This article describes how to publish non-linear digital documents created with Adobe InDesign and In5—similar to the one shown in the Non-linear Navigation video course—but in a Paperlit app for both iOS or Android devices.


Exporting the InDesign Document with in5


Once a non-linear navigation strategy has been set up, the InDesign file should be exported in HPUB format, using In5 with the following output options selected.


basic in5 output options (Slider Fade in, all nav checkboxes off, HPUB output format).


No Viewer Display options selected (as they indicated linear navigation)

Desktop Scaling to fit any device

Modifying the output to fake a single-page document


Once the HPUB file has been exported with in5, follow the steps below.


1. Rename your file from filename.hpub to filename.zip


2. Unzip the folder (double-click on Mac, right-click and choose Extract All... on Windows).
Unzipped to a folder


3. Open the unzipped folder, locate the book.json file and open it with plain text editor (e.g., BBEdit, Dreamweaver, Notepad++, etc).


folder contents


4. Delete all the rows with the html pages in contents, except the first one named 0001.html


original JSON


The HPUB is now configured as if it only had a single page.


modified JSON with pages removed

Save the file with the same name.


5. Select all the files and zip them together again. Pay attention not to zip the (enclosing) folder, but select all the files in the folder and zip them.


6. Rename the filename.zip back to filename.hpub.


Publishing your app


Upload the newly packaged HPUB file to the Paperlit platform.



Your app will function as non-linear document inside of Paperlit.