Purpose of this SIGIL Forum

[rubeus]

I would like to know whats the purpose of this forum is`? Mainly i can see epub/html/css questions having nothing to with Sigil. They might also occur in notepad++ forum or winzip if i would use these program to create my epubs.

Why arent these questions muved to the epub forum?

If these questions ar ok here, whats the prupose of the epub forum? Or the workshop forum?

[Notjohn]

Well, the question I just answered (about non-breaking spaces) was unique to Sigil.

[exaltedwombat]

Because the questions arise when using Sigil to construct an epub, and may be answered through the expertise of other Sigil users. And we aren't COMPLETELY obsessed by strict netiquette (don't mention the Kindle though :-)

[DiapDealer]

There's always going to be that fuzzy line between, "how do I do this?" and, "how do I do this with Sigil?" There's always contention about what belongs and what doesn't, but I don't really see the point of toeing a rigid party line when it comes to answering questions in a subforum. The moderators (and I have to constantly remind myself that I am one of those for this subforum) will move what they deem across the fuzzy EPUB/Sigil line. For the rest of the posts, my attitude is to respond if I know the answer. The answer will follow it to its new home if the post is moved.

The fact that Sigil still claims WYSIWYG editing of epubs as a feature automatically means that we're going to get questions from people who don't know enough about (x)HTML/CSS to do what they're trying to do with Sigil. I suppose we could turn them away at the door with links to various (x)HTML/CSS/EPUB tutorials, but that won't generate much goodwill toward Sigil. So I tend to answer the questions AND point to the fact that they may want to brush up on (x)HTML/CSS (unless it's so far out of scope that it needs to be moved).

Bottom line is that many people simply don't know what's, "NOT Sigil." And a terse, "that's NOT Sigil" response won't help them to do so.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by rubeus

I would like to know whats the purpose of this forum is`? Mainly i can see epub/html/css questions having nothing to with Sigil. They might also occur in notepad++ forum or winzip if i would use these program to create my epubs.

Why arent these questions muved to the epub forum?

If these questions ar ok here, whats the prupose of the epub forum? Or the workshop forum?

I do move pure EPUB questions out to EPUB forum.
I do move General 'Do I do..." to Workshop.
If they have/require a Sigil specific technique to accomplish 'x', I leave them.

I do wish the description would drop WYSIWYG and refer to BV as a Position Linked code editor (That is the way I use it to avoid the coded side effects that still persist. )

(If I had my druthers, I would move all 'Amazon' and other non-EPUB format questions outa here. But I am just the help, so they get to stay )

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by theducks

I do move pure EPUB questions out to EPUB forum.
I do move General 'Do I do..." to Workshop.
If they have/require a Sigil specific technique to accomplish 'x', I leave them.

I do wish the description would drop WYSIWYG and refer to BV as a Position Linked code editor (That is the way I use it to avoid the coded side effects that still persist. )

(If I had my druthers, I would move all 'Amazon' and other non-EPUB format questions outa here. But I am just the help, so they get to stay )

I +1 the suggestion that the "WYSIWYG" portion of the Sigil description get dropped. It's absurdly misleading. Sure, you can edit text, arguably, but we all know the drawbacks to that. And look at the top post in the forum, as I write this, from a guy writing his book in PagePlus (whatever that is) Serif, or something, and his font styles are getting all bollixed with he "puts it in Sigil," however that's happening. This type of question, from people who are utterly clueless about the basics of ePUB, will persist until the description is changed to what it IS, which is an XHTML/CSS Editor, with certain ePUB-specific unique features. Otherwise, we'll be answering these types of questions forever.

I don't begrudge the answering, within the scope of what's already public knowledge, but let's face it--a lot of the time that we all invest here is, frankly, wasted, because the person isn't remotely prepared to go read Pablo's Tutorial, buy and read Liz's book, etc. They want something like Atlantis, at best.

user_none, can't we consider at least clarifying the reality of what it does, and does not do? I believe that notjohn will recall a rather vociferous rant on the KDP forums about how "bad" Sigil was, because the user (mind you--this is someone who holds himself out as a commercial, professional bookmaker who works in HTML) couldn't get the "dropdown styles" to work--in other words, he seemed to think that the CLIPS were for styling, like in Word. It's simply misleading to say it's WYSIWYG, and it's not like those folks who think it is, try it, get frustrated and storm off are going to help support it, either.

Just my $.02. FWIW.

Hitch

[theducks]

We now have $.04

Will some other folk raise this

[Turtle91]

I'll add $0.01....but that's because I don't like to resize the preview pane...I just double click on the tab to get a large screen view. I don't do ANY editing in BV. I would, however, be willing to give $0.02 if we could double click the preview pane to toggle between maxed and docked....


edit: Oh wouldn't you know it....somebody already went and added that functionality without me noticing....

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I'll add $0.01....but that's because I don't like to resize the preview pane...I just double click on the tab to get a large screen view. I don't do ANY editing in BV. I would, however, be willing to give $0.02 if we could double click the preview pane to toggle between maxed and docked....


edit: Oh wouldn't you know it....somebody already went and added that functionality without me noticing....

Does that mean you're only donating $0.005, instead?

Hitch

[Turtle91]

no.... I feel bad about not knowing that preview could do that....I'll put the whole $0.03 in!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

no.... I feel bad about not knowing that preview could do that....I'll put the whole $0.03 in!

OK. We're up to $.07, then. And counting...

Hitch

[Tex2002ans]

The only time I use Book View is when I get a book with some especially egregious code/formatting that I have to clean up.

I then scroll through the book in Book View and do a lot of "Ctrl+Shift+Enter.... F6!"

Once I get the book into "one chapter, one HTML file", then I can more easily go in and start stripping out all the cruft. :P

[signum]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

The only time I use Book View is when I get a book with some especially egregious code/formatting that I have to clean up.

I've adopted the stance that if the code is so obfuscated with egrgious code/formatting, I'll do better with a clean start. Suggest you look at SmoothRemove, a user-contributed plugin for Sigil 8.*. I've used it a lot, and while there are some rough spots, it sure feels nice to start with clean code, i.e. *no* classes, anywhere.