Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Nobody here, software-wise, is competing. All the products, software, etc., that have been discussed here, whether Calibre, Sigil, Tox's add-ins, add-ons or macros, etc., are all OS and donorware. That's it. But there's a realism factor, as well...maybe I am jaded. In fact, I'd bet money on it. I once really, really TRIED to get into XML-->XSLT and just couldn't get there from here, as previously discussed. if something comes along that authors will adopt, OR, allows me to easily convert/channel what authors REALLY do into XML, great. I'm all for it. I just don't...I don't FEEL it yet.
Hitch
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To be fair, my add-in is not OS at this time. It may become open source later, but at this time not. I am more than willing to help anybody with additional options or functions, but not the code as of yet. The usage is and will remain free. There are no restrictions in its usage.
That said, I have done my share of XML conversions with XSLT. In fact, that was also my first ideas with regards of creating clean (X)HTML for ePUB. That went out the window very fast, since it would cripple the result to an undesired level. Too much could not be converted with the XSLT. I don't really care too much about lists and tables with col/rowspans, but whole pieces of formatting (like bold/italic) could get lost if it is part of a style (as I mentioned before). So, that is why I decided to do it differently.
I actually revisited the idea with OpenXML conversion and ran against the same limitations. No way to solve the inheritance of certain formatting in styles. Is it the fault of Microsoft? No, not really since the information is there and from their point of view it is perfectly logical. They cannot solve it within the current specification of their OpenXML definition. It would save me a lot of work, but they do not have any need for it. They would rather build in ePUB exporting capablities first.
I know that there have been many requests for exports from Word that are clean, but there are also difficulties there. I am already thinking for future developments of my add-in to try to create a basic stylesheet based upon the layout in Word. Simple stuff like indents, centering and alike. I don't know if that will happen, but I am thinking about it. It has quite some serious impacts and I do not know if there is a need for it.