List of epub formatting "don'ts"

[abeonis]

Originally Posted by SBT

Personally, I prefer to create an id for every image, and specify the size in the style sheet. Then nobody can accuse me of not separating content and display attributes Somehow it also seems tidier to lump all image attributes together in one corner of the stylesheet.

I am curious to know who can accuse you to "not separate content and display attributes" and how they control what you do. Damned, Big Brother is an ePub reader.

My flow doesn´t work this way. I use always the same css (various) for all my eBooks. I have defined one presentation model with specifc styles I always use. If I discover a need for another class, I include it in my master css. This didn't happen for a while now.

But I am sure your way of doing things works fine for you. Chacun fait ce qui lui plaît.

[SBT]

Originally Posted by abeonis

I am curious to know who can accuse you to "not separate content and display attributes" and how they control what you do. Damned, Big Brother is an ePub reader.

Well, I don't want to end up as the bad guy in the next episode of "CSS Miami"

So do you only use class selectors in your stylesheet, and no id selectors?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by SBT

Well, I don't want to end up as the bad guy in the next episode of "CSS Miami"

So do you only use class selectors in your stylesheet, and no id selectors?

Not possible to be a bad guy in the next episode of CSI Miami as the show's been cancelled.

As for the stylesheet, you use classes and not ids.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not possible to be a bad guy in the next episode of CSI Miami as the show's been cancelled.

As for the stylesheet, you use classes and not ids.

Actually, you can use both.

[SBT]

From the w3cschools site:

The id selector is used to specify a style for a single, unique element.
...
The class selector is used to specify a style for a group of elements. Unlike the id selector, the class selector is most often used on several elements.

[JSWolf]

This is the ePub forum. It won't work in ADE. So what I said is correct for ePub. In fact, if you try it with ADE, ADE will take it as an error and none of the CSS will be applied.

[SBT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

This is the ePub forum. It won't work in ADE. So what I said is correct for ePub.

Incorrect on two counts. Firstly, ADE is not fully epub-compliant, so that if it does not work in ADE does not necessarily imply invalid epub.
Secondly, it does work in ADE, and is according to spec.

[JSWolf]

I was mistaken. It does work in ADE. I had a typo in the CSS that caused it not to work. User error. But to be honest, I don't actually see the use for defining an ID in CSS instead of a class.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But to be honest, I don't actually see the use for defining an ID in CSS instead of a class.

I would surmise that "those who create the specs" wanted to keep things ordered and logical when they defined a group style vs. an individual style. In practice things don't always get used as intended, hence we have deprecated styles and tags.

I think it's just a matter of technique. I have used the tag selectors to change the way a particular item class is styled...if the change is minor, or if i need to do it to achieve specific functionality.

For example to not take up space on a page, but to get sigil to put it in the TOC.

h2[title="Copyright Page"] {display:none; margin:0}

<h2 title="Copyright Page"></h2>

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But to be honest, I don't actually see the use for defining an ID in CSS instead of a class.

Sometimes you need special values for one particular instance, and images are a common case.

Have a look at my Tom Sawyer ePub, the chapter title illustrations have a code to wrap the text around them, and since every image is a different size, the code needs to be different.

Of course, I could have created a class for each image, but creating a class for something that will never ever have more than one member is as wrong as creating a different id for things that are no different at all

So, in general I agree, classes are to be preferred, but ids have their uses too.