indent control

[cybmole]

could the option to set an indent be unlinked from "remove blank lines".

i.e. I'd like to not tick remove blank lines and still be able to change the indent value via that screen?

[ldolse]

use extra css:
p {text-indent:whatever;}

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by ldolse

use extra css:
p {text-indent:whatever;}

OK thanks -

how is that applied, if the epub has many different calibre styles & indent settings - does it override all styles ?

[ldolse]

It overrides all text-indent styles. It leaves everything else alone.

[cybmole]

thanks - getting there slowly- so it overrides all of any xhtml section which has this at the top
<style type="text/css">

( which seems to be all pages in all books! - can you give me an example of where it would not apply please

( I looked at some stylesheet.css but style types is not defined in there , i just see list of the various .calibreNN style definitions - is that correct ? )

[theducks]

Originally Posted by cybmole

thanks - getting there slowly- so it overrides all of any xhtml section which has this at the top
<style type="text/css">

( which seems to be all pages in all books! - can you give me an example of where it would not apply please

( I looked at some stylesheet.css but style types is not defined in there , i just see list of the various .calibreNN style definitions - is that correct ? )

most XHTML tags have defaults and need not be specified (if that meets your needs) . Not all devices implemented the defaults properly , leading to Stylesheets full of verbose entries and workarounds

p (in a CSS) applies to all <p> tags (contains NO dot)
.p is not the same (it is a class selector with a 'trip-you-up' name)

h1,h2,h3 {
text-align: center
}
(Notation), applies to all H1 H2 and H3 tags

Bottom line:
You are overriding a Default, which is why you don't see it in the CSS.

[cybmole]

got it - thanks

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by ldolse

use extra css:
p {text-indent:whatever;}

does not seem to always work, or something else is overriding.
some books are fine - but the case below is not:

I add
p { text-indent: 1em}
to extra css
run epub to mobi ( on a book with no indents)
view mobi in calibre viewer - still no indents


the book in question has code such as
<p class="calibre2">We did....
nothing complex

there is however an explicit text-indent 0 in the calibre 2 style for that book - but I though the whole idea of extra CSS was that it overrides what is in stylesheet...



I reckon ( albeit based on a sample of 1) that the extra CSS override is fine EXCEPT where I have previously forced a zero indent by editing the specific calibre style used for p tags, in the book's epub stylesheet.css.

I can test by removing that 1 line from the css stylesheet.... yep the extra css override works now.

so have a found a feature, or a bug, here ?

I'll try a related test. put the explicit text-indent: 0 back into my epub, convert to mobi but with remove blank lines ticked & indent set to 1 in conversion options...

well that does exactly what it says on the tin. so the issue is only with extra CSS

[jackie_w]

In the example you quote, if your input html has

<p class="calibre2">We did....

then your ExtraCSS would need to be

p.calibre2 {text-indent:1em}

or

.calibre2 {text-indent:1em}

to override the CSS in the original.

[cybmole]

hmm if the calibre2 style has no explicit text indent value then the basic override works, without adding the calibre2 bit

the idea of using extra css is that it negates the need to inspect epub style sheet - having to specify calibreN means having to examine the epub code after all ?

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by cybmole

the idea of using extra css is that it negates the need to inspect epub style sheet - having to specify calibreN means having to examine the epub code after all ?

I don't think that's true. I believe the idea of using ExtraCSS is that it negates the need to EDIT the epub stylesheet before conversion. It does the edit in the output epub as part of the conversion.

[cybmole]

the suggestion that I was given was that adding
p { text-indent: 1em}
to extra css
would work.
it does except where countermanded elsewhere, as explained above.

I have enough info for work-arounds to meet my own needs. I just seek to understand why the simple catch-all extra css solution does not work as suggested.
c/f ticking remove blank lines+ add indents option which DOES override everything.

[ldolse]

Continuing from your questions on the Sigil forum, a bit more appropriate here. I use something along these lines in extra css:

p {margin-top:0.3em; margin-bottom:0.3em; text-indent:3%; text-align:justify}
h1+p, h2+p, h3+p, p.softbreak+p {margin-top:0.1em; margin-bottom:0.3em; text-indent:0%; text-align:justify}

That sticks indents everywhere except for the places you'd not want them for commonly formatted books.

I never noticed a problem with these not working, but perhaps I haven't tried with ebooks where it needed to be over-ridden for some paragraphs, not sure.

[cybmole]

thanks - I could try that but won't 0.3 em map to 0em in mobi output due to rounding ?

could you see what happens with your code AND use an epub with with a specific text-indent 0 in its main calibre style within the style sheet, to see if you get the same override issues as I did please.

I have yet yo test with epub outputs as I did not want to overwrite my sources, I could make backups & then do so though, if you think my fails-to-indent bug is mobi-specific.
i don't have an intuitive sense of own an x% indent cxompares to a number of ems in dent. why, may i ask, do you prefer to use % settings , and are they mobi-compatible.

[cybmole]

0.3em line spacing looks good on Kindle.

for me, I think this settle the blank line or not debate - use something >0 but <1 !

did you settle on .3 after trial & error, or what ?

I think that, away from experimentation, I wills et desired values in stylesheets as I treat epub as my master versions- so I want their formatting to be correct + standalone.