazon's fault and not mine (for a change!)

Cheers
Theresa

 

[PaulMcParlandAuthor1]

Hi everybody

Has anyone had issues with Vellum Print creating a PDF where the text is back to front and upside down.

I tried to flip and mirror the text again using various programmes but I couldn't get it to completely fix itself. When I managed to get the text to appear correctly, the sentences are out of order i.e. the words are in the correct order but the 1st sentence is actually the last in the chapter, the second sentence is the penultimate etc etc.

Any idea if I have a setting on Vellum incorrect or of an easy fix for the PDF file itself?

 

[Brad Andalman]

Hi everybody

Has anyone had issues with Vellum Print creating a PDF where the text is back to front and upside down.

I tried to flip and mirror the text again using various programmes but I couldn't get it to completely fix itself. When I managed to get the text to appear correctly, the sentences are out of order i.e. the words are in the correct order but the 1st sentence is actually the last in the chapter, the second sentence is the penultimate etc etc.

Any idea if I have a setting on Vellum incorrect or of an easy fix for the PDF file itself?

This sounds like a bug that appeared when macOS High Sierra was first released, which means that you might be running a very old version of Vellum. You can learn how to update to the latest version of Vellum here:
https://help.vellum.pub/updating/

If that doesn't fix your issue, feel free to get in touch with us directly:
https://help.vellum.pub/contact/

 

[BethRaymond]

This appears to be the result of a bug in the rendering of Amazon's Enhanced Typesetting. Fortunately, Amazon seems to be in the middle of addressing it. As far as we can tell, the problem is no longer visible on the Kindle Fire, and an update for iOS was released earlier this week. Unfortunately, the problem can still be seen on a Paperwhite. We're assuming that will be fixed with a forthcoming update, but we don't have any information about when this might be available. You and your readers won't need to do anything to see the fixed behavior: once the update is applied, your books will again appear as you expect.

Brad, thanks for this--I hadn't updated my iPad Kindle software in a bit and panicked when I saw this same formatting error in a newly released book. Came here and saw your post, then immediately updated my app. All now is well! And, in the event a reader with a Paperwhite encounters this and reaches out to me, I will know what to tell them.

 

[D. Zollicoffer]

I'm about to sell my MacBook. I'm getting another one soon. But I'm worried that I've activated Vellum on too many computers already. Over the last three years, I've had it on about three Macs. Is there a limit on how many times I can activate/register Vellum? And if so is there a way I can deactivate this MacBook because I don't want y'all to think I'm just giving folks my account info so they can use it lol.

 

[FictionAtlas]

Hello. I've been very happy with the ebook side of Vellum, but the print side is giving me many errors.

First of all, the difference between proof and draft mode are considerable.

Then, and this is the biggest problem I have found, the inability to use double returns or page breaks to position content.

I have ornamental breaks throughout my book. I do not want these to appear at the top of bottom of the print page. If I take them out, the entire page rearranges and I get more text on the top or bottom depending on where the break was situated on the page. Now that means I can leave a blank line as a break, but that is not consistent with all my ornamental breaks. Why is it that I can't control where these breaks appear? Why can't I double space or insert a break to the next page? The same is true for specific date subheadings that are getting separated from their corresponding text.

Please tell me there is a fix for this, or at least an update soon? I am a publisher and I want my books to look professional. That's why I bought Vellum to begin with!

 

[Nobody222]

Hi Nobody,

This is a long thread, but if you look a few pages back, you'll find that our last answer to this question was that we are planning to release something later this year. Please understand that this is a large, complex project. That's why, in the past, we haven't been able to prioritize footnotes/endnotes over more popular requests like print. And it's why, today, we can't give a more precise ETA. But we are working on it, and have been for quite some time.

Thanks for answering. Really looking forward to this feature.

 

[Brad West]

I'm about to sell my MacBook. I'm getting another one soon. But I'm worried that I've activated Vellum on too many computers already. Over the last three years, I've had it on about three Macs. Is there a limit on how many times I can activate/register Vellum? And if so is there a way I can deactivate this MacBook because I don't want y'all to think I'm just giving folks my account info so they can use it lol.

Hi D,

The limit is based on active use: you should be fine with your three Macs. If you are selling your MacBook, though, be sure to first completely and securely erase all of the data on it. Unused licenses will automatically deactivate, but a complete erase will ensure that happens as quickly as possible.

I have ornamental breaks throughout my book. I do not want these to appear at the top of bottom of the print page. If I take them out, the entire page rearranges and I get more text on the top or bottom depending on where the break was situated on the page. Now that means I can leave a blank line as a break, but that is not consistent with all my ornamental breaks. Why is it that I can't control where these breaks appear? Why can't I double space or insert a break to the next page? The same is true for specific date subheadings that are getting separated from their corresponding text.

Hi Fiction,

If you have subheadings that you want to keep from landing on the bottom of the page, we'd recommend making use of Vellum's Subhead feature (https://help.vellum.pub/textfeatures/). Vellum includes built-in adjustments to discourage these from landing at the bottom of the page.

As for ornamental breaks, though, there's nothing "unprofessional" about one appearing at the top (or bottom) of page. Here's one in the book I'm reading now. (Expanse fans will recognize the distinctive ornament, but don't read too closely if you're not at Book 6!):

If you're seeing a big difference between Draft and Proof mode, it means Vellum's doing a lot to eliminate widows, balance spreads, etc. More details about the work Vellum does in Proof mode (and in your final book) can be found here:
https://help.vellum.pub/print-auto-layout/

Thanks for answering. Really looking forward to this feature.

Hi Nobody,

We're glad to hear it. We think it will be worth the wait!

 

[Anarchist]

I'm sure this is discussed in this extremely long thread but I don't want to go through the whole thing so maybe someone can tell me...

Is there any way to do an omnibus or box set using it?

Not Brad, but...

https://help.vellum.pub/box-sets/

 

[GirlWriter]

For the emojis under Edit, Emoji and Symbols, has anyone tried using them?

Do they work for Kindle and other platforms?
When I test it, it shows on iBooks but not with with sideloading into Kindle. I don't have other apps/devices to test it.

Can someone confirm that this is one of those things that works once uploaded to Amazon and other vendors?

Thanks!

 

[WDR]

For the emojis under Edit, Emoji and Symbols, has anyone tried using them?

Do they work for Kindle and other platforms?
When I test it, it shows on iBooks but not with with sideloading into Kindle. I don't have other apps/devices to test it.

Can someone confirm that this is one of those things that works once uploaded to Amazon and other vendors?

Thanks!

Also not one of the Brads…

My gut feeling is it won't work. The issue being, the device that is rendering the ebook---the Kindle---might not be set up to display emojis.

The best way to test this is to simply generate an ebook that is composed of a few pages of emojis and generate the Kindle version, thence load it into your Kindle and see if it works.

One key thing to remember, make sure your Kindle is set to display the ebook according to the publisher's settings, not your personal preferences. I can make alternate fonts appear in my text if I used the publisher settings on my Kindle, but when I override that with using other fonts, margins, etc., the fonts go away. I suspect the emojis will behave in the same way: disappear.

If you really need those emojis, you could make JPEGs of them and insert those into the text. That might get it done.