Calibre and keyboard shortcuts

[FrankJH]

Dear all,

I'm relatively new to ebook writing, and I'm trying to find the most useful tool for ebook editing .. so I hope my question is not too "stupid", but I have not found an appropriate answer to this after some google research ...

Currently, I'm trying Sigil and Calibre.

Sigil has a css problem which I posted in another thread.

Calibre appears to be more useful for my purposes, but there's one thing I'm not able to figure out .. maybe I'm blind, I don't know

Calibre has preconfigured shortcuts, e. g. Ctrl+1 to insert <h1> ... </h1> ...

I'm able to customize the shortcut itself in the "Preferences" ...

But I'd like to do this ... e. g. I'd like to change this so that

<span class"red"> ... </span>

will be inserted instead of "h1" ...

I'm using version 3.48.0 (not the newest) on OpenSuse Leap 15.3.

What should I do to customize this? Of course, it has not necessarily to be "Ctrl+1", but how can we define our own shortcuts in Calibre?

Is it not possible, or must I install a plugin to achieve my goal?

Best wishes, and thanks in advance, Frank

[kovidgoyal]

If you want to press keys and insert custom text, see https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/snippets.html

[chaley]

Originally Posted by FrankJH

I'm using version 3.48.0 (not the newest) on OpenSuse Leap 15.3.

That release is more than 2 years old. I suspect you will find lots of things that work (or exist) now that didn't then.

[FrankJH]

Yes, I saw that 3.48.0 is rather old, the current version is 5.28 ...

3.48.0 is part of Leap 15.3 ...

I read about snippets too ... we can insert something like "<a", and pressing "Ctrl+J" is going to expand this to a complete a with href and so on ...

But what I'd like to do: mark text in the editor and press a key like "Ctrl+1", and there's going to appear

<span class"red"> text </span>

>> That release is more than 2 years old.

Maybe the best way is to install a newer version, but we cannot be sure that it will work correctly ... dued to some dependencies, I suppose.

Do you think there is no way of customizing the shortcuts the way I prefer in my version 3.48.0?

[lomkiri]

That's just a work-around, but it does what you want and will work in calibre 3.xx
Create a regex-function (search box, pulldown "regex-fucntion" button "create") that does this:

def replace(match, number, file_name, metadata, dictionaries, data, functions, *args, **kwargs):
    return '<span class"red">{}</span>'.format(match.group(0))

Then, with this regex-function active in your search box, you can select a text, then hit Ctrl-F Ctrl-R, it will do the job (or, same thing, click Search then Replace).

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by FrankJH

But what I'd like to do: mark text in the editor and press a key like "Ctrl+1", and there's going to appear

<span class"red"> text </span>

The snippet will do exactly that.

[FrankJH]

Thanks for your answers ...

I followed your advice and updated my Calibre version to 5.28.0 ... it seems to work without problems.

I hope you pardon my stupid questions, but I don't know if I am blind or if I misunderstood ...

How can I reach my goal after installing the newest version?

I'm not able to find anything in the editor preferences which points in this direction ... is there a need to install another pugin?

[FrankJH]

I updated to version 5.28.0 in the meantime, but I'm not able any way to modify the Keyboard shortcuts in the editor preferences again ...

Sorry for my stupid questions, I don't know if I'm blind or so ...

@Kovid: I read the section about the snippets, but as far as I understood, I have to type in a trigger, e.g. "<a" and press Ctrl+J" ... but if I mark my text and type in a trigger, my text will be overwritten .. it should work like the shortcut "Ctrl+B" which changes "text" (which I highlighted or selected before) directly into "<b>text</b>" without typing any trigger at all. But unfortunately I'm unable to figure out how the shortcuts can be customized ...

[kovidgoyal]

It does work like that, read this bit carefully. https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/sni...trary-html-tag

[kovidgoyal]

Or do the following:

select some text, press ctrl+j, type <a, ress ctrl+j again. You will find the selected text has been surrounded with an <a> tag.

[FrankJH]

@Kovid: Last evening I saw the info in Calibre: "5.28 created by Kovid Goyal" ... I suppose that must be you My acknowledgement for your work!

I have used Sigil for my ebooks so far, but yesterday, I saw that Calibre offers much more features, the ebook management is better and more intuitive than Sigil.

Snippets work differently in Sigil, but that's a question of familiarity ... going to practice a little

And thank you very much for your patience with my newbie questions

Kind regards, Frank

[kovidgoyal]

You're welcome!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by FrankJH

I have used Sigil for my ebooks so far, but yesterday, I saw that Calibre offers much more features, the ebook management is better and more intuitive than Sigil.

Sigil has ebook management?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Sigil has ebook management?

Open Recent?

[FrankJH]

Originally Posted by theducks

Open Recent?

You're right

I'm not a native English speaker, sorry ... "management" was the incorrect term here ...

Sigil is really good as an editor, of course ...

What I meant: Calibre offers a bunch of facilities which are useful for me. among other things the content server.

I'd like to refresh my knowledge in foreign languages ... I read that it is good for learning if
one creates a self-compiled grammar ... and obviously, all the possibilities of CSS and
EBooks are very useful for this.

"Open Recent" is really good ...

Cheers, Frank