Attributes lost from hierarchical custom style when converting from ODT to EPUB

[bgiroud]

Hi,

When converting an ODT document which uses hierarchical custom styles, the attributes like font-size or text-align are not taken over in the first phase of ebook-convert.

Versions used: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, LibreOffice 4.2.8.2 and Calibre 2.32.1

The doc file has among others, 3 custom styles: roman.description, roman.dialogue and roman.discussion, in that hierarchical order.

Font-size 13pt, justified for roman.description; plus list style InciseDialog for roman.dialogue; plus italic for roman.discussion.

When converting with ebook-convert, the result in the directory input, files index.xhtml and odfpy.css, are already wrong:
- the style roman.discussion is rendered in index.xhtml as "<p class="P-roman_discussion c_odt4">" instead of just "<p class="P-roman_discussion">".
In odfpy.css:
- P-roman_description is OK
- P-roman_dialogue has no "text-align: justify;" attribute
- P-roman_discussion is not there, and the complementary c_odtN has a font-size of 12pt and no justification.

The file TestCal.zip has the necessary file to show the behaviour, just unzip it in an empty directory and run it as ./show_bug_cal.sh

I hope a solution can be found, because I really like the whole lot of Calibre programs. From my current tests, it seems it's not enough to have the styles non hierarchical, but I have to confirm that point.

Thx in advance for your advices,

Bernard

[kovidgoyal]

Save your file as docx instead of odt in LibreOffice, calibre's docx engine is much better than odfpy (the library used for odt files).

[bgiroud]

Thx Kovid,

Works better (the CSS for the custom styles are OK with .docx), but there is 1 drawback with this hint:

- The conversion from ODT to DOCX by soffice is not handling correctly dialog style (one more unbreakable space in front of the § and only for roman.dialogue).

But I will try to go along your line, and correct the conversion once in the EPUB format. And if I have enough heart and time, I might have a look at the source, but don't expect it very soon

[bgiroud]

Further points:

1) the way to DOCX is a no go: the page layout is not respected when converting from ODT to DOCx from LibreOffice (at least in that version).

2) So I had to debug, trace the problem and guess a solution which is reported in the bug tracker under bug #1478346.

If that seems OK, I hope it will be applied pretty soon (I can even make it myself). In between, I will continue to use my corrected development version.

[BetterRed]

@bgiroud - have you tried this Open Office plugin ==>> Writer2ePub

BR

[bgiroud]

Yes, but when I evaluated it (1 1/2 year ago), the code generated was wrong when lists (representing dialogs with a leading mdash) were used at the end of a chapter: the tag <ul> was not properly closed.

[BetterRed]

@bgiroud - I guessed you would have it known about it, but thought it was worth asking anyway

It appears that it was last updated about a year since. And I found what maybe a 'better' link than the one at MR - Blog | Writer2ePub

Good luck - BR