[Ortep]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Sigil allows you to search and replace all html inside the epub at once.

So it is not WYSIWYG, you will have to edit HTML code by hand.

If you don't have a css file do a epub to epub conversion in calibre and you will have a css file.

I will try that but I do not want an ePub...I want to stay as far as possible from them. Their 'versatillity' often gives me totaly different results on different readers. (We have three).
I used to use ePub but I ran back to Mobi as fast as I could. It gives me almost te same results on any reader. Fact is: Why would I need this in the first place? ePub is supposed to be standard, not a bowl of spaghetti

Doing a epub to epub conversion with the current version of calibre will also, in most cases, remove the 2cm right and left margins automatically.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. It doesn't work in 80% of the cases I get. And the fun part comes when it only works in chapters 1,2,3, 7, 9, 13 an the last one. Then you don't see it at first but it will show up during reading.
The problem is that everybody uses a different approach and they will find a way to make as problematic as possible.

Wrong, it would be easier. Once you have a css, Sigil allows you to adjust all pages at once via find and replace in code view. Even without having the css Sigil allows the find and replace of those repetitive edits in one move using code view and find and replace. Much simpler then dealing with 27 separate files.

There you go: once you have a CSS And then I still have to edit the (x)html code by hand. I find it much more easy to to that with Notepad++. It has macros and a great syntax finder.

Here a part from the user manual of Sigil

http://web.sigil.googlecode.com/hg/searching.html

The Look in combo-box offers various places where Sigil should search. Currently, it can only search in the currently open file or all the HTML files
In the future it will be able to search across all the CSS files and all the files
of any type in the EPUB book.

And only in the Code View, not in the Book View. This limitation exists because of technical restrictions, and will be removed in time.

In Sigil I do not have 27 different files but 27 different tabs. One for each chapter. That is almost the same as opening 27 files in Notepad++ That wil allso give me 27 tabs in one window...And I am still 'coding' in HTML and that is not simply editting a file.

A single html file would have some pluses but for fine tuning a epub Sigil does allow you to treat all html as one.

No it doesn't. I can not see the complete file in one go. Or I must 'combine' alle parts in the first run. And I cannot do something like Select all, Remove formatting. Or select this 'formattig' part and find out if there is more of it. Simply like you can do in Word or OOo

This is true but correcting the junk is easy in Sigil, since in code view Sigil allows the user to treat all files as on for regex use in find and replace.

So still no WYSIWYG, it is almost the same as Notepad++. I agree regex it is extremely powerfull. But you will haver to agree that regex is not the most user friendly way of finding/changing things. I do know how to use it, but it often needs a lot of trial and error for you have the correct one. And try to explain it to my mother in law. She can work with Word, Exel and Powerpoint..but regex?!?!?!?!

Learn more in the Sigil forum.

Learn more at http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

And of course you can use any other programmers editor.

The main argument is: There is no good WYSIWYG edit tool for ePub. Only a lot of small tools to repair them...in a way.
But there are a LOT of HTML editors that are extremely easy to use. In any flavour you wnt. So I'm craving for a good ePub to HTML conversion tool. Also because the end goal for me (and all Kindle users) is not ePub. So why clean it up and make it usable in the first place?
And until that tool is there I will convert to RTF and edit that file with a tool you can find on any Windows computer: Wordpad. Easy and in one go. If you really want ePub? Simply convert it back.

Tip: The really easy and fast way to improve problematic ePub files is to open the ePub with something like Winrar or whatever archiver program you have. Find the css and simply delete it. You will lose all the formatting, but it was bad in the first place.