Possible to remove indents?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by cybmole

but I have already observed and posted that extra css is honored expect for where it's contradicted within a style sheet ???

I will now test with an epub to epub conversion

1. I take an epub which has had indents removed by an added text-indent: 0 within the calibre2 style

2. i convert epub to epub using p { text-indent: 1em} in extra CSS

3 I view the output and see no indents.

so, as I thought, this is nothing to do with epub to mobi, there's a bug/feature which means the extra css line is not being applied when it is contradicted explicitly in the stylesheet.

so - bug or feature ???

Feature, That is why it is called Cascading Stylesheets. There is a particular cascade rule that tells which one gets used. Generally the more restricted rule is applied over the more general rule thus a style on a page overrides a style in the CSS file for example. Changing the order of entries changes the cascade if they are otherwise the same. You can also add !important to an entry to make it get preferences.

Dale

[cybmole]

ok , I get that now, thanks

- so what needs to go in extra-css for override to work. - where does !important go

also, new example -
I thought styles applied left to right, thus in this code ( which is a chapter 1st line), calibre5 overrides calibre2

<p class="calibre2"><strong class="calibre5">Wrapped in</strong> wool blankets

now calibre2 has indent 1em, & calibre5 is only used at start of chapter, so I figure that simply adding indent 0 to calibre5 will cause this 1st sentences of chapters to NOT indent - yet it does not work - how come?

here's the definitions, incl the addition to calibre 5:
.calibre2 {
display: block;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;
margin-top: 1em;
text-indent: 1em
}

.calibre5 {
font-weight: bolder;
text-indent: 0
}

[Perkin]

The caliber5's text-indent won't get used because it's not in the <p> tag.
Try
<p class="calibre2 calibre5"><strong>Wrapped in</strong> wool blankets

(you might want to remove the font-weight from the calibre5 definition.)

[DaleDe]

For example: margin-right: 0px !important;

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by Perkin

The caliber5's text-indent won't get used because it's not in the <p> tag.
Try
<p class="calibre2 calibre5"><strong>Wrapped in</strong> wool blankets

(you might want to remove the font-weight from the calibre5 definition.)

I see - subtle but logical- thanks

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

For example: margin-right: 0px !important;

thanks - but I'm still stuck :-(

is this valid extra css syntax ?
p {margin-top: 0.3em ; margin-bottom: 0.3em !important}

I am trying it on epub to epub where the book was previously converted with remove blank lines option ticked. I have unticked remove blank lines now but the extra CSS is not working - tried both with & without the !important tag.

it will work if I add it to the stylesheet, but I am seeking a bulk convert solution from within calibre here

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by cybmole

thanks - but I'm still stuck :-(

is this valid extra css syntax ?
p {margin-top: 0.3em ; margin-bottom: 0.3em !important}

I am trying it on epub to epub where the book was previously converted with remove blank lines option ticked. I have unticked remove blank lines now but the extra CSS is not working - tried both with & without the !important tag.

it will work if I add it to the stylesheet, but I am seeking a bulk convert solution from within calibre here

You are missing the ;. It should be:
p {margin-top: 0.3em ; margin-bottom: 0.3em !important ;}

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

You are missing the ;. It should be:
p {margin-top: 0.3em ; margin-bottom: 0.3em !important ;}

i thought I'd tried that. have been running various ; placement permutations on a single book test conversion but hang on...

no joy

i used this exact phrase ( copy n paste to here)

p {margin-top: 0.3em ; margin-bottom: 0.3em; !important; }

but for info anyway, why is the trailing ; significant

I'd really like to apply this to 300+ books & not to have to edit 300+ stylesheets individually !

to reproduce the problem , for more testing.
1, pick a book, any book
2, convert to epub with remove blank lines ticked.
3. now try to convert the output from 2. + add a line spacing setting via extra css.

[DMSmillie]

Originally Posted by cybmole

i used this exact phrase ( copy n paste to here)

p {margin-top: 0.3em ; margin-bottom: 0.3em; !important; }

but for info anyway, why is the trailing ; significant

Ummm... actually, it isn't. The semicolon is needed between CSS properties, but isn't required on the last one since that is "closed" by the closing curly bracket. Though it isn't wrong to put a semicolon there - simply not required.

[Jellby]

As far as I know, the "!important" modifier must be specified per property. So, if you want both margins to be high priority, you should use:

p { margin-top: 0.3em !important ; margin-bottom: 0.3em !important }

or, if you want no side margins, this is shorter:

p { margin: 0.3em 0 !important }

(When you use "margin" with two values, the first value applies to top and bottom margins, the second value applies to left and right margins. When a value is 0 you don't have to specify the units.)

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by Jellby

As far as I know, the "!important" modifier must be specified per property. So, if you want both margins to be high priority, you should use:

p { margin-top: 0.3em !important ; margin-bottom: 0.3em !important }

or, if you want no side margins, this is shorter:

p { margin: 0.3em 0 !important }

(When you use "margin" with two values, the first value applies to top and bottom margins, the second value applies to left and right margins. When a value is 0 you don't have to specify the units.)

thanks, but been there tried that - i tried only specifying margin bottom- like this:
p {margin-bottom: 0.3em; !important;}

it did not work. I see no space between lines in output

seems that tinkering with the syntax is not addressing root issue that calibre extra-css will not override some explicit stylesheet values, even though it's supposed to ?

& I can;t think an alternative batch approach. it would to be something like explode the epub, edit the styesheet.css with find/replace commends in notepad++, (find all margin-top: 0 replace all with margin-top: 0.3em )then reassemble the epub.
I can do that manually at the keyboard but have not idea how to build a working batch process equivalent.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by cybmole

thanks, but been there tried that - i tried only specifying margin bottom- like this:
p {margin-bottom: 0.3em; !important;}

There shouldn't be a semicolon between "0.3em" and "!important". I don't know if that would fix your problem, though.

[cybmole]

ok - I will try this
p {margin-top: 0.3em !important; }
and this
p {margin-top: 0.3em !important }

no joy with either

[Toxaris]

Could you post the following parts of your xhtml file:
- the part where the external stylesheets are specified
- the additional internal styles in the document
- the external stylesheets used.

I have the feeling that you have a problem with cascading and that your settings are overruled.

[cybmole]

sure I though I'd done that earlier. I'll just open a test book...
here's a slice of xhtml

<style type="text/css">
@page { margin-bottom: 5.000000pt; margin-top: 5.000000pt; }
</style>
</head>

<body class="calibre5">
  <div class="calibre6">
    <h1 class="calibre11" id="calibre_pb_21"><span class="calibre12">ten</span></h1>

    <div class="calibre13"></div>

    <p class="calibre10"></p>

    <p class="calibre10"><span class="calibre14"><span>It took me a</span> few seconds when I woke up to remember I was in the Soul Identity guesthouse. Val and I had climbed down the hill and returned to the office, where she wasted a few hours giving me demonstrations of her new online applications.</span></p>

    <p class="calibre10"><span class="calibre14">I laughed out loud when I remembered how disappointed I was to go back to work. But I had earned my round-the-clock pay, even if I did have a hard time staying focused on the software.</span></p>

& here's the style sheet stuff
.calibre {
display: block;
font-size: 1em;
line-height: 1.2;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 5pt;
margin-top: 0;
padding-left: 0;
padding-right: 0;
page-break-before: always
}
.calibre1 {
display: table-row;
vertical-align: middle
}
.calibre10 {
border-bottom: 0;
border-top: 0;
display: block;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;
margin-top: 0;
padding-bottom: 0;
padding-top: 0;
text-align: justify;
text-indent: 1em
}
.calibre11 {
display: block;
font-size: 1.25em;
font-weight: bold;
line-height: 1.2;
margin-bottom: 0.67em;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;
margin-top: 0;
page-break-before: always;
text-align: center
}
.calibre12 {
color: windowtext;
font-size: 0.9em;
font-weight: bold;
line-height: 1.2
}
.calibre13 {
border-bottom: 0;
border-top: 0;
display: block;
height: 4px;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-top: 0;
padding-bottom: 0;
padding-top: 0;
text-indent: 1em
}


NB I figure you can reproduce this with ANY epub - maybe I put the formula in another thread -in 2 steps it is:
1. convert epub to epub with the option to remove blank lines set(ticked) in calibre.

2. then try to add add any kind of top / bottom margin via extra css

ps the above is a clean source. it is a kindle book that i own, converted to epub by calibre, not processed by any other program ( just viewed in Sigil)