Help with Semantics in Sigil

tmyke70 · 05-23-2012, 03:09 PM

Hello,

I am having some issues with the semantics feature in Sigil version 0.2.0.

Sigil is automatically assigning the semantics of "Cover" to the first chapter of my ebook.

I uncheck it and then save it, and its reassigned again. This is an issue because those chapters aren't showing up in the Apple TOC in our iPads

Any help?

Thanks,
Myke

meme · 05-23-2012, 03:22 PM

0.2.0? Really? 0.5.3 is the current version and probably doesn't have this issue. I've never even seen 0.2.0

You could always add a cover.xhtml file as the first file and let it get marked as cover. It should actually contain an image of the cover, but iPads may not care about that.

tmyke70 · 05-25-2012, 12:24 PM

Well, its happening with my coworker who is running 0.5.3 and they only thing we've found fixes it is too, convert the .epub to a .zip and then open it and open the contents.opf file and deleting a specific line of code.

Then we have to zip it back up using an apple script. It works but we cant open the file and then save it. If we do, it adds the semantics again.

meme · 05-25-2012, 12:33 PM

Ah, that's because if you don't have a Cover specified, then Sigil will mark the first file in your book as the Cover if it has 1 and only 1 image in it.

Does your first file have exactly 1 image in it? If so, you could remove the image, or add a second, or add a file with a cover and mark it as the cover, and it will stop marking the first file as a cover.

Is there any reason why the first file in your book is not the cover? Perhaps with Apple you don't need a cover file with an image and just need an image? If so, I don't think it causes any issue if you create a page for the cover and include the same image - but someone who uses the iPad would know.

tmyke70 · 05-25-2012, 12:35 PM

I meant also happening with my coworker. I can't run the newest version because I'm stuck on a Power PC and my company doesn't have the budget to upgrade me to an intel Mac.

tmyke70 · 05-25-2012, 12:49 PM

The books we are converting are sheet music books so they are scans of books and each page is a 150 DPI PNG file. We have a separate cover image and the first thing I do is give the cover scan the semantics of "Cover Image." even after doing that, sigil is adding the semantics of "Cover" to my first chapter.

The frustrating this is that it doesn't happen all the time, some files are perfectly fine. Or I'll start with a file that doesn't have the semantics and then somewhere through the process of adding files, coding them into the book, editing the TOC and meta data and creating our own TOC it adds the semantics.

Also I submitted an issue on sigils "Issue" page and didn't get any help, but rather was snubbed by a rather rude gentleman.

meme · 05-25-2012, 01:22 PM

The issue log is for bugs in Sigil, not questions. Supporting or investigating issues on very old and even recently old versions of software just isn't possible.

But since your colleague has the same issue on 0.5.3 my reply should help resolve the problem.

Note that the Cover semantic can be applied to both Images and to HTML Files. You may have applied the Cover semantic to your image - but you must also create an HTML File and insert the image into that file and mark the HTML file (preferable making it the first file in the book) as a cover to stop other HTML files being marked as the Cover.

tmyke70 · 05-25-2012, 07:49 PM

Well that would have been helpful to know. I thought it would have been considered an issue. My bad.

The only thing is that the cover would then show up inside the book. Which is what we don't want.

DiapDealer · 05-25-2012, 08:35 PM

Just make the book how you want it. Then the very last thing to do before publication is to edit the OPF file outside of Sigil and remove the incorrect "cover" reference item from the guide section. 7-Zip will allow you to edit the file without even unzipping the archive. You just need to remember that if you ever open it with Sigil in the future, you'll have to edit the OPF file again. It's fairly painless to make it part of your workflow. I do it all the time (removing various guide items like "cover") when I'm preparing an epub for conversion to mobi with Kindlegen.

I do wish it (Sigil) wouldn't automatically tag that first xhtml file as the guide section cover reference (regardless of what it may contain). I'd much prefer that marking an image as "cover" would simply create the meta-tag entry and leave it completely up to the user to decide whether or not that first xhtml page is to be marked as the cover reference in the guide section. The handling of a cover image is vague enough in the ePub specs to make it reasonable that the user might need to be the final arbiter of exactly how it's dealt with. But I'm not sweating it too much, since I've learned how to work around it.

ghostyjack · 05-26-2012, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmyke70

The books we are converting are sheet music books so they are scans of books and each page is a 150 DPI PNG file. We have a separate cover image and the first thing I do is give the cover scan the semantics of "Cover Image." even after doing that, sigil is adding the semantics of "Cover" to my first chapter.

The frustrating this is that it doesn't happen all the time, some files are perfectly fine. Or I'll start with a file that doesn't have the semantics and then somewhere through the process of adding files, coding them into the book, editing the TOC and meta data and creating our own TOC it adds the semantics.

Also I submitted an issue on sigils "Issue" page and didn't get any help, but rather was snubbed by a rather rude gentleman.

Just checking, but you are saying that you've marked the cover image as "Cover Image". Is this in the Images folder?

Also do you have a separate page, i.e. the first page in the book, that contains this cover image? If not, Then try creating one and then using the semantics to set that file as the cover.

DiapDealer · 05-26-2012, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Also do you have a separate page, i.e. the first page in the book, that contains this cover image? If not, Then try creating one and then using the semantics to set that file as the cover.

I think that's part of the problem. The OP doesn't want the cover image to be an inline page of the book. And since the first page of his/her book contains a single image... Sigil won't allow it to NOT be marked as the cover page. I tend to agree with the OP on that issue in general, but have learned to work around it when it becomes a problem.

ghostyjack · 05-26-2012, 01:16 PM

Ahh, I'm understanding what he wants now.

I imagine it would help if I wasn't suffering badly from hayfever in 27 deg. C temperatures and ridiculously high humidity. This is Bristol, in May, not the Mediterranean. I can't think straight in these conditions, or (apparently) read and understand a thread in a forum.

theducks · 05-26-2012, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I think that's part of the problem. The OP doesn't want the cover image to be an inline page of the book. And since the first page of his/her book contains a single image... Sigil won't allow it to NOT be marked as the cover page. I tend to agree with the OP on that issue in general, but have learned to work around it when it becomes a problem.

Time for the infamous 1 px image to be used? A couple of those and the page no longer has a single image.

Hitch · 05-27-2012, 03:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Time for the infamous 1 px image to be used? A couple of those and the page no longer has a single image.

Hmm, that might work. I've never had an ePUB for which I didn't want an embedded cover, now that I think about it, but if it's that big a deal, what about just making an empty html file the first file in the "book?" No headings, so no ncx entry, an empty para, let's say, with a space in it (we don't care if it renders, remember)...split if from the ensuing page WITH the image, so that the second file has the non-cover image...would that do the trick? Easier than a bunch of 1px images, which, if the OP is using this for a subsequent Previewer/KG conversion, could show up, (maybe not if he uses display:none now that 2.4 has fixed that).

Just some stream-of-consciousness rambling, here.

Hitch

meme · 05-27-2012, 04:53 AM

It wouldn't work since the cover tag is automatically applied only when there is exactly 1 image in the file.

But this won't be a problem anymore in the next release.

05-23-2012, 03:09 PM	#1
tmyke70 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2012 Device: iPad	Help with Semantics in Sigil Hello, I am having some issues with the semantics feature in Sigil version 0.2.0. Sigil is automatically assigning the semantics of "Cover" to the first chapter of my ebook. I uncheck it and then save it, and its reassigned again. This is an issue because those chapters aren't showing up in the Apple TOC in our iPads Any help? Thanks, Myke

05-25-2012, 12:33 PM	#4
meme Sigil developer Posts: 1,275 Karma: 1101600 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle PW, K4 NT, K3, Kobo Touch	Ah, that's because if you don't have a Cover specified, then Sigil will mark the first file in your book as the Cover if it has 1 and only 1 image in it. Does your first file have exactly 1 image in it? If so, you could remove the image, or add a second, or add a file with a cover and mark it as the cover, and it will stop marking the first file as a cover. Is there any reason why the first file in your book is not the cover? Perhaps with Apple you don't need a cover file with an image and just need an image? If so, I don't think it causes any issue if you create a page for the cover and include the same image - but someone who uses the iPad would know. Last edited by meme; 05-28-2012 at 01:59 AM.

05-25-2012, 12:35 PM	#5
tmyke70 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2012 Device: iPad	I meant also happening with my coworker. I can't run the newest version because I'm stuck on a Power PC and my company doesn't have the budget to upgrade me to an intel Mac. Last edited by tmyke70; 05-25-2012 at 12:46 PM.

05-25-2012, 08:35 PM	#9
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,547 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Just make the book how you want it. Then the very last thing to do before publication is to edit the OPF file outside of Sigil and remove the incorrect "cover" reference item from the guide section. 7-Zip will allow you to edit the file without even unzipping the archive. You just need to remember that if you ever open it with Sigil in the future, you'll have to edit the OPF file again. It's fairly painless to make it part of your workflow. I do it all the time (removing various guide items like "cover") when I'm preparing an epub for conversion to mobi with Kindlegen. I do wish it (Sigil) wouldn't automatically tag that first xhtml file as the guide section cover reference (regardless of what it may contain). I'd much prefer that marking an image as "cover" would simply create the meta-tag entry and leave it completely up to the user to decide whether or not that first xhtml page is to be marked as the cover reference in the guide section. The handling of a cover image is vague enough in the ePub specs to make it reasonable that the user might need to be the final arbiter of exactly how it's dealt with. But I'm not sweating it too much, since I've learned how to work around it. Last edited by DiapDealer; 05-25-2012 at 08:53 PM.

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05-23-2012, 03:22 PM	#2
meme Sigil developer Posts: 1,275 Karma: 1101600 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle PW, K4 NT, K3, Kobo Touch	0.2.0? Really? 0.5.3 is the current version and probably doesn't have this issue. I've never even seen 0.2.0 You could always add a cover.xhtml file as the first file and let it get marked as cover. It should actually contain an image of the cover, but iPads may not care about that.

05-25-2012, 12:24 PM	#3
tmyke70 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2012 Device: iPad	Well, its happening with my coworker who is running 0.5.3 and they only thing we've found fixes it is too, convert the .epub to a .zip and then open it and open the contents.opf file and deleting a specific line of code. Then we have to zip it back up using an apple script. It works but we cant open the file and then save it. If we do, it adds the semantics again.

05-25-2012, 12:49 PM	#6
tmyke70 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2012 Device: iPad	The books we are converting are sheet music books so they are scans of books and each page is a 150 DPI PNG file. We have a separate cover image and the first thing I do is give the cover scan the semantics of "Cover Image." even after doing that, sigil is adding the semantics of "Cover" to my first chapter. The frustrating this is that it doesn't happen all the time, some files are perfectly fine. Or I'll start with a file that doesn't have the semantics and then somewhere through the process of adding files, coding them into the book, editing the TOC and meta data and creating our own TOC it adds the semantics. Also I submitted an issue on sigils "Issue" page and didn't get any help, but rather was snubbed by a rather rude gentleman.

05-25-2012, 01:22 PM	#7
meme Sigil developer Posts: 1,275 Karma: 1101600 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle PW, K4 NT, K3, Kobo Touch	The issue log is for bugs in Sigil, not questions. Supporting or investigating issues on very old and even recently old versions of software just isn't possible. But since your colleague has the same issue on 0.5.3 my reply should help resolve the problem. Note that the Cover semantic can be applied to both Images and to HTML Files. You may have applied the Cover semantic to your image - but you must also create an HTML File and insert the image into that file and mark the HTML file (preferable making it the first file in the book) as a cover to stop other HTML files being marked as the Cover.

05-25-2012, 07:49 PM	#8
tmyke70 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2012 Device: iPad	Well that would have been helpful to know. I thought it would have been considered an issue. My bad. The only thing is that the cover would then show up inside the book. Which is what we don't want.

05-26-2012, 01:16 PM	#12
ghostyjack Guru Posts: 718 Karma: 1085610 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Bristol, England Device: PRS-T1, 1825PT, Galaxy Tab, One X, TF700T, Aura HD, Nexus 7	Ahh, I'm understanding what he wants now. I imagine it would help if I wasn't suffering badly from hayfever in 27 deg. C temperatures and ridiculously high humidity. This is Bristol, in May, not the Mediterranean. I can't think straight in these conditions, or (apparently) read and understand a thread in a forum.

05-27-2012, 04:53 AM	#15
meme Sigil developer Posts: 1,275 Karma: 1101600 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle PW, K4 NT, K3, Kobo Touch	It wouldn't work since the cover tag is automatically applied only when there is exactly 1 image in the file. But this won't be a problem anymore in the next release.

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