Ignoring the first few pages of a book

[Arrghus]

Is there any way to ignore, say, the first few pages of a book when converting a book with new formatting?

For example, if I wanted to remove empty lines and indent new paragraphs when converting, can I tell Calibre not to touch the first few pages? Some of my books have story codes and/or descriptions relating to the plot, and other things that I'd rather have stay in its original format, with spacing.

Also (I'll ask here rather than start another thread), when converting a book that doesn't have a cover (at least, it appears it doesn't, and Calibre is generating in the preview pane a cover from the first page), Calibre insists on creating one. It's not one of the default generated covers, but rather a snapshot of the first page (albeit blurry due to JPEG compression). Can I stop Calibre doing this? Otherwise, I'm left with the first page twice; one page the actual text, and the other a blurry snapshot of the same.

Sorry if this sounds muddled. I find it hard to articulate my problems with Calibre!

Many thanks,
Thomas

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Arrghus

Is there any way to ignore, say, the first few pages of a book when converting a book with new formatting?

For example, if I wanted to remove empty lines and indent new paragraphs when converting, can I tell Calibre not to touch the first few pages? Some of my books have story codes and/or descriptions relating to the plot, and other things that I'd rather have stay in its original format, with spacing.

Also (I'll ask here rather than start another thread), when converting a book that doesn't have a cover (at least, it appears it doesn't, and Calibre is generating in the preview pane a cover from the first page), Calibre insists on creating one. It's not one of the default generated covers, but rather a snapshot of the first page (albeit blurry due to JPEG compression). Can I stop Calibre doing this? Otherwise, I'm left with the first page twice; one page the actual text, and the other a blurry snapshot of the same.

Sorry if this sounds muddled. I find it hard to articulate my problems with Calibre!

Many thanks,
Thomas

Calibre is NOT an content editor. It Converts what is there.

[Arrghus]

^ I feel a somewhat shortchanged by your answer! Calibre IS a content editor - how can it not be? It edits what's there when it converts your file! All I am asking, is whether or not I can skip a few pre-defined pages, so as not to have all my text scrunched up where it is not needed.

Are you saying to me, that the whole document, should I wish to remove spacing between 'paragraphs' in the main body (i.e. the story), I have to accept that all the text, like the blurb, or the pages preceding the the first chapter (the bibliographic details, dedication page, etc.) has to be squashed together too?

I do appreciate your reply, really I do; it's just not the reply I hoped for!

[speakingtohe]

I am sure it can be done, but it is not a feature of calibre. I have many epubs which ignore formatting commands from calibre. Some wholly, some just in parts.

It is possibly necessary to put special css into the epub itself.

For example many books have a poem or some such at the start of the book aligned right. This is usually a good thing (to me)when they are left that way.

Other (older) books have a gray background and everything is bold italics or font sizes change randomly. Not IMO a good thing. But calibre does not seem to change them so I use tweak epub or sigil to change the stylesheet.

Perhaps theducks was saying that calibre is not a word processor or publishing app.

I know very little about CSS but I think the block function or procedure might be what you are looking for.

Perhaps post your question in the Sigil forum?

As to the second question, calibre doesn't create the blurry cover. Usually it is from a prior conversion to PDF by some other program and it lingers on when converted to epub.

You used to be able to automatically remove this cover but now I have to either give it a new cover with remove first image checked or use tweak epub and delete cover.jpg. Probably there is a better way but I am unable to find it.

Helen

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Arrghus

^ I feel a somewhat shortchanged by your answer!

Just to be clear the answer to your question about skipping pages is NO.

Originally Posted by Arrghus

Calibre IS a content editor - how can it not be? It edits what's there when it converts your file!

It just isn't accurate to say calibre is a content editor. Calibre is an ebook management tool with the ability to convert between many formats. Some common problems occurred when a straight conversion was done like double or large spaces between paragraphs. Out of respect for his users Kovid took some large general swings at the common problems to allow folks to end up with readable content.

Originally Posted by Arrghus

All I am asking, is whether or not I can skip a few pre-defined pages, so as not to have all my text scrunched up where it is not needed.

No you can not.

Originally Posted by Arrghus

Are you saying to me, that the whole document, should I wish to remove spacing between 'paragraphs' in the main body (i.e. the story), I have to accept that all the text, like the blurb, or the pages preceding the the first chapter (the bibliographic details, dedication page, etc.) has to be squashed together too?

Yes that is what he is saying. Understand though that for many of the books that I convert there are not spaces between the paragraphs to begin with so this setting doesn't have to checked every time.