Could it be possible to open more than one epub in the same Sigil instance?
 

Many times I have to open two (or more) instances of Sigil to have two (or more) epubs open at the same time. It would be great if one could open more than one epub in an unique instance of Sigil. Diap, Kevin, could "this" be possible one day?

Regards
Rubén

Just wondering...what benefit does that give you over having multiple instances open? Other than maybe a slightly less amount of memory usage...

That's how the Mac version works, but there's really been no thought given to making Sigil use the multiple-document/one-instance paradigm on Windows. There's no real advantage--plus Windows users are already familiar with having several instances of the same application open--each with their own document: Word, Excel, Publisher, etc...

I see no reason to rock that particular boat. *shrug*

Opening multiple epub windows in one instance of Sigil on a Mac is standard practice and is supported by Qt. This is similar to how Office is on a Mac as well. Converting Sigil to do the same for Linux and Windows would be trivial if people really wanted it, but I think most users on Linux and Windows would object.

They may be familiar with that approach, but that doesn't mean they like it. It seems to be one of the causes of people losing track of what they're doing.

FWIW - I use an Office Addon (Office Tabs) that gives me an tabbed single-instance/multi-document interface for Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The existence of something similar can be the deciding factor when I'm choosing an application.

How would a single instance multiple epub version of Sigil present itself? A dockable Epubs Open window with a vertical list would be my preference.

BR

I've no idea how it would present. It's not something I'm interested in. Nor do I believe anywhere near a consensus of Windows/Linux users would be. In my opinion, it would be an either/or choice being made for all Windows/Linux users. Without overwhelming support, I wouldn't consider it. And a user preference to enable/disable it on a whim isn't on the table. MainWindow is overcomplicated enough.

I'm kind of with Diap on this one. I keep multiple instances of Sigil open all the time, and except for the problem with one or more instances losing their clips and searches sometimes, which I haven't seen mentioned lately, it gives me the same result as having multiple epubs in one instance.

Just my opinion.

I agree.

Maybe could be something like this:

Attachment 165067

But is pure speculation because -althought it seems to be a trivial thing according to Kevin's words- won't be made :( Or maybe we could make a poll to know the opinion of the Sigil's users.

To be clear: it would be trivial (from a coding perspective) to force this MDI choice down everyone's throats. It would NOT be trivial (IMO) to offer users the choice of MDI vs Multiple Instances via a preference setting.

Regardless: I see no compelling reason to force this interface change upon everyone, nor any compelling reason to spend available resources on developing it as a feature choice (and further complicating MainWindow.cpp) for the handful of people it would appeal to.

Fyi, you really can not tell the difference visually between two different instances of Sigil open each with their own main window and two main windows opened by the same instance of Sigil on a Mac so it would present itself no differently. You would still be choosing a single window to work in with the possibility of switching to the other window by clicking on it. Nothing is stacked or tabbed so their really is no advantage to how the Mac does it at all, it just works around the Mac not liking multiple versions of the same gui program running at the same time.

@KevinH - I assumed the Mac had some fancier way of handling it.

FWIW: I think I already have Windows behaving as you describe via the use of the 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (free). But as you can see from the attached screen shot its not easy to see at a glance (without hovering the mouse) how many and which documents are open. But IMO it's better than having multiple copies of the same icon on the taskbar.

In case anyone's interested, I've also attached a screen shot of Word with DOCX versions of the same documents open in a couple of tabs via Office Tabs (not free).

BR

Interesting. On my Windows 7 and later Windows 10 install, the Sigil icon on the taskbar never does multiple copies though a shadow effect on the icon and underline shows multiple copies are open. I have to hover over it to see the thumbnails for the multiple instances as per attached image. I think this is set by the Combine taskbar buttons being set to "always combine, hide labels" setting.

I rather like the fact that with Sigil I can easily open up another book by right-clicking on the taskbar icon (Windows 7) and simply clicking on "Sigil". I do this often enough that it comes automatically to me. For some reason I find it less confusing than opening up another book on, say, Word.

It's all in what one is accustomed to, I suppose. I use Sigil a lot, and I like it, so I am well accustomed to it.

I also think that it is good that you can open Sigil many times, because I can always move the second image to an additional monitor and have an easy preview. I often use it.

I greet everyone working on Sigil's improvement.
bravosx

I suspect Rubén would like to open a second epub in a second instance from within Sigil itself, not via the taskbar or file manager.

BR