Does anybody use BlueGriffon?

[kassio92]

Hi everybody .

Currently I use Sigil for my ePubs. But (as usual) it has limitation and one of the biggest -- the absence of the ePub3 support.
Recently I found commercial BlueGriffon. Hope it is more advanced in comparison with Sigil (200 Euro vs. 0 Euro!). But there is no trial to evaluate it. Does anybody use it? Or another ePub soft? May be somebody will be so kind to tell pro and contra of this program.

Thank you in advance.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by kassio92

Hi everybody .

Currently I use Sigil for my ePubs. But (as usual) it has limitation and one of the biggest -- the absence of the ePub3 support.
Recently I found commercial BlueGriffon. Hope it is more advanced in comparison with Sigil (200 Euro vs. 0 Euro!). But there is no trial to evaluate it. Does anybody use it? Or another ePub soft? May be somebody will be so kind to tell pro and contra of this program.

Thank you in advance.

It appears BlueGriffon does have a trial version but you can't edit files with it ! As the firm were behind NVU - a now open source HTML WYSIWIG editor I would expect the basic capabilities to be the same. Komposer is based on NVU and fixes some bugs in the last version of it. You might find it worthwhile grabbing the BlueGriffon trial and comparing what the editor in that would be able to do if it wasn't disabled with Komposer. My guess is that from an editing P.O.V. there will be little difference.

BobC

[Toxaris]

I looked at it, briefly. It would not fit my needs personally. Some of the, in my mind, crucial things that it doesn't support:
- no automatic OPF creation
- no automatic NCX and/or TOC creation

and many more. It is not really fit for usage. If you do not know the specs of ePUB2 and/or ePUB3 by heart, this editor is not for you. That compared with the price, is for me a no-go.

[stevelitt]

Originally Posted by BobC

It appears BlueGriffon does have a trial version but you can't edit files with it ! As the firm were behind NVU - a now open source HTML WYSIWIG editor I would expect the basic capabilities to be the same. Komposer is based on NVU and fixes some bugs in the last version of it. You might find it worthwhile grabbing the BlueGriffon trial and comparing what the editor in that would be able to do if it wasn't disabled with Komposer. My guess is that from an editing P.O.V. there will be little difference.

BobC

Hi all,

I used BlueGriffon to do HTML authoring for a little while: Not a fan. BlueGriffon suffers from the same malady of all WYSIWYG HTML editors: It outputs junky (X)HTML. Oh, its output will work just fine on a browser, but ePub is a heck of a lot more picky.

I just went to http://bluegriffon.org, to read about the ePub version, which I didn't know about til you told me (thank you). I was about to tell you "don't ask, just try it", til I saw it's 195 Euro for any version that can actually author. I don't mind spending a little money for something that might not work, but not 195 Euro.

About the only info I can give you is that if BlueGriffon ePub edition produces output of the same quality as their Open Source HTML editor, the only thing it will do is lighten your wallet.

By the way, right now I'm creating an Xhtml (multichapter) to ePub converter. It works on well formed Xhtml like you get from authoring in Bluefish (that's FISH). I notice you're interested in ePub3. Maybe in a few months I can make an ePub3 version (I'd need to learn ePub3 first). You can email me at slitt at troubleshooters.com.

Thanks,

SteveT

SteveT