Sigil-1.2.0 Released

[DiapDealer]

In addition... all of the Sigil releases (and their respective installers) can be found on the github releases page:

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

The installers for each release are listed as "Assets" at the bottom of the release announcement. You may have to click on "Assets" to see them. Github just did another overhaul of their UI.

[adamkam]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Welcome to MR! [...]

Thank you! I've found it.

Have a good day! Adam

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

In addition... all of the Sigil releases (and their respective installers) can be found on the github releases page:

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

The installers for each release are listed as "Assets" at the bottom of the release announcement. You may have to click on "Assets" to see them. Github just did another overhaul of their UI.

The here link in meme's Downloading Sigil sticky thread takes you to ==>> https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil/releases/tag/1.2.1

Maybe that's where Adam landed.

BR

[DiapDealer]

Yes. That link always automatically goes to the "latest" release for simplicity's sake. I have no desire to try and remember to update it after every release.

That's also why the very brief release note for 1.2.1 is titled Source-Only and has Linux-only in the first sentence. It's not intended for mass consumption. But it (the link) does get people into the "Releases" section of Sigil's Github website.

[adamkam]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

[...] Maybe that's where Adam landed.

Indeed
Finally I've got it.

I went through the the user guide. It looks pretty clear.
But I have a rookie's question about best practices with creating epubs.
Is there any worth seeing tutorial. I belive there is plenty of knowledge on this forum, but jumping between topics is not the most effective way of learning.

I've got a few years of experience working as dtp specialist and web designer, so more or less I understand the idea (rather more). The point is, I've never done a epub before.

Would be grateful for hints.
Adam

[BetterRed]

There are tutorial videos on youtube ==>> https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...+epub+tutorial

I've no idea if any of them are any good.

BR

[adamkam]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

[...] I've no idea if any of them are any good.

In most cases they are quite poor. I've found only one good.
Different way - how did you learn Sigil?

Regards, Adam

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by adamkam

In most cases they are quite poor. I've found only one good.
Different way - how did you learn Sigil?

Regards, Adam

At its core Sigil is just another HTML text editor. Main thing I had to learn was the structure of ePubs, and I did that by referring to the IDPF standard spec, and looking at some of the books from the library here.

I'm a minimalist so typographical and layout bells and whistles are largely irrelevant. And for most things I regard the DOCX as manuscript format, so for me ePub is an end point format, like ink on paper, or PDF.

BR

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I regard the DOCX as manuscript format, so for me ePub is an end point format, like ink on paper, or PDF.

Well, sort of. A word document reflows when page size changes, and paragraph styles (you DO use paragraph styles when writing in Word with EPUB in mind I hope?) can be changed in much the same way a css stylesheet affects HTML. This flexibility of page size and text attributes (are we reading the EPUB on a 30" monitor or a 6" phone?) is maintained in an EPUB. But ink on paper or PDF are VERY different.

[Notjohn]

I find it useful to have three panels open: a narrow one on the left showing all files and folders, then a wide one showing Code View, where I do my work, and on the right the Preview panel, which effectively makes Sigil WYSIWYG. I'm using 0.9.8, which was released last August. It does everything I need, and does it well.

First I clean Word's awful html using an online tool. There are also plug-ins that do the same thing. I then open the clean html file in Sigil and add my style sheet, which you are at liberty to borrow from notjohnkdp dot blogspot dot com, and link to it on the html file. I add the book title etc etc and commence splitting the main file into sections and chapters, typically winding up with forty or fifty individual files. I edit each section as I go, tweaking the paragraph tags wherever <p> does not suffice, and applying a heading class where appropriate. I have a rudimentary TOC already in place, so all I need do is link each entry to its appropriate individual file. At intervals during the working session I save the file and also save-a-copy of it to Dropbox (Sigil is the rare software with a command specifically for this purpose). At least once before I'm done I use the menu to edit html / prettify it, and to run the excellent Flight Crew validator plug-in.

IMHO Sigil is the only tool worth considering for building an ebook. It has the option of creating epub3, but I am happy with 2.

I'm sure you'll love it. Have fun!

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

I find it useful to have three panels open: a narrow one on the left showing all files and folders, then a wide one showing Code View, where I do my work, and on the right the Preview panel, which effectively makes Sigil WYSIWYG.

Is there any other way to do it? :-)

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

Well, sort of. A word document reflows when page size changes, and paragraph styles (you DO use paragraph styles when writing in Word with EPUB in mind I hope?) can be changed in much the same way a css stylesheet affects HTML. This flexibility of page size and text attributes (are we reading the EPUB on a 30" monitor or a 6" phone?) is maintained in an EPUB. But ink on paper or PDF are VERY different.

Been using Word Styles since long before EPUB specs were even written, might even be before TBL did what he did… I started using Word on Xenix.

BR

[exaltedwombat]

Good. A properly-structured DOCX converts to pretty clean EPUB code in Calibre - though I've no reason to think a Sigil plugin wouldn't do just as good a job.

I was pleasantly surprised recently when an academic work with hundreds of footnotes converted with them all arranged neatly at the end of each chapter with fully functioning links and back-links.

[BetterRed]

Diap's DOCX plugin (wrapper around Mammoth) allows you to preserves style names and structure - but you have to define the mapping. Intended for use where the same Word template is applied to many texts. Horses, courses, of course

BR

[PeterT]

I've built and installed sigil 1.2.1 on my chrome book; while it does appear to work, when I exit sigil I get a crash. Attached find a backtrace.