New Epub/Mobipocket creation tool: Jutoh

[Julian Smart]

Originally Posted by Montyp535

not bad program - but how can I import a rtf/doc-file to a new project ad, more important, why is there no possibility to format text "justified" - not left, not right, not centered?
The mark-and-right-click-way doesn't work in existing text, also the change of a style shows only left oriented text, when justified is chosen... - it shows also not correct in the ADE

Hi,

You can set the alignment to be justified, either via Format -> Paragraph... or (better) by editing the named styles in Project Properties/Styles. However the justification won't be seen within the editor, sorry, but it should be shown in the reader if it supports justification. I did just verify that justification is shown correctly in ADE on Windows after I marked a paragraph in Jutoh as justified.

Regards,

Julian

[Julian Smart]

Sorry, I forgot to add that you can import your RTF or Word file if you first grab a copy of OpenOffice.org, open your document in that, then save as ODT. Jutoh can then import the .odt file via the New Project Wizard. Sorry it doesn't directly import Word or RTF but it was a lot easier to implement ODT import, and spend the time on other features. It's also a good way of introducing people to OpenOffice.org, potentially saving them massive amounts of money in the future

Julian

[Montyp535]

Hi Julian,

thanks for the information, I'll test it out... :-)

WORKS fine!

And is there a possibillity to show "page breaks" - and to delete them?
When I import a document from odt, where the first parts separated by page breaks (title page, author, information about the book...), the rest of the odt I can import with the "split by style"-option - but then the first parts are not splitted.
Or I Import "at page breaks" - then is the rest of the file unsplitted.
I can insert page breaks - but I can't see them - and delete.

[Julian Smart]

Originally Posted by Montyp535

Hi Julian,

thanks for the information, I'll test it out... :-)

WORKS fine!

And is there a possibillity to show "page breaks" - and to delete them?
When I import a document from odt, where the first parts separated by page breaks (title page, author, information about the book...), the rest of the odt I can import with the "split by style"-option - but then the first parts are not splitted.
Or I Import "at page breaks" - then is the rest of the file unsplitted.
I can insert page breaks - but I can't see them - and delete.

Sorry, it's not very obvious, but the status bar will show when the cursor is on a paragraph with a page break, and you can remove the page break by using the Insert Page Break command a second time. I should probably mark the break with a dotted line.

You can split sections after the project is created with Edit | Split Document (Ctrl+Alt+H).

Regards,

Julian

[Julian Smart]

Hi,

I hope you don't mind me mentioning a new version of Jutoh since the latest version has a bunch of new features and improvements that folks might find useful. These include better error reporting, conditional inclusion of sections, automated Kindlegen installation, and addition of navigation controls to HTML output (handy for reading ebooks directly on your web site).

The latest download is at www.jutoh.com/download.htm.

I've also written an ebook about Jutoh (using Jutoh, of course!) which should make it easier to make the most of the software.

For any Germans out there, Jutoh is on the cover disk of the current (November) edition of CHIP magazine.

Best regards,

Julian

[Insalata]

I'm trying Jutoh out, and really like the look of it so far. It seems much easier to use than anything else I've tried - for someone who isn't really familiar with html.

Please could you tell me if it can handle small caps - I've embedded a font that supports them, but can't access them through the font dialogue. (Using version 1.38 on Mac Lion.)

[DaleDe]

I put Jutoh in our wiki and took a look at it. CSS seems to be a weakness that needs to be fixed before it is ready for prime time IMHO>

[Insalata]

I found that the way Jutoh deals with styles is a lot easier for someone who's not used to html, css etc. The interface is more like a word processor than Sigil - but I suppose the price for that is less power and flexibility in some areas. Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and learn html .

[DaleDe]

I think the most serious problem of not importing existing CSS files when other files are imported could be easily fixed but just copying in these files even though Jutoh doesn't parse them. Today it will break a imported file. At least that is my understanding of how it works.

Dale

[Julian Smart]

Originally Posted by Insalata

I'm trying Jutoh out, and really like the look of it so far. It seems much easier to use than anything else I've tried - for someone who isn't really familiar with html.

Please could you tell me if it can handle small caps - I've embedded a font that supports them, but can't access them through the font dialogue. (Using version 1.38 on Mac Lion.)

Hi,

Although Jutoh doesn't natively support small caps, you can achieve this for Epub and Mobipocket by creating a character style in Project Properties/Styles, checking "Use custom CSS", and adding these lines to the definition:

font-size: smaller;
text-transform: uppercase;

or:

font-variant: small-caps;

(I haven't checked which works best in Epub versus Mobipocket.)

Then you can apply this style by selecting text, showing the context menu (ctrl-click), and selecting Style -> Character style -> your named style.

Or you can add this CSS to a paragraph style using the same "Use custom CSS" technique. Note that changes to the style using Jutoh won't show up until you clear "Use custom CSS", check it again, and re-add the custom CSS.

Regards,

Julian

[Julian Smart]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I think the most serious problem of not importing existing CSS files when other files are imported could be easily fixed but just copying in these files even though Jutoh doesn't parse them. Today it will break a imported file. At least that is my understanding of how it works.

Dale

You can use the custom CSS approach, or you can reproduce the style using Jutoh's interface (you can ask Jutoh to create placeholder styles when it encounters them in the imported HTML).

But importing from ODT is the better option if you have your book in a format such as Word that can be converted to ODT.

Regards,

Julian

[Julian Smart]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I put Jutoh in our wiki and took a look at it. CSS seems to be a weakness that needs to be fixed before it is ready for prime time IMHO>

Thanks for including it! I would quibble slightly with "not ready for prime time" since that's only if you're converting from relatively complex HTML. I think most users will have existing books in a word processor format such as Word, and Jutoh preserves styles when converting from word processor formats (via ODT), something I concentrated on doing well rather than writing a CSS parser. Having said that, I've made a start on a CSS parser.

Regards,

Julian

[Insalata]

Originally Posted by Julian Smart

Hi,

Although Jutoh doesn't natively support small caps, you can achieve this for Epub and Mobipocket by creating a character style in Project Properties/Styles, checking "Use custom CSS", and adding these lines to the definition:

font-size: smaller;
text-transform: uppercase;

or:

font-variant: small-caps;

Thank you. I assume that the first suggestion “fakes” the small caps, which seems a shame when there are proper ones in the font. I'll try the second option - although OTF usually doesn't list “small caps” as a font-variant like bold or italic. On Mac they’re accessed through a typographic options panel from the font selector. On Windows it’s harder unless you’re using something like Quark or Indesign that has more detailed typographic settings.

For now I've worked round it by using a font that only has small caps for those bits.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Julian Smart

Thanks for including it! I would quibble slightly with "not ready for prime time" since that's only if you're converting from relatively complex HTML. I think most users will have existing books in a word processor format such as Word, and Jutoh preserves styles when converting from word processor formats (via ODT), something I concentrated on doing well rather than writing a CSS parser. Having said that, I've made a start on a CSS parser.

Regards,

Julian

Good that you have started on a CSS parser. My major concern would be someone importing an existing ePub file. It is very common to use a WYSIWIG editor to repair an ePub file, and would be important to never mess up an existing file.

Dale

[EowynCarter]

Well, css parser would definitifly be good. One of the main reason i'm using sigil.

An other anoyance i have with jutho, is the way it sets syle.
I would like to have

p
{
// whatever's neeeded
}

in the css

and <p>fsdf sdfsdf sdfsdfsdf</p> in the html

rather than
.p_normal
{
// whatever's needed
}

and <p class="p_normal" >fsdf sdfsdf sdfsdfsdf</p>

Oh, and a "remove unused style" would be dammed useful.