Monthly Archives: September 2014

OS X 10.9.5 and Kindle eBooks

Apple recently released an update to OS X that may affect your ability to proof Kindle eBooks.

After upgrading to 10.9.5, you may find that .mobi files (including ones generated by Vellum) can no longer be opened in the Kindle app for Mac. We have encountered two ways this can happen.

If you downloaded the Kindle app directly from Amazon, you will find that it does not run at all on 10.9.5. You can remedy this by removing this version of the Kindle app and instead downloading the Kindle app from the Mac App Store.

You may also find that, after the update, OS X no longer knows how to open a .mobi file. If you find that this is the case, select a .mobi file, then select the Get Info item from the File menu in the Finder. From this panel, you can reassign the Kindle app as the way to open this file. Use the Change All… button to make this apply to all .mobi files:

Use the Open With… section of Get Info

Lastly, this version of OS X changes security in a way that may cause error messages about “developer identity” for older apps. Up-to-date versions of Vellum should not be affected by this change. If, however, you are using a version of Vellum that has not been updated since June of this year (a version prior to 1.1), you may see an error indicating that you cannot run the app. If you see this error, simply download the current version of Vellum and replace your old version.

Please contact us if you have any questions about these issues.

Vellum 1.1.3

Vellum 1.1.3 is now available for users of our Direct and Mac App Store versions.

From the release notes:

  • The Preview’s page-turn buttons now work across chapters
  • The Navigator’s gear menu now includes a command to remove the selected element
  • Generated ebook filenames now include the book’s subtitle (if any)
  • Addressed image sizing issues for some multiple monitor setups
  • Improved Store Link compatibility for older Kindles
  • Improved superscript and subscript formatting for Nook and the Kindle app for iOS
  • Addressed issue of some ornamental breaks not appearing in the Kindle app for iOS
  • Fixed a problem with script drop caps used in paragraphs after breaks

As mentioned above, the filenames of ebooks generated by Vellum will now include the subtitle if your book has one. This last change was inspired by authors of series who are working with several books that only differ in their respective subtitles.

Find out more about updating your copy of Vellum from our Tips Page.