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Choose where a section appears: print, ebook or both

Most front and back matter belongs in every edition of a book. Now and then, though, a page makes sense in print but not on a screen, or the other way round. Each section has two boxes for exactly this, so you can keep a print-only version and an ebook-only version side by side.

The two boxes

Open the section, and in the bar across the top you'll see Print edition and Ebook. Both are ticked to begin with.

  • Both ticked — the section is in the paperback, the hardcover and the ebook.
  • Only Print edition — it's in the print PDF and left out of the ebook.
  • Only Ebook — it's in the ebook and left out of the print PDF.
  • Neither — it's out of the book altogether. It stays in your list, faded, so you can tick it back on any time.

A section in just one edition wears a small Print or Ebook tag in the manuscript list, so you can see at a glance which is which.

The contents page in each edition lists only the sections that edition has, so nothing points to a page that isn't there.

An example: a picture across two pages

Say you have a map that spreads across two facing pages in the paperback. In an ebook, two half-maps on two screens would be no use to anyone; you want the whole map on one screen. So you make three image pages:

  1. The left half — Print edition ticked, Ebook not.
  2. The right half, straight after it — Print edition ticked, Ebook not, and Starts recto off, so it follows on the very next page.
  3. The whole map — Ebook ticked, Print edition not.

Each edition gets the version that suits it, and you only ever change the one you mean to.

For the two halves to face each other, the left half has to fall on a left-hand page. Make a proof (Proof whole book, in the Publish window) and check where it lands; if it's on a right-hand page, the section before it needs one page more or one page less.

Why some sections don't have the boxes

  • The title page and the table of contents are in every edition, always.
  • A section shared with the series shows the boxes greyed out, with a Shared with series tag at the top. Changing them there would change every book in the series, so instead choose Make a copy for this book, just above, and set the editions on this book's own copy.

Chapters

The boxes are only for front and back matter. Every chapter is in every edition—a chapter missing from one would make it a different book.

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