Urgent - Related to Sigil-0.9.18

[exaltedwombat]

When I get a conversion that turns out to be a 30-minute 'run it through the converter and tart up the frontmatter' job I'm usually honest enough to adjust my standard fee. But there was one client who was so in love with doing everything top-class and 'professionally' that he'd have hated to get a cheap job. So I obliged him, although he'd presented me with a meticulously-formatted text-only DOCX.

I've had the same when wearing my musician hat. I agreed to play for a friend-of-a-friend's birthday party, and quoted 'mates rate'. I got constant 'phone calls - Are you SURE you know 'Happy Birthday' - etc. Because I was cheap, they assumed I was rubbish. (I may be rubbish, but I'm not THAT rubbish that I don't know 'Happy Birthday') :-)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

When I get a conversion that turns out to be a 30-minute 'run it through the converter and tart up the frontmatter' job I'm usually honest enough to adjust my standard fee. But there was one client who was so in love with doing everything top-class and 'professionally' that he'd have hated to get a cheap job. So I obliged him, although he'd presented me with a meticulously-formatted text-only DOCX.

I'm boggled, again. I don't think I've ever had a document like that. Of course, we don't work "in" Word, so maybe that's cause and effect. Even if it's fairly clean, we still go the HTML route.

I've had the same when wearing my musician hat. I agreed to play for a friend-of-a-friend's birthday party, and quoted 'mates rate'. I got constant 'phone calls - Are you SURE you know 'Happy Birthday' - etc. Because I was cheap, they assumed I was rubbish. (I may be rubbish, but I'm not THAT rubbish that I don't know 'Happy Birthday') :-)

And you still played it? I'd have said "gosh, thanks, but if you really don't think I know 'Happy Birthday', I think you should find someone that you can pay the professional amount." I mean, giving someone the good-buddy rate doesn't mean that they get to give you a rasher of the proverbial.

Hitch

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I'm boggled, again. I don't think I've ever had a document like that. Of course, we don't work "in" Word, so maybe that's cause and effect. Even if it's fairly clean, we still go the HTML route.

So do I. The client got an EPUB (which he probably didn't use) and a MOBI (which he certainly did). But, as you know, there are several ways of very quickly turning a properly-formatted DOCX into pretty clean HTML for final adjustment in Sigil.

Originally Posted by Hitch

And you still played it? I'd have said "gosh, thanks, but if you really don't think I know 'Happy Birthday', I think you should find someone that you can pay the professional amount." I mean, giving someone the good-buddy rate doesn't mean that they get to give you a rasher of the proverbial.

Hitch

Yeah, whatever. But I doubt either of us built our business by flouncing whenever a customer got pernickety. And the gig was fine. Just illustrating the strange point that we'd BOTH have been happier if I'd charged more!

[Notjohn]

>Because I was cheap, they assumed I was rubbish

I'd apply the same logic to pricing a book. In my experience, it's true that there's a lot of price resistance when I start pushing $7 (i.e. $6.95), but paperbacks easily go at $12.95 - $15.95. I think most self-pubbers grossly underprice their books.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

So do I. The client got an EPUB (which he probably didn't use) and a MOBI (which he certainly did). But, as you know, there are several ways of very quickly turning a properly-formatted DOCX into pretty clean HTML for final adjustment in Sigil.

I dunno...I confess, we do them all pretty much the same. Clean, dirty...whatever. Obviously, dirty, messy, screwed-up; those take a crapload more time. If you work for yourself, by yourself, that flexibility is great, but with employees, I find it's best to be standardized. (Altho, I also confess that this once really bit me in the tuchus!)

Yeah, whatever. But I doubt either of us built our business by flouncing whenever a customer got pernickety. And the gig was fine. Just illustrating the strange point that we'd BOTH have been happier if I'd charged more!

I agree, and god knows, we have more than our fair share of persnickety clients. (the more they pay, the persnicket-ier they get!). But I thought you said this was friends or family, no?

I freely admit, I've told family where to go, when it's happened with me. (No, happily, nobody's ever asked me to make an eBook, but for some years there, I was the "Creative Director of Great Resumes" for the family Hitch. And suffice to say, "creative" was definitely the word...)

Anyway...all's well that ends well, yes? Presumably you had a nice gig and you obviously survived it. :-)

Hitch

[JustinThought]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

You know...it's amazing how many of these people who are complaining about Book View being gone all only have 1 or 2 posts.... There can't be that many people out there who are totally clueless to blog etiquette (not searching for other threads), or that are going through the sign-up process JUST to post about BV being gone....

I'm thinking it has to be the same one or two people that are trolling...

Well, I don't have just 1 or 2 posts, and I'm not particularly happy about losing the editing function of Book View. But then, I'm not complaining, either. I just reloaded 0.9.9 and have stopped updating. I picked that version because it was the last version (I'm pretty sure) before the sync ability between the Preview window and the editing window got broken. Unfortunately, I lost my custom icons on the quick-thingies (forgot what they're called).

I tried PageEdit, and didn't much care for it; my ability to jump rapidly between Code View and Book View was missed dearly. So I continue to do my editing in the Book View of the older version, accepting and dealing with its foibles--which, admittedly, are many. But they're the foibles I know, so I'm sticking with what I like.

But, that's just a perfect illustration that no matter how excellent the software is designed and maintained (and, in my opinion, Sigil is right up there at the top of the heap), you just can't satisfy everybody all the time. "I wanna do it my way--or I'm going to hold my breath until I turn blue! Then you'll be sorry!"

Thanks to Kevin and DiapDealer for all the time, sweat, blood, and tears they have put into this excellent software!

[DiapDealer]

v0.9.10 is the last version of Sigil that used the older Qt (5.6.2) and the community version of QtWebKit. It was after that where we went to Qt5.11.x and the Annulen WebKit experiment (versions 0.9.11 - 0.9.14).

For Windows users who don't want to upgrade into the later buggy QtWebKit versions (or the newest versions without Book View), I would actually recommend using my Legacy Windows Release of v0.9.13 if you're going to stick with it for a while. It has all the features of Sigil 0.9.13, while using Qt(QtWebKit)5.6.2. It's built with Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition, and the online update-checker has been disabled. Yes it's only 32-bit, but that's so rarely (if ever) going to matter with normal Sigil usage. Some plugins that are upgraded to utilize features beyond Sigil v0.9.13 (and beyond v1.0) might be unavailable to you, though.

It should work on XP, Vista, W7, W8(.1) and W10.

The source code used to make the release is:
tag 0.9.13 of that same repository/branch

[exaltedwombat]

I wonder how many users followed my pattern? I was introduced to Sigil by someone who knew only Book View. Soon graduated to Code View. But, having been reminded of Book View (by its new incarnation as PageEdit) I'm also reminded of how useful it occasionally was. For instance, you can drop a page of over-formatted textfrom some other application into NotePad to strip out the cruft, then drop it straight into Page Edit, with paragraph breaks intact. Nice.

[JustinThought]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

I wonder how many users followed my pattern? I was introduced to Sigil by someone who knew only Book View. Soon graduated to Code View. But, having been reminded of Book View (by its new incarnation as PageEdit) I'm also reminded of how useful it occasionally was. For instance, you can drop a page of over-formatted textfrom some other application into NotePad to strip out the cruft, then drop it straight into Page Edit, with paragraph breaks intact. Nice.

'zactly what I do, too, but then, I also use it as a convenient word processor. Couple'a (saved) S&R's, and it's nice clean html. I don't know why I prefer it for story creation over Word, or Open Office, or Libre Office, because I know I can quickly convert from those formats into e-book using plugins, but I just do.

I'm glad it's not just me.

[brent63]

[QUOTE=odamizu;3892011]Wait, seriously??? You're asking all this on behalf of users who only need Sigil once or twice a year???

Back in the early 80's I would write, using pen and paper, stories for my girlfriend. After leaving the US Navy I would use my computer with either MS Word or OpenOffice and print them on paper. We later purchased Nook Tablets, and upgraded them to the Samsung Tables that Barns & Noble start selling, so I went looking for software that I could continue to write stories for my wife.

Since I downloaded Sigil three computers ago I have used it on a daily basis. At that time I hated going into codeview. Since then I grue to understand the coding and open codeview to make sure additional unnecessary code is removed.

I still do most of my writing in PageEdit or copy and paste between OpenOffice and PageEdit; using Sigil to make sure additional unnecessary code is removed or add images or video's before adding the epub files to my wife's tablet for her to read.

Brent

[tomx2]

Quote: 4. Open Sigil, and go to Edit > Preferences > General Settings. At the very bottom, you should see a box that says "Set your preferred alternative external xhtml editor".

I see no "Set your preferred alternative external xhtml editor" box.
what am I doing wrong?

thanks t
v. 0.9.14

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by tomx2

Quote: 4. Open Sigil, and go to Edit > Preferences > General Settings. At the very bottom, you should see a box that says "Set your preferred alternative external xhtml editor".

I see no "Set your preferred alternative external xhtml editor" box.
what am I doing wrong?

thanks t
v. 0.9.14

That preference setting is for 0.9.18.

If you're on 0.9.14, that setting won't be available as it still has BookView.

[Notjohn]

>Thanks to Kevin and DiapDealer for all the time, sweat, blood, and tears they have put into this excellent software!

Yes, and to the many faithful responders who add their knowledge via this forum.

[jafrako]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

That old view was called "Book View". The developer mode you speak of is called "Code View".

Book View has been taken out, because it was very buggy... and it couldn't be salvaged any more.

If you want to get similar functionality to Book View, KevinH and Diap have created a different tool called PageEdit:

https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/PageEdit/releases

What you want to do is:

1. Download PageEdit v0.9.5 from the link above.

2. Double click the download and it will "extract a folder" called PageEdit.

3. Move that PageEdit folder to some location you'll remember. Like:

C:/Programs/PageEdit

4. Open Sigil, and go to Edit > Preferences > General Settings. At the very bottom, you should see a box that says "Set your preferred alternative external xhtml editor".

Press the Browse button, and go find that folder you put PageEdit in:

Attachment 173462

5. Select PageEdit.exe, and then you can press OK button and get back to Sigil.

6. Now, at the very top of Sigil, you'll see a little button that looks like a pencil writing on paper:

Attachment 173463

That will open up PageEdit, and now you can use that similar to how to used Book View. When you are done, be sure to X out of PageEdit, and all your changes will get pushed back to Sigil.

Note: PageEdit is also in some growing pains, so give it some time as Kevin and Diap are still working out the kinks.

Deze instructie werkt niet en zonder boek view is sigil onbruikbaar. ik ga terug naar een oudere versie.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by jafrako

Deze instructie werkt niet en zonder boek view is sigil onbruikbaar. ik ga terug naar een oudere versie.

Yes they do.
Yes it can.
And I don't care.

Where on earth did people get the notion that "I'm going back to version X" is somehow newsworthy or even remotely insulting? Have at it. That's why we keep all the older versions available on Github.