Insert Tags

[phossler]

The Insert Tags feature in the editor is useful and I use it a lot.

There are 8 built in formatting icons and 4 built in alignment icons that work on the selected text (bold, italic, left, right, etc.)

It would be very convenient if there were (say) 6 to 8 'user programmable' icons on that tool bar to put the frequently used ones.

[kovidgoyal]

Not something I am interested enough to implement, sorry. But patches are welcome.

[phossler]

Disappointed, but I understand. Maybe someone will write a patch (I know I can't)

[deback]

I use MacroMaker for several things, especially to add lines in the stylesheet.css file. A few keyboard shortcuts I have set up in MacroMaker are: ctrl-shift-J inserts text-align: justify; , ctrl-shift-K inserts <span class="smaller"> before capitalized text to make it smaller, ctrl-alt-C inserts text-align: center; into the CSS file, ctrl-shift-T inserts the codes for "p", "class", and "chapter" onto the line when creating a TOC based on chapters. I also use some of the keyboard shortcuts that are configurable in the Calibre Editor Preferences. F10 inserts the italic codes around italicized words in the text that I've highlighted. F9 saves the file. Just some ideas for you.

[phossler]

Thanks -- I'll check it out

I can (1) tag selected text with h1-h6 and p using built in shortcut keys, and I can (2) define my own tags using [Insert Tags], but I find it cumbersome to have to locate the tag I want to insert from the drop down push down stack since it seems to me that it's constantly being re-arranged

It's fine (except for the extra clicking) if I'm using the previous 2 or 3

[jackie_w]

@phossler,

PhraseExpress is another option for storing keyboard shortcuts, macros etc. It's free for non-commercial use. I've used it without problem for a few years. I like the fact that it allows me to use the same shortcut for both the calibre Editor and my standard text editor as I'm hopeless remembering shortcuts if they're different in every app.

[kovidgoyal]

If what you really want are keyboard shorcuts, you can create snippets instead, which will let you do what insert tag does and also not need to remember shortcuts, since you can instead type a descriptive (short) word instead.

[deback]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

@phossler,

PhraseExpress is another option for storing keyboard shortcuts, macros etc. It's free for non-commercial use. I've used it without problem for a few years. I like the fact that it allows me to use the same shortcut for both the calibre Editor and my standard text editor as I'm hopeless remembering shortcuts if they're different in every app.

I just installed PhraseExpress to check it out. It changed all my icons to something else (to some different program), so I uninstalled it and ran my fixicons.bat file to delete all the iconcache*.* and thumbcache*.* files. Looks like I'll have to reboot to complete the fix. I'll stick with MacroMaker, which is much easier and less confusing to use. (I will say that I spent less than a half a minute looking at the main PhraseExpress window before making the decision to not use it. Then, finding that the icons all changed affirmed my decision to uninstall the program.)

Next step is to find how to create snippets--and (1) figure out how to have multiple author names retained in the filenames after converting epub files and (2) after I move the converted files back to the author's folder, how to retain the longer filename, so I don't have to keep using F2 to copy the previous file's filename, delete the old file, and then use F2 to paste the longer filename to the converted file--both of which I'm pretty sure, after reading about these subjects in threads on this site, there are no solutions.

[deback]

Just remembered that I need to exit from explorer.exe and then run the batch file to fix the icons. That way, I won't have to reboot the computer.

[jackie_w]

@deback,

I'm sorry you had problems with PhraseExpress. Obviously I didn't have these installation problems myself or I wouldn't have posted. Luckily there are several shortcut utilities around so everyone should be able to find something to suit their abilities and usage.

[phossler]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

If what you really want are keyboard shorcuts, you can create snippets instead, which will let you do what insert tag does and also not need to remember shortcuts, since you can instead type a descriptive (short) word instead.

Actually I tried Snippets first. I've only used them for the basics (like inserting boilerplate text, etc.), but always a good time to learn

I could not get them to work to bracket selected text; the 'trigger' seemed to replace the selection, and then the expanded snippet was empty (of course, it always could have been my snippet definition)

If I select text ("anyone") what I wanted to end with was

<span class="example">anyone</span>


just like selecting "anyone", clicking [B] and ending with

<b>anyone</b>

[kovidgoyal]

The way to have snippets work with a selection is

Select the text

Press Ctrl+J

type the snippet trigger phrase

press ctrl+J

Try it with the builtin snippet https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/sni...tml-link-tag-a

[phossler]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The way to have snippets work with a selection is

Select the text

Press Ctrl+J

type the snippet trigger phrase

press ctrl+J

OK, I finally got it - it was the first ctrl-J deleting the selection that was confusing me

This was my simple snippet test template

<span class="example">${1*}</span>$2

that I finally got to work to bracket the selection with some tags

[Thom*]

I have learned to end the process by entering ctr+j not once but twice in order to exit the snippet. Otherwise, the next time you use ctr+j is unpredictable.

[deback]

Originally Posted by Thom*

I have learned to end the process by entering ctr+j not once but twice in order to exit the snippet. Otherwise, the next time you use ctr+j is unpredictable.

Your browser might be using CTRL-J for something. In my Chrome browser, CTRL-J opens my downloads folder in a new tab. That's why it's usually better to use CTRL-SHIFT and a letter, to prevent interfering with shortcuts built into the browser and/or Windows.