07-16-2013, 12:13 AM | #46 | |
Gregg Bell
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I'm a believer!
Quote:
And I gotta tell you I came across a ten-year-old .doc novel and (remember how I said earlier that I wrote so simply and didn't really need to use styles?) and oh my gosh! I looked at the styles and there were TONS of them. Just a mess. And I experimented today and just hit a single tab to see what would happen. In the html there were like ten non-breaking spaces. A mini-mess. So yes, I am a believer. I WILL write with styles from now on. Thanks again! P.S. Please don't ever leave MR (in case I have questions). P.S.S. 1000 views on this thread. I'm sure I'm not the only one you're helping! |
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07-16-2013, 02:11 AM | #47 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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As I understand it, you (like me) tend to write your text with additional paragraph spacing - which, of course, you don't want in the final result. (I believe some people write in double or 1.5 line spacing.) If that is the manipulation you are talking about then it is your choice whether you modify the style in the original source (to remove the paragraph spacing) before export, or whether you modify the style in the CSS in the resulting output (epub or html). I tend to do it in my original source mainly because, when the time comes, I am producing not just an EPUB but also a print-ready PDF. Okay, and now for the bad news. I've sold you on styles, which means I've also ruined you for Scrivener. Or that's my understanding, I have not yet worked out how to achieve styled text in Scrivener, it doesn't look to be possible (which is a significant disappointment after all the good things I've said and thought about it in the past). Last edited by gmw; 07-16-2013 at 02:45 AM. Reason: Improving clarity - I hope. |
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07-16-2013, 02:37 PM | #48 | ||
Gregg Bell
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I'm hanging with you on this. The thing is though if I do the italics/emphasis (in the "character" style), then I need to leave that in (otherwise the italics wont' show up in the html, right?), whereas I can make my line spacing whatever by modifying the "normal" style (in the "paragraph" style) and then unmodify it back to the original (single spacing) when I'm done, right? Quote:
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07-16-2013, 05:01 PM | #49 | |
Wizard
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Quote:
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07-16-2013, 08:45 PM | #50 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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* Damn, I spoiled having a short answer by getting excited about it. Last edited by gmw; 07-16-2013 at 09:00 PM. |
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07-16-2013, 08:59 PM | #51 |
cacoethes scribendi
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Being a software developer I have taken a brief look at building my own, based around LibreOffice as the editor. I got something very basic working under Windows using OLE - it wasn't usable for serious writing but proved to me that it should be possible to do (but in a serious attempt I'd avoid OLE and either try the API directly or perhaps write in Java). Now all I need is more hours in the day so I can have time to do my paid work, time to write this software, and still have time for writing.
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07-16-2013, 10:23 PM | #52 | ||
Wizard
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Quote:
Quote:
Just a thought for you on this... |
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07-16-2013, 11:05 PM | #53 |
Gregg Bell
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shockingly short!
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07-17-2013, 04:57 AM | #54 | ||
cacoethes scribendi
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Quote:
Regarding the quote: As you know, the computer needs to be told what you want - which is what styles are all about. My first novel could have been written with nothing more than Chapter, Text and Emphasis styles - in other words, it could have been written in Scrivener without any issue. However... My second novel contains a small amount of email correspondence. Without the use of styles I would have to find and change each instance if I want to adjust it inside the epub - which is quite likely. That's not so bad, there aren't many of them. But my third novel, and to a lesser extent the second, also contains some "telepathic" dialogue that I wanted to make distinct from normal dialogue. Finding and changing all of these individually in an epub, if I decide it looks better in some other formatting, would be a major PITA. The use of styles allows me to mark all these and leave any final formatting decisions until publication. Last edited by gmw; 07-17-2013 at 04:59 AM. Reason: Clarification. |
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07-17-2013, 05:11 AM | #55 | |||
Wizard
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There was a lot I liked about Scrivener, but that was one of the reasons I eventually decided to look at another method of working. Quote:
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07-17-2013, 11:11 AM | #56 |
Gregg Bell
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G.M.
Let me bounce this off you. For my novels (in Sigil) I use an external style sheet. Being as unsophisticated (a euphemism if ever there was one) as I am, and since if I use a style for italics this will complicate my external style sheet and since if I just use the toolbar italic button it just shows up as the <i></i> deal, wouldn't I be better off just using the tool bar italic button for my italics? (when composing)
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07-17-2013, 12:27 PM | #57 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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Having got that disclaimer out of my system, there is probably not a huge difference, either way, in the case of emphasis, because I don't imagine there will be situations where you want to change how it is displayed. BUT, remember what I said in another post, don't make the mistake of making the same assumption in other cases. As a general rule: avoid using explicit formatting. But as an exception to the general rule, plain italics for emphasis doesn't seem likely to cause a problem. |
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07-17-2013, 10:49 PM | #58 | |
Gregg Bell
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perfect
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And I think I understand your way. (And am going to experiment with it.) Your way sounds like the styles create the CSS Styles for you. Isn't that right? But can you set up first line paragraph indentations (I know you can set up block paragraphs) in the style or does that have to come later? Then when you're done working on your LO doc, you have a whole CSS Style sheet. Granted, the CSS would have to be transferred to an external style sheet but that is one copy and paste. It's so exciting learning this stuff. Thanks. |
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07-18-2013, 03:05 AM | #59 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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So I don't have to write or maintain anything separately, I can just export directly to epub and then play in Sigil to adjust those things I want to adjust. I do a bunch of mostly unnecessary things likes rename the xhtml files to reflect the actual content: titlepage, dedication, chapter1, etc. (the export just named every separate xhtml as chapter1 .. etc.), and I play with the CSS that was automatically created to do whatever it is that I want to do. One necessary thing to check for (for best results on all ereaders) is that the CSS uses all em and % measurements rather than pixel or inches/cm. * Note that the site heading says Writer2Latex but it offers a few conversions, one of which is Writer2xhtml - which provides an epub export option in LibreOffice and OpenOffice. |
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07-18-2013, 07:12 AM | #60 |
Wizard
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Just make sure you run your result through the epub validator
http://validator.idpf.org/ and make sure you have no warnings or errors when done. Also, I am pretty sure using <i> </i> is not valid in EPUB, that you need to us CSS for that. |
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