Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirtel
I don't care about pretty code, I only care about how the book looks like on my ereaders. So I do much less than many others here. I don't check before editing, as there is always something I want to change.
After fixing the metadata I open the book in the editor. First, I delete all the unwanted files - ads, samples/excerpts from other books, praise, recommendations and the like. Then I remove unused css, check some of the html files and edit what I don't like. No huge headings, no margins, line-height, unusual font size or any font family in the body text. No spaces between paragraphs. Text indents 1em. Fully justified. Hyphenation disabled. Widows and orphans 1. Nice blockquotes with even left and right margins.
I save my edits and look at the book in the viewer. I also check the TOC and fix/create it if needed. If everything is ok, I'll run the page count plugin. An existing page count means I've edited the book.
I don't bother with any error checking, as most of them are harmless and will be ignored by my ereaders. Only rarely there is something that makes my Kobo choke. I fix those as they happen. As I said, that's rare.
|
That's basically my philosophy and workflow, although I have a few different preferences. I do run the error check- it's fast and couldn't hurt.
The main difficulties are overly complex files, such as Vellum generated (so you're not sure when entry to change) or where there are many CSS entries that all do about the same thing. As a random example, different code for a paragraph or heading depending on which section it's in, e.g., main text, introduction, etc.