Numbered List (ol) Problem w/Sigil v0.9.6 and Kindle

[planewryter]

Sigil Mavens,

A mystery for you.

When specifying a bulleted list (ul) in Sigil v0.9.6 on my Mac (after a series of transformations including Kindle Previewer), yea, verily, a properly indented, bulleted list is rendered on my test iPad.

HOWEVER...when specifying a numbered list (ol), a list is indented...but--no numbers are displayed.

Any ideas? Have you encountered this problem? Do numbered lists work for you? Do you have a fix?

Many, many thanks for any assistance!

Best,
Plane Wryter

[theducks]

IIRC
Ordered lists are problematic in EPUB render engines on many platforms and it is best to avoid.

This is not Sigil caused
(BUT ITS ENGINE MAY SUFFER THE ISSUE)

[DiapDealer]

All Sigil can do is help you create a spec-compliant EPUB. If certain renderers display things differently (or if Kindlegen introduces unexpected results on various platforms when converting EPUBs to Kindlebooks) then you need to look to those knowledgeable about those particular renderers and conversion tools for help.

The Workshop or the Kindle Formats forums might have better insight on what special considerations an EPUB that's going to be converted to a Kindlebook might require (or what's even possible). Sigil certainly might be able to help you with those requirements once you know what they are.

EDIT: unless, of course, someone has a short, magic solution to this specific problem. In which case, feel free to tell the OP what they can do with Sigil to overcome it.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by theducks

IIRC
Ordered lists are problematic in EPUB render engines on many platforms and it is best to avoid.

This is not Sigil caused
(BUT ITS ENGINE MAY SUFFER THE ISSUE)

Sigil shouldn't have any problem rendering it, Sigil uses WebKit.

But the Kindle, for example, will reset the numbering every once in a while (one or two screenfuls).

Much, much better to replace the numbering with a plain paragraph, beginning with the number you want.
Use a margin and negative text-indent to make the numbering appear to be outside the paragraph boundaries.

Diap -- sorry, I can't think of anything Sigil specific about that, other than "Use regex!!!".

[DiapDealer]

I admit, I've never really seen any advantage to using ordered (or unordered for that matter) lists in ebooks. Other than where it's required in say an EPUB3s nav document or something. I can see utilizing them to present live data that needs to be updated frequently--like a database front-end. Where one never knows how many items might need to be listed (and even then, that's what a php for loop is for ) But for static content that only needs to be created once; then I say number|letter|roman numeral|bullet|star them yourself and be done with it. If I type the number "1" or the letter "a", every ebook rendering engine that exists, or ever will exist, is going to display it.

[eschwartz]

It isn't as semantic, that's why.

...

Nothing wrong with semantic, of course... assuming you can assume everything supports it.

[GrannyGrump]

DiapDealer said:

But for static content that only needs to be created once; then I say number|letter|roman numeral|bullet|star them yourself

Good advice, I think.

Maybe a two-column table would work (instead of negative indents, which can have problems), but that will present other kinds of problems. (spacing, centering, alignment, etc, etc)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

DiapDealer said:


Good advice, I think.

Maybe a two-column table would work (instead of negative indents, which can have problems), but that will present other kinds of problems. (spacing, centering, alignment, etc, etc)

I've had enough "fun" trying to make lists look good acceptable on epub devices that I've basically given up hope of a solution that will work for epub and Amazon devices without manual tweaking.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I've had enough "fun" trying to make lists look good acceptable on epub devices that I've basically given up hope of a solution that will work for epub and Amazon devices without manual tweaking.

Kovid's DOCX Conversion in calibre does a reasonably good job of converting numbered lists to EPUB (at a functional level, at least), maybe you could leverage whatever he does css-wise.

BR

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by planewryter

Sigil Mavens,

A mystery for you.

When specifying a bulleted list (ul) in Sigil v0.9.6 on my Mac (after a series of transformations including Kindle Previewer), yea, verily, a properly indented, bulleted list is rendered on my test iPad.

HOWEVER...when specifying a numbered list (ol), a list is indented...but--no numbers are displayed.

Any ideas? Have you encountered this problem? Do numbered lists work for you? Do you have a fix?

Many, many thanks for any assistance!

Best,
Plane Wryter

I'm unclear about something--you mentioned KP (Kindle Previewer). Then said "iPad," which is a device, not a platform, per se. Can you clarify, do you mean an ePUB, on iBooks? Or....?

Hitch