[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by katknott

Thank you so very much. It has been years since I used html and did online newspaper, teaching, etc. Can you suggest course or something I can take for refresher?

Hmmm...

A refresher of word processor (Word/LibreOffice) stuff? Or basics of EPUB + HTML/CSS?

If EPUB, I don't really know of any good (and up-to-date) tutorial-type things.

But a lot of ebook stuff is just knowing the basics of HTML and CSS.

Side Note: Back in 2018, I had a project to digitize 100 ebooks within a year.

I did train a few editors (who knew absolutely nothing about HTML) in HTML/CSS + basics of ebooks.

I called it "Clean Ebooks, Workflows, and HTML".

If you want to see those slides, let me know.

(But it may be more basic than your knowledge level.)

* * *

My mentality is KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

Strip everything down to the very bare bones, so your ebook is full of simple HTML:

• <h2> = Headings
• <p> = Paragraphs
• <blockquote> = Blockquotes
• <i> or <em> = Italics/Emphasis
• <b> or <strong> = Bold
• [...]

From there, all you typically need is a handful of exceptions:

• <p class="first">
  
  • Your first paragraphs might have no indent.
• <p class="center">
• <p class="right">
• <p class="plaintiff">
  
  • Maybe the plaintiff's name is bold + centered + right-aligned.
• [...]

And the key thing is, human-readable names!

So this is your original code:

<div class="block_53" data-lnum="219"><span class="bullet_" data-lnum="219">5)&nbsp;</span><span class="calibre9" data-lnum="219">Until January 1, 2018, [...]
<div class="block_53" data-lnum="220"><span class="bullet_" data-lnum="220">6)&nbsp;</span><span class="calibre9" data-lnum="220">No entity shall record

Throw away that data-lnum crap:

Spoiler:

<div class="block_53"><span class="bullet_">5)&nbsp;</span><span class="calibre9">Until January 1, 2018, [...]
<div class="block_53"><span class="bullet_">6)&nbsp;</span><span class="calibre9">No entity shall record

<div class="block_##"> + some random numbers? Nope. Use simple HTML + a <p>:

Spoiler:

<p><span class="bullet_">5)&nbsp;</span><span class="calibre9">Until January 1, 2018, [...]
<p><span class="bullet_">6)&nbsp;</span><span class="calibre9">No entity shall record

<span class="bullet_">, but it's actually a list number? REMOVE:

Spoiler:

<p>5) <span class="calibre9">Until January 1, 2018, [...]
<p>6) <span class="calibre9">No entity shall record

<span class="calibre"> that's probably only saying "this is normal text"? Toss it!

<p>5) Until January 1, 2018, [...]
<p>6) No entity shall record

And, wow, now compare that to your original code.

Look how much cleaner and more readable that is.

And guess what, it'll work great on an actual ereader.

* * *

... Anyway, if you're interested in a "basics of ebook" tutorial:

I may be open for meeting on webcam some time next week.

I could then see:

• What your skill level is.
• What sort of documents you're doing this on.
  
  • And what you're trying to accomplish by converting this to EPUB?

And testing out some conversion stuff live.

Every single input/output format is going to require slightly different tools/methods.

Originally Posted by katknott

I was not first editor. The first editor used Google docs I believe and I didn't add the extra codes. This job has been nightmare.

Yeah, Google Docs creates a bit of a mess.

Yes, the text may "look okay" on the screen, but the innards are horrible.

Note: If you're more comfortable in the word processors (Word/LibreOffice):

You may want to do cleaning + Styles there instead.

THEN when you output to EPUB, you'll have much cleaner HTML to work with.

Side Note: And this looks to be a legal document with lots of nested lists... huge lists+large-negative-indents don't play very nicely in EPUB...

You'd probably have to adjust a lot of that text anyway so it can be read on tall/skinny things like cellphones or IN HUGE FONT SIZES.

Originally Posted by Quoth

In LO Writer:
Control-Shift-Space puts a grey mark. Even if display formatting is off.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've used Google Docs in the past because an organisation I was in used it. I accept some individuals find Google Docs fine, [...]

It's a growing marketshare, while old-school Microsoft Word is going down.

Side Note: Yesterday, I watched a presentation at LibreOffice's 2021 conference.

Within the past decade:

The old-school desktop suites, down, down, down. Cloud-based + Mobile stuff, up, up, up.

Back in 2017:

• ~18% of word processor usage was Google Docs.
• ~18% were using Open Source as well.
• And ~75% [and falling] was Microsoft Word/365.

Those trajectories have only grown since then. (And with the last year and a half, free/open programs have only gotten much stronger.)

Side Note #2: ... Even many of the kids going into COLLEGE have now grown up on:

• Mobile-only
  
  • Some don't even have a laptop/desktop anymore.
• Chromebooks
  
  • Google Docs / non-Microsoft ecosystems
• Easy sharing
  
  • Just send a URL!
• Cloud-syncing
  
  • And all you need is to log into your account. You can get your documents on any computer/smartphone, anywhere.

Multi-device editing is currently the present/future.

Old school Word + only-typing-on-my-desktop-computer is so 10/20/40 years ago.