How to center text in Pages to show correctly on iBook Reader

You can centre text vertically in a Textbox, not sure if they are permitted in ePubs.

You can also position text down the page accurately, using Layout breaks or space before in Text.

Peter

I just spent some time attempting to overrule Pages ePub output. Fun stuff.

Although you can nicely center Textboxes dead center in the Pages document with Arrange, you are warned on export to ePub that they must be floating, not background objects. And they get left aligned anyway. Inside the ePub, the Textbox become transparent images.

It is possible to unzip the ePub file, edit the book.css file to create a specific class (I called mine .centered), and also edit the OPS/cover.xhtml document to update its use of this custom CSS class on the author abstract and Dedicated html content. One can then use zip switch arguments to reconstruct the epub file in a very specific order. Then, it can be dragged and dropped into the open iTunes > Books category for syncing with the iPad.

The following is my result. The ePub ignored the page break between the author abstract and Dedication content. It did put the Title and Author on a separate page, as it did the following chapter content. Don't know if this behavior would have improved with the use of sections in the original Pages document.

My result below used the CSS text-align: center, and vertical-align: middle. A previous pass used text-align: justified, which made the two cats line up better.

Alpini,

My previous post was a work in progress. I now have a solution that can be achieved within Pages without any external ePub manipulation.

My Pages document has 4 sections.

1. About the Author
2. Dedication
3. Title/Author
4. Chapter 1 title and multi-page text

There are no text boxes used. I will walk you through the first 2 sections.

Steps

1. Type “About the Author” on page 1 and line 1.
   1. Set style to Heading 1
   2. Before Paragraph is set to 196 pt. (you will use this to visually tune your vertical position)

      Position cursor before text and press return

   3. After Paragraph is set to 6 pt.

      Again, position after the text and press return

2. Type a 4 - 5 line paragraph about the author
   1. Select text and set style to body
   2. Set font to your choice.
      1. Mine was Baskerville Regular 12 pt.
      2. Full justified, spacing set to -4%.
      3. Line height set to 1.2
      4. After paragraph set to 12 pt.
3. In Pages preferences, rulers, enable vertical ruler. My units are in inches.
4. Turn on ruler view from Pages view menu.
5. Select all of the text from step 1.0 and 2.0 to the top of the page.
   1. Select the left ruler grip and drag top and bottom across to 1.6
   2. Select the right ruler grip and drag left to 6.2
6. Insert Section break

This is what mine looks like on an iPhone 4S with IOS 6.1 and iBooks 3.0.2:

The Dedication part:

1. All of step 1 parts from above, except text is “Dedication.”
2. Type who book is dedicated too.
   1. Used Baskerville, Regular, 12 pt again
   2. Style is body
   3. Character spacing is zero.
   4. Line-height is 1.2
   5. After last dedication entry

      After paragraph set to 216 pt. and press return to set it

3. Select Dedication heading

   Move the left complete ruler grip to 2.6

4. Select all of the dedicated people lines
   1. Text is left-justified
   2. Move the left complete ruler grip to 2.9
   3. Leave the right ruler grip at default (mine is 6.75)
5. Insert section break

My version of Dedication with the same hardware specifications as above:

You can single-click these images for the larger, more legible view.

One of the consequences of working all night on this was that there is errata, or improved insight.

As I mentioned previously, each of the four document parts that I tested is in its own section. This means that each of the first three document icons, in thumbnail view, has its own distinct yellow race track around it. The chapter/body text is in a fourth multi-page section.

On the first page, with invisibles and layout mode shown, I have a ¶ (pilcrow) showing on line 1, column 1. If I place the cursor before this mark, the text inspector shows the following:

1. Style is body
2. Character spacing is 0%
3. Line spacing is single (1)
4. Before paragraph is set to 172 pt.
5. After paragraph is set to 6 pt.

Now, if I place the cursor before the About the Author string:

1. Ruler set to 1.6 inches
2. Style is Heading 1
3. Character spacing is 0%
4. Line Spscing is single (1)
5. Before paragraph is set to 196 pt
6. After paragraph is set to 6 pt
7. Place cursor between end of Author and Pilcrow and press return.

With the cursor before the author description:

1. Style is body
2. My font choice was Baskerville, Regular 12 pt.
3. Left ruler set to 1.6 inches. Right ruler to 6.2 inches.
4. Character spacing is -4%
5. Line-height is set at multiple (1.2)
6. Before paragraph is 0
7. After paragraph is 12 pt.
8. Position cursor between last character and pilcrow - press return.
9. Insert section break

This is all there is too my first page:

For the Dedication page:

1. Line 1, Col 1 has the pilcrow and style is body
2. Character spacing is 0%
3. Line height is single (1)
4. Before and After paragraph are set to 0

With the cursor just before Dedication:

1. Left ruler set at 2.6 inches
2. Style is Heading 1
3. Character spacing is 0
4. Line height is 1.5
5. Before paragraph set to 190 pt
6. After paragraph set to 0 (yeah, raised my eyebrow too)
7. Place cursor between trailing n and pilcrow, press return.

With cursor on first line of names, just prior to first character:

1. Style is body text with Baskerville Regular 12 pt override.
2. Text justification is left.
3. Left ruler is set to 2.9 inches
4. Right ruler is set to 6.7 inches
5. Character spacing is 0
6. Line-height is 1.2
7. Before and after paragraph are 0
8. Insert cursor before last Pilcrow and press return
9. On the next line, there is a Pilcrow at col 1, place the cursor in front of it.
10. Style is body style
11. Character spacing is 0
12. Line-height is multiple (1.2)
13. Before paragraph is 0
14. After paragraph is 216 pt.
15. Press return to set the jump.
16. Insert section break

You can likely insert step 14 at step 7 and skip 9 - 13. It was late.

The Dedication page looks like this:

Hopefully, you missed something, or it wasn't sufficiently explained previously. I hope you can duplicate the above and discover unique, centered content in your ePub.

Use Section Breaks to separate "chapters".

Due to the flexible layout of ePubs page breaks are not applicable.

Peter

Can we see those Pages screen shots with Invisibles showing, please?

Peter

I now believe this is a case of using the right tool for the job. You can achieve the OP goals with Pages, but will pay dearly for it with time, frustration, and compromise. Switch to iBooks Author. It took me five minutes to achieve without the considerable tweaking and discovery in Pages.

In iBooks Author, when you add a section (and these can be preformatted as copyright, dedication, forward, etc.) it remains an isolated section that you can drag to where you want in the page icon view. It also introduces an additional setting so you now have Inline | Floating | Anchored when dealing with text boxes.

I created a text box and filled it with the About Author content. Sized, center-positioned it with the Arrange menu items, and then selected anchor. The only use of Text Inspector was to change the spacing in the text box. All the other formatting demands I posted earlier for Pages Text box were unnecessary here.

Connected my iPad via USB, opened iBooks, and selected Preview from the iBooks Author toolbar. The eBook popped open on the iPad and the About this Author content was perfectly positioned document center as planned.

Again, five minutes to do this. Remarkable functional improvement over Pages. Can preview eBooks on the intended IOS device without application or workflow discontinuity. Much more productive.

Good, but interesting that the iWork Team has contacted you. Hope something very good comes from that action.

Also, may I suggest that you read the following link and see if it updates your understanding as it pertains to content rights?

iBooks Author: Publishing and distribution FAQ.

Alpini wrote:

Apple owns all rights of the work published by iBooks Author

As the link supplied by VikingOS X tells you, that is not correct. Apple clarified that a whole year ago.