Ebook Quality Assurance

Course details

Quality assurance is one of the most important steps in ebook creation, but also one of the most overlooked. This course was designed to teach anyone—regardless of their technical skills—how to effectively test and validate EPUB, Kindle, and other ebook files on different devices. Learn the inner workings of ebook file formats, which technologies affect how an ebook displays on different devices, and the differences between fixed layout and reflowable ebooks. Instructor Joshua Tallent also discusses unique retailer specifications and device limitations, how to load ebooks on different devices for testing, and essential details on performing automated and manual quality assurance testing.

Learning objectives
Why quality assurance is vital for ebooks
Ebook formats
Differences between fixed-layout and reflowable ebooks
Working with the FlightDeck tool
Retailer specifications and devices
Sideloading and opening files
Necessary devices for ebook QA

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Why quality assurance is vital for ebooks
02 - What is quality assurance

1. Ebook Formats

03 - EPUB
04 - Kindle
05 - Other formats

2. Understanding Ebook Display

06 - The four elements of ebook display
07 - Fixed layout vs. reflowable
08 - Overview of common design elements

3. Validation

09 - Introduction to validation and EpubCheck
10 - FlightDeck

4. Retailer Specifications and Devices

11 - Learn the specifications and devices
12 - Amazon
13 - Apple
14 - Barnes & Noble
15 - Kobo
16 - Google

5. Sideloading and Opening Files

17 - What devices you need for QA
18 - Applications you need for QA, and updating your software
19 - Sideloading manually to an ereading device
20 - Sideloading to apps on iOS or Android

6. Manual Quality Assurance

21 - Recommended QA workflow
22 - QA step 1 - The big picture
23 - QA step 2 - Fonts and special characters
24 - QA step 3 - Structure
25 - QA step 4 - Images
26 - QA step 5 - Tables and charts
27 - QA step 6 - Front matter and back matter
28 - QA step 7 - Media and interactivity
29 - QA step 8 - Fixed layout
30 - QA step 9 - Accessibility
31 - Creating your own QA checklists
32 - How to report issues you find

Conclusion

33 - Final thoughts and where to go next