Gregg's Nearly Interminable Adventures in Linux Land

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I'm confused. Why have you added an extra dot after the square brackets?

It works for me (see screenshot 1). If it isn't working, it might be because you're using smart quotes and you're searching for the wrong type of quote mark. (I don't use smart quotes).

Thanks Russell. I got it. I was confused.

Originally Posted by avantman42

I turn it off, but it's really a personal preference thing. If you want to turn it off, go to Tools -> AutoCorrect Options. Go to the Options tab and uncheck the two boxes to the left of Use replacement table. If you're really paranoid, you can also delete all the entries on the Replace tab. Personally, I uncheck everything on the Options tab (see screenshot 2), because I don't want it to correct anything.

Okay, got it. But wow, I had no idea it was doing all those different features automatically. What is the difference between the the M and T? (I mean, I read what it said about T being automatic and M being manual but couldn't figure out how that played out in actuality.) I tried to figure it out typing but couldn't.

And so you unchecked everything. Okay. I'm going to have to look at that closer. I'm definitely not going to want most of it, like the word replace, but I like the double hyphens getting converted to the em dash.

I was wondering if:

Delete spaces and tabs at beginning and end of paragraph

and

Delete spaces and tabs at end and start of line

might be good to have, but I couldn't see how they worked either. (When I had them both engaged the extra spaces were still there.) I'm probably not understanding it properly. I'm just wondering if those two features might save me time when I turn the .odt into .html and then into an .epub.

Thanks.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

What is the difference between the the M and T? (I mean, I read what it said about T being automatic and M being manual but couldn't figure out how that played out in actuality.)

I'm honestly not sure. I've had those options disabled for over ten years

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

I'm just wondering if those two features might save me time when I turn the .odt into .html and then into an .epub.

On a side note, have you tried the Writer2xhtml extension? With that installed, you can export to ePub. You can still clean it up in Sigil or Calibre if you wish.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Thanks twowheels. I just write a simple document. No headings. Just text. So I just keep it Text Body through and through. I'll do the chapters and such in Sigil.

If just text, why not a more powerful text editor that gets rid of all of the overhead of a full-fledged word processor, thus running faster, potentially more stable, and storing the content in a plain text format that is more universally compatible?

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Hey Russell.

When I do this:

[.,]”

I get

,"

and

."

What I'm looking to get is

".

or

",

Can you give me the expression to get that?

Thanks

Try this...

"[.,]{1}([^.]|$)

Searches for a quote, followed by a period or comma, but only one, and then anything else that isn't a period (or the end of the line/paragraph). Actually, as I type this, I realize that the {1} isn't actually necessary... :-)

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I'm honestly not sure. I've had those options disabled for over ten years

Ha ha. Yeah, I could see how the T worked but not the M. Oh well, methinks the M taint that important.

Originally Posted by avantman42

On a side note, have you tried the Writer2xhtml extension? With that installed, you can export to ePub. You can still clean it up in Sigil or Calibre if you wish.

I have Writer2Epub. I realize they're different. I never much liked Writer2Epub. Is Writer2xhtml better? Honestly I've never had a hard time going from .odt-->.html-->.epub. I do the .odt in styles so there's not much cruft. But I'm always looking to improve my process.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by twowheels

If just text, why not a more powerful text editor that gets rid of all of the overhead of a full-fledged word processor, thus running faster, potentially more stable, and storing the content in a plain text format that is more universally compatible?

Thanks twowheels. Powerful text editor, like Kate? I've tried writing on Kate and just couldn't get used to it. Just the blank white sheet of LO is easy on the eyes.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by twowheels

Try this...

"[.,]{1}([^.]|$)

Searches for a quote, followed by a period or comma, but only one, and then anything else that isn't a period (or the end of the line/paragraph). Actually, as I type this, I realize that the {1} isn't actually necessary... :-)

Thanks but I couldn't get it to work. I think I need to learn some of the regex basics first. Just dropping in a command and seeing what happens is fun, but it would be a lot easier if I had some idea of what I was doing.

[Gregg Bell]

So many people like it. Does it save as .epub? I just don't see what the big advantage of it is.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

So many people like it. Does it save as .epub? I just don't see what the big advantage of it is.

I don't use it, but a lot of folks seem to like it.

You might want to check out this discussion in the Writers' Corner:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=262500

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Thanks twowheels. Powerful text editor, like Kate? I've tried writing on Kate and just couldn't get used to it. Just the blank white sheet of LO is easy on the eyes.

Powerful editor like vim or emacs. Only if you like scripting your editor.
Or in the case of emacs, re-implementing it.


On second thought, I'd advise you to stick with LibreOffice...

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

I have Writer2Epub. I realize they're different. I never much liked Writer2Epub. Is Writer2xhtml better? Honestly I've never had a hard time going from .odt-->.html-->.epub. I do the .odt in styles so there's not much cruft. But I'm always looking to improve my process.

I prefer Writer2xhtml.

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

So many people like it. Does it save as .epub? I just don't see what the big advantage of it is.

I didn't get on with it, but it does have some useful features. It does export to ePub, which is one. It also keeps snapshots of your work, so you can go back to a previous version if you decide that the past month's work is rubbish. Ultimately, the things that make other people rave about it were things that didn't really matter to me.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by cromag

I don't use it, but a lot of folks seem to like it.

You might want to check out this discussion in the Writers' Corner:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=262500

Yeah cromag. Checked it out. People are going crazy with that stuff. I guess it's kind of fun to think about.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Powerful editor like vim or emacs. Only if you like scripting your editor.
Or in the case of emacs, re-implementing it.


On second thought, I'd advise you to stick with LibreOffice...

Scripting my editor??? I'll stick with LO. I tried it yesterday. .odt-->html-->epub. It was super clean. The only thing: the Times New Roman I used and that was cleaned up in a flash.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I prefer Writer2xhtml.

What do you like about it? How does it work? Like it says? .odt-->html? If so, is its .odt-->html cleaner than Libreoffice's .odt-->html? What are Writer2xhtml's advantages over other processes?

Originally Posted by avantman42

I didn't get on with it, but it does have some useful features. It does export to ePub, which is one. It also keeps snapshots of your work, so you can go back to a previous version if you decide that the past month's work is rubbish. Ultimately, the things that make other people rave about it were things that didn't really matter to me.

You know, the snapshots is semi-appealing but I've never really wanted to revert to previous versions of what I've written.

I was reading in that thread cromag posted and somebody said with Scrivener they just ended up getting distracted by all the features. That would be me.

A timeline feature would be good but I wouldn't be tending it as I wrote either, so effectively I would end up doing it manually anyway.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Scripting my editor??? I'll stick with LO. I tried it yesterday. .odt-->html-->epub. It was super clean. The only thing: the Times New Roman I used and that was cleaned up in a flash.

Exactly. Even if you are just going to copy the raw text out of LibreOffice, I would still suggest using it -- text editors have a lot of bells and whistles for all the wrong things, as far as your needs go.

Unless LibreOffice was freezing up on you and stopping you from being more productive... text editors are probably not worth it.