Plague of no-break-spaces ( )

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by yucca

The key question is why Sigil automatically convert spaces into no-break spaces at times and whether this can be controlled.

IIRC this is an effect from the Xerces library that is used for the conversion of XML to HMTL and cannot be controlled effectively. It is explained somewhere on the forum I believe about half a year ago.

[townsend]

Originally Posted by meme

If you edit in Book View then you can end up with lots of extra nbsp characters if you double space words, etc. Just delete them - if you didn't intentionally use them.

Ah-- that's the answer I was looking for. No I don't use double spaces, but I type quickly and lots of times they get in there. Especially when I get to cutting and pasting.

Now I know where these nbsp characters are coming from!

[LGN]

I only use the &nbsp; to create w white line between some paragraphs when needed as I discovered the <p></p> whiteline does not show on some readers.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by LGN

I only use the &nbsp; to create w white line between some paragraphs when needed as I discovered the <p></p> whiteline does not show on some readers.

You need none of them. Just add some top margin to the element after the "white line".

[yucca]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

No break spaces exist because HTML does not recognize more than one space in a row as valid.

No, they are perfectly valid.

It ignores them.

Indeed. And most often, when someone types two spaces in succession, it is simply a mistake, and the second one should be ignored. That’s what happens when anyone doesn’t try to be too helpful.

So no break spaces allow you to enter spaces and make sure they will be shown.

That’s what HTML rendering software has been doing. But authors are not supposed to do such things but to use style sheets for spacing.

Sigil has no way of reading your mind as to whether you REALLY want a space there all the time or not, so it inserts a guaranteed no break space.

That is mind-reading, and mosty reading minds wrong.

But it’s not really this feature that annoys me. Sigil seems to introduce no-break spaces around a link, too: when I have “foo bar zap” and I make “bar” a link, in Book View, Sigil makes the spaces around it nonspacing.

And yes it is annoying, but that is the nature of epubs being based on HTML.

No, HTML implies no such thing.

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by yucca

when I have “foo bar zap” and I make “bar” a link, in Book View, Sigil makes the spaces around it nonspacing.

Book View is for looking at, and, since we now have Preview, is largely redundant. Code View is for editing. The sooner you get used to that, the happier you'll be.

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by LGN

I only use the &nbsp; to create w white line between some paragraphs when needed as I discovered the <p></p> whiteline does not show on some readers.

But <p style="margin-top:1em"> (or, preferably, the same thing done by defining a class in your stylesheet) does.