If you want to optimize InDesign documents to create accessible electronic publications, you should follow these good practices. This applies whether you are creating an interactive PDF or an e-book (ePUB) format.
When exporting an electronic publication from InDesign, we will always get dirty code. This code needs correction later in Adobe Acrobat Pro (PDF/UA) or with Sigil (ePUB). If we don’t check and clean up the source document, a large amount of extra code will be generated. Solving this can take hours of correction.
Already, InDesign and virtually any application generates extra and unnecessary code when exporting. The key is to reduce this extra code, with the help of our human intervention.
In this article, I will share some steps to optimize InDesign documents. I will also solve topics that are basic and indispensable for exporting any type of publication. With these topics, I will cover areas beyond electronic publications. These topics are also used for printed versions.
Stages
- Multiple Spaces
- Multiple Returns
- Style Overrides
- Objects on the Pasteboard
- Unused Styles
- Unused Color Swatches
1. Multiple Spaces
Virtually all texts sent by customers have multiple spaces. This affects the exported code. Additionally, it impacts the reading process carried out by a screen reader like NVDA, JAWS or VoiceOver.
The most common thing is to find double spaces, but there are also triple, quadruple spaces, etc. Some editors and writers usually use the spaces to align text or simply space the content.
What’s wrong with leaving these spaces in the InDesign document? In the case of an accessible PDF, it will slightly change the reading process by any assistive technology. For an e-book in ePUB format, these spaces will be replaced by a single space. The publication will look slightly different compared to the source file.
How can we erase these extra spaces? Manually, by going through the document and using the cursor next to the remove key. Better yet, we can use the Find/Change menu command, selecting a Query to apply to the entire document. We can also use the script Cleaning Up Text Imported Into InDesign. This script allows us to clean them in just two clicks.
2. Multiple Returns
Another bad habit that some publishers and even many designers have, is to use multiple returns. Commonly, they usually use them to leave spaces between paragraphs, make a text skip an image frame or table, etc. Wrong!
InDesign allows, from its first version, to add space from the paragraph style options. It also lets you add distances so that the text wraps the image and text frames.
What’s wrong with leaving these extra returns in the document? In the case of an accessible PDF, empty tags will be generated. This change affects the screen reader behavior. It even affects the navigation of the tags. It will also throw errors in the accessibility check that will need to be remediated with Acrobat. In the case of an ePUB, it will export several empty tags. These need to be removed with Sigil or any e-book editor.
How do we remove these common multiple returns? Like spaces, we can remove them through a combination of steps. We need to adjust some objects as we remove empty returns. For this, it is key to have a reference PDF or duplicate the InDesign document before starting this stage.
To remove them, we will use the Find/Change menu command, selecting a Query to apply to the entire document. We want to apply it to the entire document with two clicks. Then we will use the already mentioned script Cleaning Up Text Imported Into InDesign.
3. Style Overrides
Styles allow us to achieve consistency in the format of texts. They ease global editing. Styles also let us take advantage of certain functions like tables of contents, cross-references, and alphabetical indexes. But the moment we start making modifications to the text instead of modifying the style options, overrides will be generated.
The Paragraph Styles and Character Styles panels has a button in the upper right. This button highlights where those overrides are located page by page. It is an indispensable choice. Many of us would like to have it available in other applications like Apple Pages and Google Docs.
What is the drawback of generating overrides when exporting? In an accessible PDF, many tags <Span> are generated. It is recommended to remove them manually from within Acrobat. In the case of an exported ePUB, <span> tags will also be generated. We will then have to clean these tags for code optimization.
If we want to know the number of overrides, we need to create a custom Preflight profile. It will tell us which pages they are on. It will also show us how many characters are affected, etc.
We need to remove the overrides. We will have to generate new styles. Another choice is to remove them with the lower override cleaning button. We can also use a script called Clear Overrides Throughout Document. Remember that it will change the appearance of the whole document.
4. Objects on the Pasteboard
Some designers often generate or leave frames and other objects outside the document pages. This practice is quite common. This space is called Pasteboard.
What is the problem when exporting? If you use the Preflight panel, the objects or frames that are on the Pasteboard will be considered. This can throw false positives. The export will take longer. Warnings and errors are generated in InDesign at the end of its export.
If the InDesign document is in its final version, there are no excuses to leave objects on the Pasteboard.
How do we remove them? Selecting them with the Selection tool and then deleting them with the Delete key.
5. Unused Styles
Once the InDesign document is finished or almost ready, it is recommended to remove the unused styles. By styles we mean styles of paragraph, character, object, cell, tables, etc.
Avoid using accents, eñes, and special characters in style names. This helps prevent errors in accessible PDF and ePUB formats. They can be changed manually. You can also use a script called Rename Styles. With just two clicks, it changes the name of styles and samples of the entire document in seconds.
How do you remove unused styles? From the styles panel, choose the Select All Unused command. Then, click on the trash in the panel to remove them.
6. Unused Color Swatches
Exactly the same goes for the Swatches color panel. All unused swatches in the document can be deleted in the same way, with the Select All Unused command. Then click on the trash in the same Swatches panel.
This helps simplify each of the panels. It leaves only what is used. It also confirms the names of styles and samples for compatibility at the time of export.
Conclusion
The easiest thing will always be to leave everything uncleaned, dirty and unoptimizing. But with a few minutes you can save hours of later corrections. The aforementioned scripts help automate these stages in any design and optimize InDesign documents.
Request a quote
If you want a quote to convert your files into accessible PDF format and/or accessible ePUB, you have two options. You can fill the quote request form. Alternatively, send your files along with an explanation of what you need.
Icon: Basith Ibrahim. Photography: Jon Tyson.
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