Sigil or Calibre?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

@theducks -- you could've moved this thread into the other, I believe. Too late now...

He tried and apparently he couldn't - seems 'foreign' mods can move a thread to another forum but cant merge into existing thread. I've asked Jellby to take care of.

BR

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

People who code books and haven't commited to the calibre/Sigil hegemony.

The formats subforums deal with editor-agnostic discussions and are frequented by people whose primary interest is in focusing on the actual book they create.

Best place to ask about the advantages of different editors, IMHO.

I'd honestly have figured that most people in this forum are folks who care about the coding at a fine-grained level, and so are more likely to be creating books by hand. And I'd have said that the Workshop forum would be a better bet. But either way, this is a good enough spot to ask the question.

[Notjohn]

People use Calibre to format e-books for publication?

I thought the KDP didn't like Calibre....

(Certainly I don't. When I last used it -- a couple years ago, to be sure -- it went wild, creating styles with incomprehensible names. Sigil uses MY styles!)

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

People use Calibre to format e-books for publication?

I thought the KDP didn't like Calibre....

(Certainly I don't. When I last used it -- a couple years ago, to be sure -- it went wild, creating styles with incomprehensible names. Sigil uses MY styles!)

The Calibre Editor isn't around for a couple of years... This is something else than the converter. The Calibre editor will also honor your styles.
Then again, you are know to use old, obsolete software.

[dickloraine]

They don't use the conversion option from calibre. Calibre now has an editor built in. It is similar to sigil. No renaming of styles etc. It was added when it looked like sigil wouldn't be developed any more. You can even use the editor stand alone.

[Dr. Drib]

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[Jellby]

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The threads have been merged

[jbacelar]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

People use Calibre to format e-books for publication?

Maybe this link could be useful:
http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/edit.html

I open it directly:
"C:\Program Files\Calibre2\ebook-edit.exe"

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

... but I haven't gone to the dark side (Calibre) because I don't like their reliance on keyboard shortcuts. I like to point and click...

FWIW - the current version calibre-editor has configurable button bars - it's true that that wasn't there on day 1.

Select button bars you want in the View Menu, select the buttons for each button bar and put them in the order you want in Preferences. I think the button bars may come and go dependent on what file type has focus - eg if its an image you may not see a button for bold.

I can't think of any features that are only accessible via the keyboard.

I'm a keyboard shortcut freak - so I hide the button bars in both

@Jellby - we got there - but what a palaver

BR

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

What do you mean by calibre's regex functions relying on keyboard shortcuts? What am I missing?

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Snippets, which is calibre's alternative, to Sigil clips, relies on keyboard shortcuts. Perhaps that is it.

Yes, that is what I meant but I was also referring to Saved Searches. After BetterRed mentioned that there were some updates to button bars I checked it out again. The Saved Searches is now dockable...which helps a lot. I also found that I can add the "manage Snippets" command to the main toolbar, which makes it easier. If I could have a toolbar with my "top ten" or so snippets to just click on....that would be awesome!

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

The Calibre Editor isn't around for a couple of years...

Ah!

And has the KDP changed its attitude toward Calibre-generated books?

[PeterT]

@Notjohn: I think you would find there is a GIGANTIC difference between a calibre editor created book and a calibre CONVERTED book.

In the editor created book YOU have full control of items such as CSS class names, CSS usage etc, as opposed to the converted book where the CSS classes are rearranged / rewritten by the conversion engine.

[eschwartz]

If @Notjohn is fundamentaly determined to make FUD up and pretend old software is the only software and deliberately wants to conflate a text editor wrapper with a collection of automated conversion wrappers... go ahead, let him, and move on with life.

I get the strong impression that his end goal is to make wisecracks, as opposed to actually learning anything. You won't have any luck convincing him of reality.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

And has the KDP changed its attitude toward Calibre-generated books?

No, they haven't. It's just not relevant to this discussion.

The point you're missing is that for KDP purposes, one uses calibre's editor (or Sigil) to create an EPUB. You can then upload that EPUB to KDP or feed it to kindlegen. KDP has never sought to control what program one uses to make an EPUB.

You're talking about KDP's attitude toward calibre generated kindle books. Which has no bearing whatsoever in a discussion about which editor you choose to create/edit/tweak your EPUB with.

You CAN use calibre's editor to edit/tweak AZW3s, but since Amazon doesn't accept standalone AZW3s (KF8) as input, that's not relevant either.

[Riqiv23]

Hello all,

I'm new here and apologize for awakening an old thread but it's on the correct subject. I've downloaded both Sigil and Caliber (which divided the lines in my sentences in half and the music staves show as garbled letters) and decided to see which was better for me.

I'm haven't found how to work the editor in Caliber yet, partially because the videos I've found online don't seem to show simple editing.

And yet in Reaper, Final Cut Pro or Finale, I simply type in, "How to nudge a clip to the right" or "Setting up Auxiliary and Sub-Mix buses" in YouTube and "Bam!", it's there, usually explained pretty clearly.

I've learned Photoshop, FCPX, Sibelius and Finale (music composition apps), Apple Motion and several other programs from books and/or videos.

The videos I see on Sigil look pretty good (8 part):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-FJBryOR18

The designer of Calibre discusses his editor but I fell asleep:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzAeFxwL8Zw

This looks pretty good re Calibre:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G74n_wGI1Q

I'm not sure if I should attempt to learn how to convert my newest music book into an ebook myself as even downloading Sigil seems difficult:
https://sigil-ebook.com/get/

Someone did this last book for me in epub and mobi:
http://www.amazon.com/A-Lyrical-Appr.../dp/B008O09LLM

1) Are there any good vids for editing in Calibre on YouTube?
2) Any good books you would recommend on either program.

Even though I love working on computers, I'm thinking this may be out of my league, as I can't even download Sigil? (What am I missing there . . . I see no download link. It's a little late and maybe I'm missing the obvious (he says as he scratches his head.))

It's frustrating, 'cause if there was an affordable class in NYC on this, I'm sure I could learn it. But the info online is scattered and minimal.

Your thoughts?
=====
PS: it looks like the download is on a separate page at the bottom and called "Sigil-0.9.5-Mac-Package.dmg" at the bottom of page:
https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil/releases/tag/0.9.5

I'll wait for a reply before I open it, not sure if I have to use the terminal to verify anything and not quite sure what a CHECKSUM is yet :-)