Text semantic in Sigil 2.5.2

[Peter Ahlstrom]

So, I'm running into a weird issue here. My ePub has somehow marked chapter 61 with the Text semantic (it shows up in the content.opf at the bottom under guide), but when I right-click my prologue and pick Add Semantics, there is no Text option. Obviously I can edit the guide manually, but how do I do it using Sigil's UI? The Text semantic used to appear in the Add Semantics list.

Some users are reporting their ePubs go to chapter 61 upon first opening the book. Less than ideal...

[BeckyEbook]

My guess: your EPUB is version 3.0, and the guide is from EPUB2. Just remove the entry with "Text" manually from the guide section.

Or menu Tools > Epub3 Tools > Remove the NCX and Guide

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Ahh. I see. Yeah, it's an epub3...I have no idea why the guide is even in there. (It was exported from InDesign.) Is there any downside whatsoever to removing the NCX and Guide? Such as compatibility with older readers.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Peter Ahlstrom

Is there any downside whatsoever to removing the NCX and Guide? Such as compatibility with older readers.

Yes. Compatibility with epub2-only devices is the main reason to leave the ncx/guide in place. Epub2 renderers will display text-only epub3s just fine, so long as the mandatory ncx is in place.

But if the epub3 in question uses a lot of epub3-only features, there's no real reason to try and maintain backward-compatibility.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Thanks. The ePub itself is pretty vanilla, so maintaining backward compatibility seems worthwhile. I'll see what happens when I remove the NCX and Guide and re-add them using the adjacent menu item.

[KevinH]

Just go to Sigil's epub3 tools and regenerate the NCX and Guide based on the current nav.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Okay, so, what I have determined is that if there are multiple files in the ePub that have the "bodymatter" semantic, the NCX/Guide regenerator takes the last one of these and gives it the Text semantic in the guide. Would it not make more sense to take the first bodymatter item instead of the last one? Or, is it considered best practice to have only one item labeled bodymatter in the ePub file? (Currently, the prologue and all of the chapters are labeled bodymatter.)

[KevinH]

There should be only one place where the body starts. Thus one bodymatter.

[KevinH]

In general you use other semantics for front matter like "Prologue" or something less specific like "Front Matter". Typically a landmark semantic is placed on a specific single file. Some files may get assigned more than one landmark but each should target a separate specific id in that file where that landmark starts.

Things like marking Chapters is unneeded in Landmarks as the TOC lists those and aria-sections can label them if need be. Landmarks are the epub3 equivalent to epub2 guide items where semantic meaning is attached to specific files of interest to the user but those not normally included in a table of contents. Thus enabling a user to easily navigate to them too.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Thank you for clearing that up. I'll pass it along.