editing

[Arktel]

I created an ePUB file from Pages (mac) and opened it in Sigil, however, the line spacing between text is too big in the whole document. After removing a bunch of lines and saving the file, I closed Sigil then reopened the document to test. Alas the line changes did not take. Any ideas why?

However, I did centre some illustrations and those changes worked.

Also the front cover is in the Images folder on the left but the back cover is nowhere to be found. So then I added the back cover but it was too big. How do you delete an image from the Book Browser section of Sigil, or alternatively make the image smaller within Sigil?

Thanks, I appreciate guidance. I checked the manual but couldn't see any answers.

Menkit

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Arktel

I created an ePUB file from Pages (mac) and opened it in Sigil, however, the line spacing between text is too big in the whole document. After removing a bunch of lines and saving the file, I closed Sigil then reopened the document to test. Alas the line changes did not take. Any ideas why?

However, I did centre some illustrations and those changes worked.

Also the front cover is in the Images folder on the left but the back cover is nowhere to be found. So then I added the back cover but it was too big. How do you delete an image from the Book Browser section of Sigil, or alternatively make the image smaller within Sigil?

Thanks, I appreciate guidance. I checked the manual but couldn't see any answers.

Menkit

You might not have a 'Line Space' issue, but a 'hard return' issue (if this was a from scan conversion) that treats each line as a paragraph (with paragraph margins being what you see).
Switch to Codeview.
if every line ends with a </p>, that is your problem. You need to join the incorrectly ended lines. (careful REGEX. or you might pass the book through a Calibre conversion with Heuristics enabled. )

Line/paragraph spacing could be done a number of ways:
1: in the CSS for the paragraph style. line-space: 1.2em

2: (IMHO bad) <p class="someclass">&nbsp</p>. Use another style that has a bigger, margin-top: and/or margin-bottom: in the CSS to effect a 'break'.

[Arktel]

Hi Theducks

Thanks for your comments. I didn't scan this book. It was copied and pasted from Word into Pages. Took a look at the code and there is </p> where the extra space is. Should I omit it and see what happens? I am not on familiar territory when it comes to html.

To go back into Pages and have to change every single para to 1.2cm would be just too tedious. I just spent 4 hours doing that with all the para indents which were not uniform (at 3 clicks of the space bar each) - all because I am on a learning curve with Styles having done a tutorial with lynda.com and only discovering styles after beginning the book and investing all the time formatting it.

You cannot imagine how out of my depth I am ....

[Arktel]

Forgot to mention that the number of times that the spacing is too large in a 340p book is mind-boggling. Wish there was a simple solution.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Arktel

Hi Theducks

Thanks for your comments. I didn't scan this book. It was copied and pasted from Word into Pages. Took a look at the code and there is </p> where the extra space is. Should I omit it and see what happens? I am not on familiar territory when it comes to html.

To go back into Pages and have to change every single para to 1.2cm would be just too tedious. I just spent 4 hours doing that with all the para indents which were not uniform (at 3 clicks of the space bar each) - all because I am on a learning curve with Styles having done a tutorial with lynda.com and only discovering styles after beginning the book and investing all the time formatting it.

You cannot imagine how out of my depth I am ....

Just to confirm you are seeing:

<p class="someclass">To go back into Pages and have to change every single para to 1.2cm </p>
 <p class="someclass">would be just too tedious. I just spent 4 hours doing that with all the para indents </p>
 <p class="someclass">which were not uniform (at 3 clicks of the space bar each) - all because I am on a </p> 
<p class="someclass">learning curve with Styles having done a tutorial with lynda.com and only</p> 
<p class="someclass"> discovering styles after beginning </p>
 <p class="someclass">the book and investing all the time formatting it.</p)

BTW using spacebar for indents is so Typewriter

add to the paragraph style: text-indent: 1.5em;

(em scale with zoom)

[Arktel]

I am seeing:

<p class="s8"><span class="c9">Dedication</span></p>

<p class="s1 s6"><span class="c11">Dedicated to Chloe Jordan, Adi Mandel, Kitalia-Rae Tasker, Skye Bortoli, Stella McInnear and all the special children in Uki Village, N.S.W. Australia and everywhere who give me hope for the future of planet Earth.</span></p><br />

<p class="s1 s10"><span class="c13">I also dedicate this book to</span> <a href="http://www.seashepherd.org"><span class="c14">Sea Shepherd Conservation Society</span></a><span class="c13">, whose vision and courageous, self-sacrificing efforts to save the ocean before it collapses surpass any environmental movement on planet Earth and to all environmental and wildlife activists who sacrifice themselves tirelessly to save planet Earth and its human and non-human inhabitants.</span></p>

<p class="s8"><span class="c9">Acknowledgment</span></p><br />

<p class="s1"><span class="c13">Thanks to Maneka Gandhi for taking the time to write the foreword; to Earl Bingley of</span> <a href="http://www.canadiansvoiceforanimals.com"><span class="c17">www.canadiansvoiceforanimals.com</span></a> <span class="c13">and</span> <a href="http://www.thebouquetsisters.com/index2.html"><span class="c14">Susan Liberty Hall</span></a> <span class="c13">for encouraging me to get this story published; to the inspirational artwork of Linda True-Arrow; and to Kathy Stewart and Lynda Staker for editorial assistance.</span></p><br />
<br />

And I changed the para style indent to 1.7 mm so the indents are fixed but not line spacing. (what is em?)

Three times I deleted all the </p> text in the code at the end of the sentence where there was one too many line spaces following and saved the changes but nothing changed.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by Arktel

I am seeing:

<p class="s8"><span class="c9">Dedication</span></p>

<p class="s1 s6"><span class="c11">Dedicated to Chloe Jordan, Adi Mandel, Kitalia-Rae Tasker, Skye Bortoli, Stella McInnear and all the special children in Uki Village, N.S.W. Australia and everywhere who give me hope for the future of planet Earth.</span></p><br />

<p class="s1 s10"><span class="c13">I also dedicate this book to</span> <a href="http://www.seashepherd.org"><span class="c14">Sea Shepherd Conservation Society</span></a><span class="c13">, whose vision and courageous, self-sacrificing efforts to save the ocean before it collapses surpass any environmental movement on planet Earth and to all environmental and wildlife activists who sacrifice themselves tirelessly to save planet Earth and its human and non-human inhabitants.</span></p>

<p class="s8"><span class="c9">Acknowledgment</span></p><br />

<p class="s1"><span class="c13">Thanks to Maneka Gandhi for taking the time to write the foreword; to Earl Bingley of</span> <a href="http://www.canadiansvoiceforanimals.com"><span class="c17">www.canadiansvoiceforanimals.com</span></a> <span class="c13">and</span> <a href="http://www.thebouquetsisters.com/index2.html"><span class="c14">Susan Liberty Hall</span></a> <span class="c13">for encouraging me to get this story published; to the inspirational artwork of Linda True-Arrow; and to Kathy Stewart and Lynda Staker for editorial assistance.</span></p><br />
<br />

And I changed the para style indent to 1.7 mm so the indents are fixed but not line spacing. (what is em?)

Three times I deleted all the </p> text in the code at the end of the sentence where there was one too many line spaces following and saved the changes but nothing changed.

Remove all the "<br />" tags. Each of them introduces an additional line break.

[Jabby]

Originally Posted by Arktel

And I changed the para style indent to 1.7 mm so the indents are fixed but not line spacing. (what is em?)

Here is a link to a definition of "em":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Em_%28typography%29

In epub parlance it's pretty much the same. Since most epubs are read using mobile readers it is better to stay away from fixed measures. If you specify a fixed indent and the reader increases the font size, the indent will be relatively smaller and look strange.

Here is an example of a minimal paragraph css.
.para {
display: block;
margin-top: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
text-indent: 1.5em;
}
You can control the line spacing by adding "line-height:X.Xem;" to the above.
Invoked by <p class="para">paragraph text stuff</p>

The "margin" statements gives you single line spacing.

Three times I deleted all the </p> text in the code at the end of the sentence where there was one too many line spaces following and saved the changes but nothing changed.

Since every <p> must have a </p>, maybe Sigil re-inserted them.

I'm new to this stuff myself so if some you old hands correct me, I won't be offended .

Regards - John

[theducks]

em is the space the letter 'M' takes in the current font (face and size).
So it is always proportional to what you see.

I use indents of 1.5 or 2em. Just enough to let you easily know it is indented, but not take up huge chunks of screen

[Toxaris]

That's a fun fact, about the letter M.
Personally I use em for everything that needs to scale proportionaly while resizing. My indents are, just like theducks, usually 1.5em or 2em.

[Arktel]

Thanks Pablo, tried this but it just caused lines to run into each other when all I want is single spacing, not double, to follow.
Menkit

[Arktel]

I meant eliminating </br>at the end of the line prior to the extra space.
As for the other source changes, sorry I don't understand. Are you saying I should add the text you quoted prior to where the extra spaces are in code?

I sure wish this could be something simple to do without understanding complex html (like learning another language).

[Toxaris]

Line spacing or spacing between paragraphs can and should be handled by CSS. Since you already have classes in use for your paragraphs, it should be relatively easy. Also, why the additional spans within the paragraphs?
Could you post your stylesheet and perhaps one XHTML page? A screenshot depicting what your problem is, might also help.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Arktel

<p class="s1 s10"><span class="c13">I also dedicate this book to</span> <a href="http://www.seashepherd.org"><span class="c14">Sea Shepherd Conservation Society</span></a><span class="c13">, whose vision and courageous, self-sacrificing efforts to save the ocean before it collapses surpass any environmental movement on planet Earth and to all environmental and wildlife activists who sacrifice themselves tirelessly to save planet Earth and its human and non-human inhabitants.</span></p>

<p class="s8"><span class="c9">Acknowledgment</span></p><br />

<p class="s1"><span class="c13">Thanks to Maneka Gandhi for taking the time to write the foreword; to Earl Bingley of</span> <a href="http://www.canadiansvoiceforanimals.com"><span class="c17">www.canadiansvoiceforanimals.com</span></a> <span class="c13">and</span> <a href="http://www.thebouquetsisters.com/index2.html"><span class="c14">Susan Liberty Hall</span></a> <span class="c13">for encouraging me to get this story published; to the inspirational artwork of Linda True-Arrow; and to Kathy Stewart and Lynda Staker for editorial assistance.</span></p><br />
<br />

Just noticed:
This is not valid Xhtml (will fail Flightcrew checks)
The <br /> must be contained within a <p> or <div>


as to the Run together paragraphs

in the "s1" section of the CSS
add or change the value of:
margin-top: .5em;
margin-bottom: .5em;


these work like mortar between bricks:

Paragraph
layer of space on bottom of previous (uses that paragraph style for amount) paragraph
layer of space on top of this (s1) paragraph
Paragraph

they add together for what you see

[parrafo175]

Hello there,

I´m new to ebook formatting but I understand that having some knowledge of HTML and CSS helps a lot. In my case I am managing ok but I found the Smashwords Style Guide very helpful for formatting your book in the right way in Word or Open Office. If you follow their simple rules your book will look better in epub too.

You can find it on their website http://www.smashwords.com/