Trying to simplify my work flow (confused about the heading/language again)

[Turtle91]

Attached is a screenshot. Each of those html files is a template of the info as given in the example above. The CSS file has all my standard CSS in it. After opening the template file I save-as with a new name and then go to each of those files and update the information in the file (like the example above)...

To add the html chapters, you simply add the html file(s) from whatever source you have (I think you mentioned you use Word??) by clicking on the big plus sign in the toolbar, or select 'File/Add/Existing files...' from the menu, and browse to your file(s). Sigil will automatically add the HTML file(s) to the proper location.

Then you can edit the file(s) as needed.

[JSWolf]

Gregg, in terms of a template, that's a good idea. But first make your ePub. Format it as you feel is appropriate. Keep a copy of that ePub and you can use it to make a new eBook from that ePub. You can see just what you did and you can see if you may want to make any changes. I think it's better to have the full ePub as your template then it is to have a mostly blank ePub as your template. It's easy enough to remove the content.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Attached is a screenshot. Each of those html files is a template of the info as given in the example above. The CSS file has all my standard CSS in it. After opening the template file I save-as with a new name and then go to each of those files and update the information in the file (like the example above)...

To add the html chapters, you simply add the html file(s) from whatever source you have (I think you mentioned you use Word??) by clicking on the big plus sign in the toolbar, or select 'File/Add/Existing files...' from the menu, and browse to your file(s). Sigil will automatically add the HTML file(s) to the proper location.

Then you can edit the file(s) as needed.

Wow! Thanks Dion! I've been doing everything the hard way (right clicking on the existing files (in Sigil already) and then adding from there). I can see now how easy it is to add stuff (and not just .html files but images too). And having a template will really save me time. You are really simplifying my work flow.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Gregg, in terms of a template, that's a good idea. But first make your ePub. Format it as you feel is appropriate. Keep a copy of that ePub and you can use it to make a new eBook from that ePub. You can see just what you did and you can see if you may want to make any changes. I think it's better to have the full ePub as your template then it is to have a mostly blank ePub as your template. It's easy enough to remove the content.

That's brilliant, Jon, thanks! What I usually do is make the epub from scratch and then get rid of the html cover for Amazon. Then I'll end up adding stuff to the backmatter (over time) and keep track of the changes. So what I'll do is I'll take the last version of the previous book and use that as the template. So the CopyrightPage, Stylesheet etc will be in there already. I'll have to change out the title, metadata and a few other things, and then import the .html file (with the new book) and then format that a little bit and presto I should be good to go. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

That's brilliant, Jon, thanks! What I usually do is make the epub from scratch and then get rid of the html cover for Amazon. Then I'll end up adding stuff to the backmatter (over time) and keep track of the changes. So what I'll do is I'll take the last version of the previous book and use that as the template. So the CopyrightPage, Stylesheet etc will be in there already. I'll have to change out the title, metadata and a few other things, and then import the .html file (with the new book) and then format that a little bit and presto I should be good to go. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks!

Your welcome. Happy to help.

[Notjohn]

This is a great thread, thanks! But I have an ignoramus's question about Jon's CSS:

>It also sets widows and orphans both to 1 otherwise, it doesn't look so good on screen

What's a "1" in the case of widows/orphans, a line or a word or a character? I'm guessing a line, so what does it do with 1 line, pull a second one to the next page with it?

I can understand why a widowed line might strike people as odd, but I've never seen anything wrong with the orphan. I accept them in print editions regularly, while I'll tweak spacing or revise text to prevent having one or two lines alone at the top of a page, maybe even three lines for a left-hand page.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

This is a great thread, thanks! But I have an ignoramus's question about Jon's CSS:

>It also sets widows and orphans both to 1 otherwise, it doesn't look so good on screen

What's a "1" in the case of widows/orphans, a line or a word or a character? I'm guessing a line, so what does it do with 1 line, pull a second one to the next page with it?

I can understand why a widowed line might strike people as odd, but I've never seen anything wrong with the orphan. I accept them in print editions regularly, while I'll tweak spacing or revise text to prevent having one or two lines alone at the top of a page, maybe even three lines for a left-hand page.

Widow
A paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. Mnemonically, a widow is "alone at the top" (albeit of the family tree but, in this case, of the page).

Orphan
A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. Mnemonically, an orphan is "alone at the bottom" (albeit of the family tree but, in this case, of the page).

A 1 turns them off so at the bottom of the screen, the pages are mostly the same length without a gap. It looks better on a Reader. With a pBook, you can adjust thinks to make it look better. With a Reader, you have no such adjustments.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

With a pBook, you can adjust thinks to make it look better. With a Reader, you have no such adjustments.

Providing you have a mind reading printing press

BR

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Widow
A paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. Mnemonically, a widow is "alone at the top" (albeit of the family tree but, in this case, of the page).

Orphan
A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. Mnemonically, an orphan is "alone at the bottom" (albeit of the family tree but, in this case, of the page).

A 1 turns them off so at the bottom of the screen, the pages are mostly the same length without a gap. It looks better on a Reader. With a pBook, you can adjust thinks to make it look better. With a Reader, you have no such adjustments.

Wouldn't "off" for widows and orphans mean that paragraphs never go over the end of the page? (And I'm ignoring paragraphs longer than a page.) "1" means there can be a widowed, or an orphaned line.

[Notjohn]

>A 1 turns them off so at the bottom of the screen, the pages are mostly the same length

Thanks!

>"1" means there can be a widowed, or an orphaned line

Yup, that's what I understood Jon to be saying.

[theducks]

and remember
0 is not a valid value for either

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Wouldn't "off" for widows and orphans mean that paragraphs never go over the end of the page? (And I'm ignoring paragraphs longer than a page.) "1" means there can be a widowed, or an orphaned line.

For widows and orphans, off and 1 mean the same. You can have a single line at the start or end of a page (it's rather hard to have less than one line left on a page ). Larger integers used for widows and orphans set the minimum number of lines at the start or end of a page. Setting both to 3 for example would force a paragraph with two lines at the bottom of a page to be moved to the next page while a paragraph with 4 lines at the bottom of the page and two lines on the next page would be forced to a 3/3 line split. Both of these leave those "lovely" white spaces at the bottom of the page.

I just edited one purchase where the author set widows to 4 and orphans to 3. Makes you wonder if he ever looked at the book on a device or app where widows and orphans were honoured.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

For widows and orphans, off and 1 mean the same. You can have a single line at the start or end of a page (it's rather hard to have less than one line left on a page ).

Which was sort of the point. "1" means one line allowed, "2" means two lines and so on. So, "off" should mean don't allow any widowed or orphaned lines. But, there isn't an option to do that, and it would be a pretty dumb thing to do.

[theducks]

I think the logic is fine if you consider this is how many lines Allowed to be permitted as an orphan.

Off would be equal to a big number
1 is the smallest possible number of lines that can exist on a typical page (there are NO lines on a blank page)

[odamizu]

Omigod! I've been doing this wrong for years!

I've always used widows:0, orphans:0 to get pages to be the same length — and it works, I just had to ignore the fact that my css never fully validated.

I never realized widows:1, orphans:1 would do what I wanted and validate.

I love this forum! I'm always learning something new

Thank you everyone!!