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RoyInVegas · 09-30-2011, 10:00 AM

Guys, thanks for all the advice, but it's really after the fact. I've been hacking since 1978, when I joined the Valley Computer Club to learn how to build and program computers. My first hack was to rewrite the CP/M BIOS for my hand-made S-100 computer. Wrote it in raw hex, because I didn't speak Assembly Language.

It was easy to hack a solution to my problem, once I figured out how to view the text and code in Sigil

Actually, calibre and Sigil are no problem at all, now I've got the knack of them. Sigil especially, per its CSS Library. I've hacked into it, and am able to rebuild and modify the Library with ease, then reset CSS formatting criteria of The Hungarian Game in raw XHTML within the Sigil text.

The hack is this:

Look at the CSS Library for your ePub doc in Sigil.

Ctl-A highlight the entire Cascading Style Sheet.

Ctl-C copy it.

Open a new Wordpad doc.

Ctl-V paste the CSS into the Wordpad doc.

Do a Ctl-H global search-and-replace of items that need fixing. Add new code as needed. (Optional: Save the Wordpad CSS doc as a *.txt - ie raw ASCII - file for future reference and/or use.) Ctl-A highlight the Wordpad CSS doc.

Go back to Sigil and Ctl-V the new CSS Library into your ePub doc.

Et voila! A new and usable CSS Library.

Am currently proofing the OCR-scanned Hungarian and exporting it from InDesign in RTF format, in order to load in Open Office for conversion to an ODT file, then importing into calibre for conversion to ePub format, and then refining in Sigil. Thence a re-load into calibre for exporting in Mobi format.

A shame, really, that there's not one single software program that offers all this work in a single package - going directly from the scanned text to simple editing to multiple eReader output. The jumping back and forth isn't difficult, but heaven knows it's boring. (I tried Jutoh for this, but the program is still in the development stages and there's no finished, entirely helpful manual. Someday perhaps Jutoh will be viable, now it's embryonic.)

I'm also playing around a bit with Open Office. It may be that an Open Office CSS Library can be structured and hacked into as well. I'm thinking that a series of formatting criteria can be set in Open Office (a laundry list of words describing each format, followed by the format order itself), then transformed into an ePub doc via calibre and opened as ePub in Sigil. Then I'd only have to hack into the Sigil CSS Library that's embedded in the laundry list, in order to see the entire range of resulting code - a Master Library that can be used to adjust every other bit of Open Office and Sigil material.

By the bye ... first thing I learned at the Valley Computer Club was this:
"If it works it's obsolete."

A good thing to remember.

09-30-2011, 10:00 AM	#11
RoyInVegas Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: Kindle_PC / calibre / Digital Editions	I should have added this ... "WILL HACK FOR FOOD" Guys, thanks for all the advice, but it's really after the fact. I've been hacking since 1978, when I joined the Valley Computer Club to learn how to build and program computers. My first hack was to rewrite the CP/M BIOS for my hand-made S-100 computer. Wrote it in raw hex, because I didn't speak Assembly Language. It was easy to hack a solution to my problem, once I figured out how to view the text and code in Sigil Actually, calibre and Sigil are no problem at all, now I've got the knack of them. Sigil especially, per its CSS Library. I've hacked into it, and am able to rebuild and modify the Library with ease, then reset CSS formatting criteria of The Hungarian Game in raw XHTML within the Sigil text. The hack is this: Look at the CSS Library for your ePub doc in Sigil. Ctl-A highlight the entire Cascading Style Sheet. Ctl-C copy it. Open a new Wordpad doc. Ctl-V paste the CSS into the Wordpad doc. Do a Ctl-H global search-and-replace of items that need fixing. Add new code as needed. (Optional: Save the Wordpad CSS doc as a .txt - ie raw ASCII - file for future reference and/or use.) Ctl-A highlight the Wordpad CSS doc. Go back to Sigil and Ctl-V the new CSS Library into your ePub doc. Et voila!* A new and usable CSS Library. Am currently proofing the OCR-scanned Hungarian and exporting it from InDesign in RTF format, in order to load in Open Office for conversion to an ODT file, then importing into calibre for conversion to ePub format, and then refining in Sigil. Thence a re-load into calibre for exporting in Mobi format. A shame, really, that there's not one single software program that offers all this work in a single package - going directly from the scanned text to simple editing to multiple eReader output. The jumping back and forth isn't difficult, but heaven knows it's boring. (I tried Jutoh for this, but the program is still in the development stages and there's no finished, entirely helpful manual. Someday perhaps Jutoh will be viable, now it's embryonic.) I'm also playing around a bit with Open Office. It may be that an Open Office CSS Library can be structured and hacked into as well. I'm thinking that a series of formatting criteria can be set in Open Office (a laundry list of words describing each format, followed by the format order itself), then transformed into an ePub doc via calibre and opened as ePub in Sigil. Then I'd only have to hack into the Sigil CSS Library that's embedded in the laundry list, in order to see the entire range of resulting code - a Master Library that can be used to adjust every other bit of Open Office and Sigil material. By the bye ... first thing I learned at the Valley Computer Club was this: "If it works it's obsolete." A good thing to remember.