[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by bookman156

I have a number of epub 3 files to prepare that are structurally similar. I was thinking of getting one file ready in Sigil with all the fonts and CSS etc and then just saving under another name and swapping the cover and content for each new epub.

You can create a basic "template" folder with your common:

• HTML files
  
  • Title page
    
  • Copyright page
    
  • Front/Backmatter
    
• CSS
• Fonts
• Images
  
  • Logos
    
  • Temporary covers
    

Then when you open an EPUB, you can "Import" those files.

Some of these methods were discussed in:

• 2018: "UUID basics & template"

Doitsu then created an "EPUBTemplate" plugin to handle just this case.

Edit: Ahh, yes. KevinH's "Template" plugins work even better! I think he came up with that one after the discussion in those UUID threads!

Originally Posted by bookman156

But this would mean the dc:identifier number would be the same. I guess this is generated randomly every time Sigil opens. What purpose does the dc:identifier number serve?

It is used in some devices for highlights/notes, syncing books, checking to see if file/book is new, etc.

Plus a few other technical EPUB things. (See topic below.)

Originally Posted by bookman156

And could I just change it to something else manually in .opf file for each new epub?

Yes, it is possible.

See the discussion in:

• 2019: "@DiapDealer ISBN vs UUID"

We went through all the in-depth details.

And I swear, somewhere along the line, someone made a plugin to generate a new random UUID without needing to create a new EPUB... but maybe I'm imagining that.

I always just started from a new EPUB + imported all needed "template" files in... or in the very rare case, I manually tweaked the UUIDs (using the instructions I wrote in this post).