Now that you have all the graphics, text and audio ready for your fixed layout ePub, it's time to start building your ePub in InDesign®. We will place each background image on each corresponding page.

So that we are all working with the same workspace in InDesign, let's set up a custom workspace. Open InDesign and let's get started. We will start by creating a new project for a fixed layout ePub on the iPad®.

1. Click New File from the left menu, to open the New Document window.


2. In the New Document window, click the Mobile tab at the top of the window.


3. Click View All Presets in the Mobile panel.


4. Select the iPad Retina preset and set the Orientation to Landscape in the right panel.


5. Keep the other default settings and click Create.

Let's save our new document.


6. From the top menu, click File - Save.


7. Name your project ePubXmasPoem and save the file where you can get to it easily. If you are not using the poem in your project, name the file to reflect your story or poem.

Now let's set up our new workspace. We will start with the Essentials Classic workspace and add a few more panels for working with animations.


8. From the right of the top menu, select the Essentials Classic workspace from the drop down menu. If you already have the Essentials Classic workspace open, click Reset Essentials Classic.

We won't need the CC Libraries panel.


9. Drag the CC Libraries panel away from the list and click the X to close the panel.

Now we will add the panels that we need for animations.


10. From the top menu, click Window - Interactive - Animation to open the Animation panel.


11. Drag the Animation panel to the right edge of the workspace, until it snaps into place under the last icon.


12. Repeat the previous step for the following panels (see screenshot).

Properties
Interactive -
  Timing
  Media
  Button and Forms


13. Drag the Properties panel icon to the top of the list.

Now we are ready to add the background images to the pages of our ePub. We will start with the background for page one. Remember that this page will be used as the cover for our ePub.


14. Click the Pages panel and the first page is selected and ready to receive the background image (see screenshot).

Before we add the background image, let's take a look at the default blank page. Go to Layer 1 in the Layers panel. There you will see a text frame. This is put there by default when you create each new page. We will use this text frame later, when we add the poem text to each page. Let's go back to the Pages panel.


15. With Page 1 selected in the Pages panel, click File - Place from the top menu. Find your background image and select it.

Your cursor should be loaded with the background image.


16. At the top left corner of the page, click to add the image to the page.


17. With the background image still selected, go to the Properties panel and verify that the X and Y values are both set to zero (see screenshot).

For the copyright and table of contents pages of your ePub, add a blank second and third page to the Pages panel. We will populate these pages later.


18. For the second and third pages, click the Create New Page icon at the bottom of the Pages panel (see screenshot).

Let's move on to the fourth page of the ePub.


19. At the bottom of the Pages panel, click the Create New Page icon to add a forth page to the panel.


20. With the fourth page selected in the Pages panel, add the background image.


21. Repeat the previous steps to add all the pages and corresponding background images to the ePub.

Save your work. Next, we will add the poem text to these pages.

Index - InDesign Fixed Layout ePub

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