Specify indent in css, not with &nbsp

[James_Wilde]

I'm converting a book from odt to epub with Calibre. In odt the first line indent is handled by Open Office, and works well. When it is converted by Calibre, I see two things. There is a small first line indent, and in addition there is a variable number of &nbsp entries, which appear to range from 0 to 5, making for non-aligned initial letters.

Isn't it possible to code the first line indent in the css and skip the &nbsp code?

[kovidgoyal]

calibre does not insert nbsp if there's nbsp in the output then it was there in the input

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre does not insert nbsp if there's nbsp in the output then it was there in the input

You can verify this for yourself by putting a directory in the debug area of conversion and after the conversion is complete you can easily review the resultant html. This directory will show you the code at each point in the conversion process.

[James_Wilde]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

You can verify this for yourself by putting a directory in the debug area of conversion and after the conversion is complete you can easily review the resultant html. This directory will show you the code at each point in the conversion process.

Thanks, Dwanthny, I forgot I always save the debug information now. It can be so helpful.

[WebDesignEbooks]

Originally Posted by James_Wilde

Isn't it possible to code the first line indent in the css and skip the &nbsp code?

If you want to keep the indents, yes there is. CSS text-indent Property

[James_Wilde]

Originally Posted by WebDesignEbooks

If you want to keep the indents, yes there is. CSS text-indent Property

That's what I thought. I see that in the css paragraph definitions. BTW, how long is an em? Is it a constant or is it dependent upon the typeface?

[WebDesignEbooks]

Originally Posted by James_Wilde

how long is an em? Is it a constant or is it dependent upon the typeface?

1em is equal to the current font size. 2em means 2 times the size of the current font. E.g., if an element is displayed with a font of 12 pt, then '2em' is 24 pt. The 'em' is a very useful unit in CSS, since it can adapt automatically to the font that the reader uses

CSS Units - w3schools

[ldolse]

Some logic just got hooked into the preprocess option to take care of multiple nbsp's being used as indents, converting them to css styles. The code was just checked in, so it will be in the next release.

I don't believe odt files go through that code path during conversion, but if you take the html in the debug output, add that back as a new format, then re-convert with preprocess enabled in structure detection, you should be in good shape.

Right now it just takes any number(2 or more) of nbsps and normalizes them to 3% indent. I've been debating changing the indent based on the actual number of nbsps, but a lot of books I've seen use entirely too many anyway.