Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks
It is really simpler. (except for the expectation of a Exactly consistent layout)
Using Jellby's example: Notice that there are No class= statements.
You are styling standard tags.
Consider the: h3 + p {font-face: italic }
could be used to modify the style of the first paragraph after the h3 to be just a italic variation on the standard P tag used in the book.
All any section (file) needs is the <link to the stylesheet >
Nothing else.
Can't get much simpler.
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Yes and no--in this specific discussion, I can attest with
much exasperation that the :first-letter and, while we're at it, various pseudo-elements for first-line, etc., don't actually work in
most readers.
As far as scenebreaks and vertical whitespace, I have to admit that though I still occasionally shortcut that way (add an extra empty paragraph, bad Hitch) and have done so in the past (ditto), I am not a fan thereof, as it is routinely and thoroughly ignored. I personally feel that it's better to simply create a nice, cleanly-named class, e.g., "scenebreak" or "CH-first-para" for whitespace, using a simple margin-top setting (which, remember, means that it can be changed across the board, instead of schlepping around adding "returns" and then going into CV to add nbsp's, than using the "return" method). When you're stuck with the output, using the 'return' method, then you have to go in and manually screw with it if you don't like how it looks on (insert reader type here).
Also: Ducky, although you know I love you dearly, I'd also point out, for the OP, that
there isn't actually anything wrong with learning styling by using Word to do some of the lifting for you when you're starting out, or, as he is, DIY'ing. Does Word output an HTML that's messy? Yes, but if someone uses nice clean Word styles throughout, not
ad hoc styles, you can actually end up with not-bad HTML base from which to work.
When I first started out, I mean, making ePUBs, after I learned how to make MOBI's, back in the MBPCreator days, I used to use Word and and BookCreator, to go through and come up with a relatively clean Word file that I could export to HTML. Now, it's faster for me to regex, but it wasn't then. If you use Styles that you create (Normal, First-Para, Scenebreak, etc.), you can export those quite simply to HTML and there isn't anything wrong with it. There is, practicably speaking, no real difference between the CSS that Word outputs and the CSS you might create by hand. Of course, you have to clean up TONS of bollixed up garbage that you would NOT have used--and heavens knows, about 1800 lines of font-styling, every time, but a paragraph styled in Word and exported to HTML doesn't bear the mark of Cain on it, after all. ;-)
Sure, that's not how I do things NOW, but at the end of the day, for those folks who still work with Word files by and large, whether you export to HTML forthwith and work in that, or use something like BookCreator or some other interim step/macro, a CSS style is a CSS style is a CSS style, no matter how it got in the style sheet. I thought the OP and perhaps others coming along might find knowing that useful. I agree, Ducks, that learning HTML and CSS is excellent; but I used many exported-from-Word CSS styles to learn how to manipulate styles, back when Brontosaurs walked the earth, and I don't think that the OP will hurt himself too badly if he does the same (using ACTUAL Styles, not ad hoc styles, remember).
Hitch