[Hitch]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

If you're going to work exclusively in Sigil, use Code View. You'll then be in the same position as a user of the first word processors, where control codes, similar to HTML markup, had to be explicitly entered inline with the text. This would not be a ridiculous way to work, particularly for a book where layout was an integral part of the message. You have the advantage of the Preview Pane showing the result.

EW: what a brill comment. I'd totally spaced that, for example, the original IBM OS/6's used to be like this, and of course, Wordstar and WordPerfect (still my personal fave, to this day), etc. Really great observation.

Clicking on the next xhtml file to view the next chapter isn't really such a big deal, is it?

OR, just put in the break commands, and work in it in a single file, until you're ready to break it out into the separate chapters. That's not that hard, either.

For proof-reading (however the epub was constructed) I often make a copy of the epub file and open it in ADE on my second screen. It's good to see what another program makes of the epub code, and good to see line-wrap errors that may have been not apparent in Sigil. Errors can be immediately corrected in Sigil. (You have to display a copy file in ADE, otherwise saving an edit in Sigil will confuse and crash the same file open in ADE.)

Also very clever. I confess, although I've done this for this or that, I don't do it on a regular basis, and I ought. (Of course, that would imply that I'm still making books regularly, and implying that would be a fib, at best. In fact, the last time I said I was going to make the obscenely high number of edits a recent book here had, my crew mutinied and told me that if I touched the file, they were leaving. In my defense, they didn't say it was because I'd wreck it. They said, and I quote "you will be cranky." It perturbs me a bit to think that my crank is worth a mutiny....that makes it sound like I'm not a wonderful boss. That can't be right, right?)

Don't even consider this method unless you're comfortable in Code View. Really, don't use Sigil at all unless you're comfortable in Code View. Just write your book in your favourite WP program, whether it be WordPad, Word or anything inbetween; resist the temptation to use strings of space characters to control indents, centering etc. and throw it into Calibre for automatic conversion to epub. It'll come out just fine.

OK, I confess, I was tempted to break this paragraph into parts, and type "Just don't use Sigil." But that would be wrong...

Don't forget, don't use TABS, either, or columns. Neither exists in eBooks, not for a beginner. (A beginner to coding, I mean. You could be James Michener, as a writer, for all we know.)

Originally Posted by KevinH

Or use any of the import plugins that exist for Sigil just for this purpose.

Another EXCELLENT comment. Toxaris' plugin for Word is damn near as close to a magic push-button solution as exists, at this time, for Word-->eBook.

Hitch