Using calibre's editor independently

[sbin]

As stated in the subject: would it be possible to use the editor as a "standalone application"?
I'd like to use it to create/edit epub files without necessarily going through the calibre's library.

Thanks

[DrChiper]

Yes, you can invoke the book editor without starting calibre.
See calibre manual for command-line usage:

ebook-edit [opts] [path_to_ebook]
Launch the calibre edit book tool.

Whenever you pass arguments to ebook-edit that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks.

[options]

--detach
Detach from the controlling terminal, if any (linux only)

--edit-file
Edit the named file inside the book

--help, -h
show this help message and exit

--version
show program’s version number and exit

[Sunlite]

If you are on Windows, you can also drag and drop your epub file onto the ebook-edit.exe.

Or you could create a link to ebook-edit.exe on your desktop or wherever you want it and drop epubs onto that.

[mrmikel]

You can bring in html files, you can type directly into a new html file you create in the editor, but you can not bring in text files or other files and expect them to be converted.

The editor is currently lacking spell checking and other functions found in word processing programs, so those functions are best done in that sort of program.

Atlantis Word Processor has these functions and publishes to epub, so it can create, but not edit epubs. You can fix problems and republish again, but not tweak the finished epub in AWP. That is the job of epub editors like this one.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Sunlite

If you are on Windows, you can also drag and drop your epub file onto the ebook-edit.exe.

Or you could create a link to ebook-edit.exe on your desktop or wherever you want it and drop epubs onto that.

Or put a shortcut to it in your Send To folder and send books to it

Or add an item to the windows shell menu (eg Edit) that opens file in editor when you select it

Or put it in the Windows Open With list for epubs and AZWs

BR

[sbin]

Originally Posted by Sunlite

If you are on Windows, you can also drag and drop your epub file onto the ebook-edit.exe.

This was the kind of solution I was looking for, but I'm on a Mac and there's no individual .app file for me to use.


@mrmikel: I don't need to write a book, I just wish to replace the "old" Sigil application.

[kovidgoyal]

On the mac you can simply run it via

/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-edit

in a terminal. It should be possibel to create a launcher script for it that you can add to your dock, but I'm not a Mac guy, so I cant give you details on that.

[sbin]

I'm not (yet) a mac-girl either, I'm still adjusting. I'll make do with the command line. Thanks

[loximuthal]

I am a Mac guy, though not deeply so. I've managed to create a script that launches ebook-edit from the dock, but it won't accept files dropped on it. If anybody else has managed that I'd be grateful for hearing how.

[eschwartz]

I am not a Mac person and don't plan on becoming one, but according to stackoverflow you can create an Automator app:

I don't know of a way to have the raw script accept drag-and-dropped files, but there are a number of options to wrap it in something else that accepts drag-and-drop, and passes the files to a script. IMO the quickest option is to wrap the script in an Automator application. Run /Applications/Automator.app, select Application as the type for your new project, drag the "Run Shell Script" action from the actions list (second column) into the workflow (right column), set its "Pass input" to "as arguments", paste in the shell script, then save the app. Done.

Other options for wrapping a shell script include: AppleScript, Platypus, and DropScript.

Looking at the Applescript method, it sounds like you should use:

on open filelist
  repeat with i in filelist
     do shell script "ebook-edit " & quoted form of POSIX path of i
  end repeat
end open

[loximuthal]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I am not a Mac person and don't plan on becoming one, but according to stackoverflow you can create an Automator app:

Thanks! The particular code you suggested didn't work for me, and anyway I only want to launch one book at a time. I used this instead:

while ( $# )
	ebook-edit "$1"
	shift
end

and everything worked swimingly.

Further details, for others who might want to do this, in the Automator dialog:
Shell:/bin/csh
Pass Input: as arguments

EDIT: I should have realized, but this script will only take books dropped on it. It does not launch the program independently. That's ok for me, but you may have a different work flow.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by loximuthal

Thanks! The particular code you suggested didn't work for me, and anyway I only want to launch one book at a time. I used this instead:

while ( $# )
	ebook-edit "$1"
	shift
end

and everything worked swimingly.

Further details, for others who might want to do this, in the Automator dialog:
Shell:/bin/csh
Pass Input: as arguments

EDIT: I should have realized, but this script will only take books dropped on it. It does not launch the program independently. That's ok for me, but you may have a different work flow.

Try this instead:

if [ "$1" != "" ]
	while [ "$1" != "" ]
		ebook-edit "$1"
		shift
	done
else
	ebook-edit
fi

So it only calls your code if arguments are passed, else it just calls ebook-edit.

DISCLAIMER: I am allowed to know this since I am a linux guy even though I'm not a Mac guy.

[loximuthal]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

DISCLAIMER: I am allowed to know this since I am a linux guy even though I'm not a Mac guy.

I'll give that a whirl when I get home. I should have thought of that myself, seeing as I do a fair amount of Linux shell scripting here at work

[loximuthal]

Originally Posted by loximuthal

I'll give that a whirl when I get home. I should have thought of that myself, seeing as I do a fair amount of Linux shell scripting here at work

Well, a fair amount for an office full of non-programmers, including me. That particular syntax didn't work, so I've got to sort out the details. Which won't happen for a while, as life is kinda full and the tiny script I originally had does 80% of what I wanted. So thanks for pointing me in the right direction, and I'll head that way when I can.

[eschwartz]

Because I'm an idiot and I forgot to make the while and if loops start...

Here's the real code:

if [ "$1" != "" ]; then
	while [ "$1" != "" ]; do
		ebook-edit "$1"
		shift
	done
	echo "if-loop"
else
	ebook-edit
fi

I actually tried this on my Ubuntu box this time.

It works, but only starts the next book once you close the first one. Fortunately, calibre has a --detach parameter, so:

if [ "$1" != "" ]; then
	while [ "$1" != "" ]; do
		ebook-edit --detach "$1"
		shift
	done
else
	ebook-edit
fi

This works for me. My previous code didn't work for me any more than it worked for you.