Custom empty ePub
 

Where can I find a "how to" on creating a custom empty ePub.

I can't seem to find one anywhere.

There ar eno formal docs yet, so simply just give it a try. It will show you the root folder of an empty epub. You will be able to select it, and add subfolders to it, and add marker files to specific folders to tell Sigil wheere you want files of a specific type to go.

If you try to save it for use, it will run a test to make sure your design is sane.

Give it a try. Then take a few moments to write-up a how-to to help us out.

How (where) do I put information in these files/folders that I want to appear in the new ePub?

See the Tools menu.

You don't.

The Custom Layout tool is not used to create template epubs that will be pre-populated with content, metadata, images etc... . You're thinking about it the wrong way.

It's used to create the structure that new epubs will use. Css will go in this folder; xhtml will go here (and here and here); the opf will live here; images will go here -- that sort of thing. When all is said and done, the new epubs created from the custom layouts are still going be an opf, an empty xhtml file and an empty ncx (or nav if it's an epub3).

Okay, my bad. :smack:

Well it still sucks. I would really like it the other way.

Paul

Then set the empty layout, then add the material you want to be in the template and save it as an epub.

When you want to use it as a template, load that epub and do a save-as under a new name.

You might find my simple EpubTemplate plugin helpful. Note that it doesn't work with non-standard epubs.

+1000000

I use this technique all the time - it works great!

Already do that, was hoping there was a new way. :D

I'll give it a try.

...And if you mark template epub as read only you will not be able to overwrite it with book you are working on - you will have to use "save as" and save it with another file name.

However, if you try to use "save" you will get error "Sigil has encoutered a problem. Sigil may need to close."

Perhaps this error text could be replaced with more descriptive one?

If we made it more descriptive, it wouldn't work as the generic, catch-all error message it was intended to be. ;)

imho generic messages should rhyme or be in form of haiku. :)

I can work with that! :D