Suggestions for Sigil Improvements or New Features

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

Yes, this is a issue/feature of Qt in Windows.
I even checked it on version 0.9.13 in Windows XP, and it was the same there.

It must be clearly stated that the button should be:

setWindowFlags(windowFlags() | Qt::WindowMinimizeButtonHint);

Hmm, that is something I never knew. Of course I only dabble on Windows and when Linux and Mac both worked, I just assumed it would work on Windows.

I will see about adding that to the Reports code.

Are there any other particular windows in Sigil that would benefit from such a treatment?

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

I confirm that the force_titlecase function now works for all files.

Okay I just pushed to master the following addition to functionsearch.py

def create_sigilmatch_copy(m):
    grouplist = []
    n = len(m.groups())
    if  n > 0: n = n + 1
    s = m.start()
    for i in range(n):
        grouplist.append([m.span(i)[0] - s, m.span(i)[1] - s])
    nm = SigilMatch(m.group(0), grouplist)
    return nm

This function makes it much easier to use multiple replace_* functions in a single python function replace function.

With this change the force_titlecase function now simplifies to the following:

def replace(match, number, file_name, metadata, data):
    if match:
        new_match = create_sigilmatch_copy(match)
        new_match.string = replace_lowercase(match, number, file_name, metadata, data)
        return replace_titlecase(new_match, number, file_name, metadata, data)

[BeckyEbook]

Important note: add setWindowsFlags after

ui.setupUi(this);

Other windows to minimize? I really have no idea. I've lived without it for years, so I just don't miss that option. But maybe @philja will suggest something, maybe Spellcheck?

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

Important note: add setWindowsFlags after

ui.setupUi(this);

Other windows to minimize? I really have no idea. I've lived without it for years, so I just don't miss that option. But maybe @philja will suggest something, maybe Spellcheck?

Thanks for the important note! I will add that to Reports.cpp along with the maximizebuttonhint as well so both are available just like on Mac and Linux.

So far the list of where to make these changes is:

Reports
Spellcheck

But there are a number of other informational windows that it may be useful for, such as GetInfo, some of the RepoManager windows, and etc.

I had no idea about this difference between platforms.

[DNSB]

So far the changes look good here. I was able to see a slowdown in the character report but that involved preloading an ~16K block of data which was then "typed" into Code View. The delay was about 2 seconds between the two versions of Sigil.

As for the minimize/full screen, much like @BeckyEbook, I don't remember ever seeing them so I never missed them. It is nice to have them now.

[DiapDealer]

I never needed to minimize anything other than the main window on any OS. So I never noticed there being (or not being) a minimize button.

EDIT: It's not just Windows by the way. The 'x' (close) button is the only button visible on any Sigil dialog on my Arch Linux machine using the Cinnamon desktop. I just checked.

[KevinH]

Whereas on Manjaro under KDE Plasma 6, I get both the min and max buttons on the Reports window title bar.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

This is intentionally limited to commonly used Latin-based European characters (PL, CZ, SK, SI, HR, LT, LV, EE, DE, AT, CH, FR, ES, PT, IT, NO, SE, DK, FI, NL, HU, RO).
Non-Latin scripts (CJK, RTL, etc.) are deliberately excluded and will continue to fall back to Python on demand.

static const QString XHTML_CHARS =
    "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
    "1234567890!@#$%^&*()_-+={}[]:;\"'<>,.?/|\\…„”“’»«"
    "ąćęłńóśżźĄĆĘŁŃÓŚŻŹáàâäãåÁÀÂÄÃÅéèêëÉÈÊËíìîïÍÌÎÏ"
    "òôöõøÓÒÔÖÕØúùûüÚÙÛÜýÿÝŸçÇñÑšžŠŽđĐœæŒÆß";

P.S. I also added some punctuation marks.

Wonderful. I will modify CodepointNames.cpp to pre-cache those as well.

Update: I have pushed this change to master.

[BeckyEbook]

I like this feature, but I think it could be even better if we added a bonus in parentheses.

Spoiler:

--- W:\Develop\Sigil\Sigil-master\src\MainUI\MainWindow.cpp-przed	2026-01-15 18:53:46.094111500 +0100
+++ W:\Develop\Sigil\Sigil-master\src\MainUI\MainWindow.cpp	2026-01-16 09:28:57.012213800 +0100
@@ -5083,9 +5083,10 @@
     QString name = "";
     if (line > 0 && column > 0) {
         name = CodepointNames::instance()->GetName(codepoint);
+        const QString cp = QString("U+%1").arg(codepoint, 4, 16, QLatin1Char('0')).toUpper();
         const QString l = QString::number(line);
         const QString c = QString::number(column);
-        m_lbCursorPosition->setText(tr("Line: %1, Col: %2 - %3").arg(l).arg(c).arg(name));
+        m_lbCursorPosition->setText(tr("Line: %1, Col: %2 - %3 (%4)").arg(l).arg(c).arg(name).arg(cp));
         m_lbCursorPosition->show();
     } else {
         m_lbCursorPosition->clear();

[jd1004]

1) Just a thought: When selecting files and calling RegEx Rename, maybe the cursor should be placed in the "Regular Expression:" field.

2) Would it be possible to RegEx Rename files in different folders? I think in a previous Sigil version I could select files in different folders and call RegEx Rename, but then it would only process the files in one folder anyway. The current version of Sigil (2.7.0 on Windows 10) does not even bring up a popup menu when I select files in more than one folder and right-click.
This request is very low priority, so if it's any bother - don't bother :-)

3) I often use "Delete Unused Stylesheet Selectors...". This also pretty-prints the CSS, but _only_ if there are selectors to delete. It would be nice to be able to pretty-print the CSS even if there is nothing to delete.

[philja]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

@philja: In Windows, all internal Sigil windows are displayed with only a close button. This has always been the case.

Ok - I hadn't noticed that because I don't use Sigil on Windows or Mac that often.

However, I made that post because it seemed that aspect of the internal Sigil windows on the Windows platform was what caused the grief for the OP (MickiTee).

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by jd1004

1) Just a thought: When selecting files and calling RegEx Rename, maybe the cursor should be placed in the "Regular Expression:" field.

2) Would it be possible to RegEx Rename files in different folders? I think in a previous Sigil version I could select files in different folders and call RegEx Rename, but then it would only process the files in one folder anyway. The current version of Sigil (2.7.0 on Windows 10) does not even bring up a popup menu when I select files in more than one folder and right-click.
This request is very low priority, so if it's any bother - don't bother :-)

3) I often use "Delete Unused Stylesheet Selectors...". This also pretty-prints the CSS, but _only_ if there are selectors to delete. It would be nice to be able to pretty-print the CSS even if there is nothing to delete.

1. Typically only done once so saving a single keystroke will not help the majority of users or use cases. But if simple to do, I will look into it.

Update: I have pushed this change to master.

2. No, as mixing files from Virtual folders is purposely disabled in BookBrowser and xhtml naming typically differs from font, image, and other file renaming patterns. That selection limitation is by design.

3. You can reformat the CSS at any time. See the pop-up menus. No pretty printing is actually done, just one line vs multi line formatting.

[philja]

On my linux box, UbuntuStudio 24.04.3 LTS and KDE Plasma, with Sigil 2.7.0 QT6.9.3 (from the appimage), the text for the replacement string name is truncated.

See screenshot:

This could be a system issue, but I've never encountered it elsewhere in Sigil or in any other application on my linux box.

Doesn't affect the usage - just the appearance.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

I like this feature, but I think it could be even better if we added a bonus in parentheses.

Spoiler:

--- W:\Develop\Sigil\Sigil-master\src\MainUI\MainWindow.cpp-przed	2026-01-15 18:53:46.094111500 +0100
+++ W:\Develop\Sigil\Sigil-master\src\MainUI\MainWindow.cpp	2026-01-16 09:28:57.012213800 +0100
@@ -5083,9 +5083,10 @@
     QString name = "";
     if (line > 0 && column > 0) {
         name = CodepointNames::instance()->GetName(codepoint);
+        const QString cp = QString("U+%1").arg(codepoint, 4, 16, QLatin1Char('0')).toUpper();
         const QString l = QString::number(line);
         const QString c = QString::number(column);
-        m_lbCursorPosition->setText(tr("Line: %1, Col: %2 - %3").arg(l).arg(c).arg(name));
+        m_lbCursorPosition->setText(tr("Line: %1, Col: %2 - %3 (%4)").arg(l).arg(c).arg(name).arg(cp));
         m_lbCursorPosition->show();
     } else {
         m_lbCursorPosition->clear();

Yes that can be easily done at little expense. I will include it.

Update: I have pushed this change to master.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by philja

On my linux box, UbuntuStudio 24.04.3 LTS and KDE Plasma, with Sigil 2.7.0 QT6.9.3 (from the appimage), the text for the replacement string name is truncated.

See screenshot:

This could be a system issue, but I've never encountered it elsewhere in Sigil or in any other application on my linux box.

Doesn't affect the usage - just the appearance.

I will look into it.

Could be theme or font scaling related?