Category Archives: Uncategorized

Big Changes to Sideloading on Kindle!

Amazon is making big changes to books delivered via Send to Kindle, and is now applying Enhanced Typesetting to books that are sideloaded! That means a much better experience for ARC readers and those who purchase your book directly from your website.

On iPhone, sideloaded books will finally display Vellum’s advanced formatting features, so your readers will see drop caps, ornaments, and bubbles for Text Conversations!

Now, sideloaded books — on all Kindle devices — should look no different than books purchased from Amazon. And the books in your library will display cover thumbnails, even when they come from Send to Kindle!

Since Amazon is doing most of this work behind the scenes, you won’t need to do much to see these changes. However, you will want to make sure you:

  • Provide your Kindle EPUB file when using Send to Kindle
  • Have the latest version of the Kindle software on your device

Have you seen other improvements to your sideloaded books? Let us know!

Vellum 3.5.4

Vellum 3.5.4 fixes a few issues that affect macOS Sonoma users:

  • Trailing em dashes no longer appear on their own lines
  • Fixed paragraph runt prevention
  • Addressed drawing issues when using the Find Bar or Endnote Editor
  • Restored eliding behavior for very long headers

This release is a free update, available now.

Vellum 3.5.3

Vellum 3.5.3 is a minor release with the following improvements:

  • Twitter social media profile has been updated to “X”
  • Added Threads to the About the Author Social Media section
  • Fixed issue entering a comma in the Find Bar’s Replace field
  • Subheads again follow an image to the next page

This release is a free update, available now.

Vellum 3.4.5

Vellum 3.4.5 is a minor release with the following improvements:

  • Restored the Text Editor right-click menu for macOS Catalina
  • Images in exported Word files now use their original file format
  • Fixed a problem importing multiple images in a row
  • Addressed a potential error choosing a Text Conversation style

This release is a free update, available now.

A Look Back at 2022

Happy 2023! A new year is always a chance for reflection, so we thought we’d look back at the updates we made in 2022. In case you missed them, here are some of the new features we added to Vellum last year:

Multiple Heading Backgrounds

Inspired by the popularity of Heading Backgrounds in Vellum 3.0, we added the option for multiple heading backgrounds in Vellum 3.1. With this change, you can include backgrounds in elements like a Title Page, or create alternating backgrounds for Chapters.

Easier Box Set Construction

In Vellum 3.1, we also introduced the New Box Set command, which makes it even easier to create these collections. Add files, reorder, then create a box set or a multiple-author bundle with just one click.

New File Format

With Vellum 3.2, the files you create are saved in an all-new format. Vellum documents are now just a single file, making them better suited for cloud services like iCloud and Dropbox, and easier to share with colleagues.

Custom Headers & Footers

Want to add an extra touch to your print edition? With Vellum 3.3, we added a new option for Custom Headers and Footers. Control content, alignment, and position, and even use your own themed ornament!

Text Messages & Written Notes

With Vellum 3.4, we introduced our most talked-about features of 2022: Text Conversations and Written Notes provide new, fun ways to format messages between characters. They’re designed to work in both ebooks and in print, and include multiple options for how they appear in your book.

Export to Word

In Vellum 3.4, we also added the new Export Content command, found in the File menu. If you’ve written your book in Vellum (or just made changes), you can now create a Word file ready to send to your editor.

Also in 2022

In addition to these major features, we also introduced:

  • New styles designed for accessibility
  • Series Title (and Book Number) in Title Info
  • A dedicated Bibliography element
  • A Special Characters menu for quick access to tools like Soft Hyphen
  • New hyphenation options in Body Style

More to Come

All of these features were released in 2022 as free updates. You can make sure you have access to them using Check for Updates. (Current versions of Vellum require macOS Catalina or newer.)

We have more to come in 2023. As always, the features we add are inspired by your feedback, so if you have an idea for something that will make it even easier to create beautiful books, let us know!

Vellum 3.4.2

Vellum 3.4.2 is a minor release that restores underlining and strikethrough in ebooks generated on macOS Ventura.

This release is a free update, available now.