Improvements? New Features? post sigil 2.7.6

[KevinH]

@BeckyEbook,
For your second point about end of file and not wanting to see the U-001 there instead of creating a new string to be translated, we can simply reset the the QString cp (after removing the "const" which does not help us anyway) to be a null string when the code point is less than 0 and use it that way instead of creating a line to translate.

Something like:

void MainWindow::UpdateCursorPositionLabel(int line, int column, int codepoint)
{
    QString name = "";
    if (line > 0 && column > 0) {
        name = CodepointNames::instance()->GetName(codepoint);
        QString cp = " (" + QString("U+%1").arg(codepoint, 4, 16, QLatin1Char('0')).toUpper() + ")";
        QString l = QString::number(line);
        QString c = QString::number(column);
        if (codepoint < 0) cp = "";
        m_lbCursorPosition->setText(tr("%1%2 - Line: %3, Col: %4").arg(name).arg(cp).arg(l).arg(c));
        m_lbCursorPosition->show();
    } else {
        m_lbCursorPosition->clear();
        m_lbCursorPosition->hide();
    }
}

Would you please give that a try to let me know if it works the way you want.

If so, I will push that change to master or alternatively if you would prefer a PR, I can do that as well.



Thanks

[KevinH]

@BeckyEbook,

I tested that and it seemed to work okay, so I pushed it to master. Please let me know if that is not what you want.

I have also swapped the position of the drop zone and the current cursor position in the status bar, as I was trying to drag and drop a file to add it and inadvertently hit the space bar and the damn drop area moved under me!

Swapping those two areas of the status bar seems to have done the trick making the Drop Zone much more stationary. Nothing like trying to hit a moving target!

[BeckyEbook]

Coordinates: It's OK now. Thanks.
EOF: It's OK. Thanks.
Drop Zone: I was just about to suggest that myself – this spot is definitely better.

Nav (manifest/spine) + linear: IMHO, a plugin would be the best solution. With a plugin, you can implement both options: removing entire entries or just removing the linear="no" attribute.

[DNSB]

Link Removed due to obsolescence.

In response to a private message, I knows this build is not signed and will pop up the unknown publisher warning. I do not wish to spend the time and money to obtain and install a Microsoft approved code signing certificate.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DNSB

In response to a private message, I knows this build is not signed and will pop up the unknown publisher warning. I do not wish to spend the time and money to obtain and install a Microsoft approved code signing certificate.

Join the crowd. I refuse. Certs for individuals are still no guarantee the installer won't ever get flagged (you get what you pay for), and getting an organizational cert would be a nightmare for two people donating code to an open-source project. I refuse to play (let alone pay). No way would I do it for beta convenience builds when I don't do it for official releases.

I really appreciate these test builds, by the way. I just don't have the time I used to. Especially where Windows is concerned.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I really appreciate these test builds, by the way. I just don't have the time I used to. Especially where Windows is concerned.

Thanks for the kind words. Since I'm already building Sigil for my testing, it's very little effort to make it available to others. At times, I consider leaving Windows (most of the programs I use are either available for Linux or an equivalent is) and I use them in my Linux VM collection) but so far no compelling reason to do so.

[KevinH]

Hi All,

I made a reasonably large change today to deal with our latest github bug report.

It seems many of Sigil's Tools implicitly added the nav to the reading order even if the user had removed it. That is a bug.

This has now been fixed, but it has taken a bit of work.

Most importantly if you manually remove the nav from the spine it will now not automatically get added back somehow.

When the nav is not part of the spine, it will be shown *last* in BookBrowser under the Text folder. If you try to drag it or drag something else after it, the nav will be reset to always show up last.

Obviously if the nav is part of the spine, you can drag and drop it to change its spine order at will or move it with the new ReadingOrder dialog.

I think I have found every corner case and code path associated with spine reading order but I am not 100%.

So please give current master a try and let me know if you run into any issues with it.

This change plus a plugin for newer users to change the spine without having to manually edit the OPF should do the trick.

[KevinH]

I have also updated the base for translations primarily for any line number changes due to all the new code added. The new base.ts file should show up automagically on Transifex sometime overnight, and updating any translations can come anytime after that as needed.

I am still wondering if maybe it would be simpler to just add two new menus to the ePub3 Tools menu:

- Remove Nav from Reading Order
- Add Nav to Reading Order (which would prompt for linear="no")

That way no output plugins are needed as everything can be done internal to Sigil with the user never having to directly edit the OPF file.

It would not be a hard change to make. And we still have plenty of time for new translations as we are in no rush.

I am kind of leaning that way as these new menus would only appear under the single ePub3 Tools menu as the very last entries, so visually no real change for most users.

Thoughts?

[DiapDealer]

The Epub3 menu additions make more sense to me. Unless people were hoping to add the plugin to Automations?

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The Epub3 menu additions make more sense to me. Unless people were hoping to add the plugin to Automations?

I was thinking about automation as well, but internal to Sigil - since we can not be interactive when in automation we could add 3 menus instead of 2 and add them all as internal automation commands easily:

- Remove Nav from Spine
- Add Nav to Spine as NonLinear
- Add Nav to Spine

Then the routines that implement these menu items could be easily directly mapped to internal Sigil automation commands.

Simple and direct. And handles the most common usage of linear="no".

Since I have time, I will take a shot at this so people can play around with it before final decisions are made.

[KevinH]

I also wonder if in addition we should at some point add a EditSpineAttributes dialog to Sigil where we present the spine items in their order along with a NonLinear checkbox so that the user could more easily add or change non-linear items.

If we do, it would obviously not be automate-able but might prove useful.

Obviously the epub3 Nav menus mentioned above would be enough for most users. So maybe this new Dialog is something farther down the line for Sigil?

All thoughts welcome.

[DNSB]

Link removed

[KevinH]

And I have made another change to Sigil, I have added three new Sigil ePub3 Tools menus:

- Remove Nav From Reading Order
- Add Nav to Reading Order
- Add Nav to Reading Order with linear="no"

And with these new menus I have added 3 new internal Sigil Automation Tools:

- "AddNavToSpine"
- "AddNaveToSpineNonLinear"
- "RemoveNavFromSpine"

so with these new automation tools you should be able to control how the nav appears in the spine (not there, at the end with linear="no", and at the end as full member of the reading order) in any of your automation lists.

Note, if you try to add the nav to the spine and it already exists, the existing entry in the spine is removed first before it is added back as specified (with or without linear="no").

All of these changes required code changes in many places plus the new menu items, so I have just now updated the base for translation one more time. So tomorrow the new base.ts should be available on Transifex.

Transifex Translators please note: we are in no rush here, so no need to do all translations immediately. I expect at least two more pulls from Transifex over the next couple weeks so any time in that interval is fine.

All comments on these new features welcome.

See the new menu in my attached screenshot.

[DNSB]

Here's a link to the 2026-May-10Windows build: Sigil-2.8.0-Windows-x64-Setup.exe for anyone interested in testing.