MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Sigil 1.4.3

lisashea · 01-31-2021, 04:28 PM

I’ve been using Sigil for quite a long time – at least 10 years. I have over 450 books published on Amazon D2D etc., plus I help other authors with their publishing, so I have generated boatloads of EPUBs over this time period. So I’m in general comfortable with Sigil and its operations.

I recently had to upgrade to a new computer which got me onto Sigil 1.4.3 on Windows 10. With this change, Sigil altered how it handled the validation process. Where before I could create perfect EPUB files for Google Publish and Draft2Digital, now I get errors from those systems. I also get errors from standard online validation processes.

I realize these errors are not “caused” by Sigil. I’m sad, though, that the “easy fix” I used to get out of Sigil is no longer happening.

Here’s what I do.

I write my books in Word. When I’m ready, I export my Word document into a filtered HTM file. Word generates a flawed filtered HTM file. I bring that into Calibre, where I generate an EPUB file. Calibre is not introducing the problems. It’s simply translating a flawed file into EPUB, which I understand.

I used to then bring that EPUB into Sigil to fix those problems. The problems were well known to me. You can see them here, in my search-and-replace dropdown.

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Oversized INLINE image converted to attachment. Please review guidelines

First, any links would have a pair of attributes – link=”color” and vlink=”color – which had to be stripped off. Images would often have a border=0 which had to be stripped. Pictures would have an id=”Picture X” and the space caused a problem, so I stripped out that space. And finally, there would be a clear=”all” in various spots which I had to remove.

The built-in Sigil validation tool easily found all of these problems. I’d run the validator, see which issues were in my particular EPUB, search-and-replace to fix them, and then revalidate it. Once it passed, everything was fine, and my file was good to go.

That no longer happens with this latest version of Sigil.

The validation tool, which used to be a green checkmark in the top right of the menu bar, is no longer there. When I manually run the validation tool it claims everything is fine. But the EPUB is not fine – it chokes on any other external validator.

I even had a YouTube video where I explained to others how to do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKNPMsHC5xg

Am I missing where the actual validation tool is hiding now? Why did that old functionality go away? That was a key part of my process to make a globally accepted EPUB.

Many thanks in advance for any assistance!

01-31-2021, 04:28 PM	#1
lisashea Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: none	Sigil 1.4.3 - Validation Not Catching Errors Now I’ve been using Sigil for quite a long time – at least 10 years. I have over 450 books published on Amazon D2D etc., plus I help other authors with their publishing, so I have generated boatloads of EPUBs over this time period. So I’m in general comfortable with Sigil and its operations. I recently had to upgrade to a new computer which got me onto Sigil 1.4.3 on Windows 10. With this change, Sigil altered how it handled the validation process. Where before I could create perfect EPUB files for Google Publish and Draft2Digital, now I get errors from those systems. I also get errors from standard online validation processes. I realize these errors are not “caused” by Sigil. I’m sad, though, that the “easy fix” I used to get out of Sigil is no longer happening. Here’s what I do. I write my books in Word. When I’m ready, I export my Word document into a filtered HTM file. Word generates a flawed filtered HTM file. I bring that into Calibre, where I generate an EPUB file. Calibre is not introducing the problems. It’s simply translating a flawed file into EPUB, which I understand. I used to then bring that EPUB into Sigil to fix those problems. The problems were well known to me. You can see them here, in my search-and-replace dropdown. Moderator Notice Oversized INLINE image converted to attachment. Please review guidelines First, any links would have a pair of attributes – link=”color” and vlink=”color – which had to be stripped off. Images would often have a border=0 which had to be stripped. Pictures would have an id=”Picture X” and the space caused a problem, so I stripped out that space. And finally, there would be a clear=”all” in various spots which I had to remove. The built-in Sigil validation tool easily found all of these problems. I’d run the validator, see which issues were in my particular EPUB, search-and-replace to fix them, and then revalidate it. Once it passed, everything was fine, and my file was good to go. That no longer happens with this latest version of Sigil. The validation tool, which used to be a green checkmark in the top right of the menu bar, is no longer there. When I manually run the validation tool it claims everything is fine. But the EPUB is not fine – it chokes on any other external validator. I even had a YouTube video where I explained to others how to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKNPMsHC5xg Am I missing where the actual validation tool is hiding now? Why did that old functionality go away? That was a key part of my process to make a globally accepted EPUB. Many thanks in advance for any assistance! Attached Thumbnails Last edited by theducks; 01-31-2021 at 08:02 PM. Reason: oversized image