Utter CSS noob looking to get started

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

But one of my own comes to mind from what you've written: am I looking at Sigil the wrong way? It doesn't have a spelling checker or a text editor per se, so I was considering it as primarily a mark-up editor for the code. Have I misperceived it?

A spelling checker is forthcoming, and the "doesn't have a text editor" I honestly don't get . The Book View is a WYSIWYG view. Sure, it doesn't have all the WYSIWYG actions it could have, but in time..

Certainly, knowing HTML and CSS is useful and sometimes even necessary when working with Sigil (depending on what you're trying to do). I'm aiming to make the "necessary" thing go away, but it will take a while.

[MacEachaidh]

Hi Valloric,
I really appreciate your input. I honestly meant no criticism of Sigil, nor am I underestimating its value -- just trying to reality-check my own limited understanding of it. Every piece of software has its strengths and best purposes, and I've found from my own experience -- especially when one doesn't quite know what he's doing yet -- that it's easy to end up using a screwdriver to bang in a metaphorical nail.

So in my inexperience, it seemed to me that Sigil's greatest strength was to give access to editing the code of previously-formatted text; which means I need to understand how the coding works, which is where I was at when I opened this thread. I haven't yet figured out how to use some of the software's features, and that's going to take me time. I haven't figured out how to import graphics and place them and wrap text and the like in Sigil, WYSIWYG interface or no, and with the absence of text editing features like Find/Replace and spelling checker, it's easier for me to do those sorts of things in a desktop publishing program. For me, Sigil seems better used for modifying styles of an ePub once it's compiled, splitting documents into chapters, and compiling a finished ePub.

But please, let me know what I've missed. I'm genuine about wanting to learn.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

So in my inexperience, it seemed to me that Sigil's greatest strength was to give access to editing the code of previously-formatted text

Currently, yes.

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

with the absence of text editing features like Find/Replace

Find/Replace is already there and there's a WYSIWYG action for inserting images. You'll need to know a bit of CSS to tune text wrapping though.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Valloric

Find/Replace is already there and there's a WYSIWYG action for inserting images. You'll need to know a bit of CSS to tune text wrapping though.

Speaking of F+R
I may have found a crack in (XP?) it

It does not seem to do the "All HTML files" thing if the file is only HTM

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by theducks

Speaking of F+R
I may have found a crack in (XP?) it

It does not seem to do the "All HTML files" thing if the file is only HTM

You know the process

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Valloric

You know the process

Ignore. OE

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

Hi Valloric,
I really appreciate your input. I honestly meant no criticism of Sigil, nor am I underestimating its value -- just trying to reality-check my own limited understanding of it. Every piece of software has its strengths and best purposes, and I've found from my own experience -- especially when one doesn't quite know what he's doing yet -- that it's easy to end up using a screwdriver to bang in a metaphorical nail.

Sure.

So in my inexperience, it seemed to me that Sigil's greatest strength was to give access to editing the code of previously-formatted text; which means I need to understand how the coding works, which is where I was at when I opened this thread.

Yes, IMHO, that's what it does best, and quite flatly better than anything else I've tried at whatever price.

I haven't yet figured out how to use some of the software's features, and that's going to take me time. I haven't figured out how to import graphics and place them and wrap text and the like in Sigil, WYSIWYG interface or no,

Try "insert" image; with regard to wrapping text, learn CSS (you'll have to do that for any text-wrapping feature in any editor, so, what the heck) and just float the image to the left or right and add padding. Sorta like

img.wrap
     {float:left;padding 5px 5px 5px 5px;}

Then put the style="wrap" in the image tag, and that, more or less, will do the trick. Note: if you're creating an epub that will subsequently be transformed into a Kindle doc via Calibre, the text-wrapping doesn't work on the Kindle, so don't bother. :-) Works sweet in epubs, though.

and with the absence of text editing features like Find/Replace and spelling checker, it's easier for me to do those sorts of things in a desktop publishing program. For me, Sigil seems better used for modifying styles of an ePub once it's compiled, splitting documents into chapters, and compiling a finished ePub.

But please, let me know what I've missed. I'm genuine about wanting to learn.

I believe Valloric has already told you that Find & Replace exists and you can use Regex to accomplish a lot, although at the moment you have to do it in Code View to perform it across multiple chapters/docs. For spell-checking, if I've been daft enough to not do it properly BEFORE I import into Sigil, I just cut-and-paste the WYSIWYG text into NoteTab and do a quick spell-check there. Just CTRL-A and CTRL-V, check and you're done.

Once you have any sort of working understanding of CSS, changing styles and formatting in Sigil is actually easier than in InDesign. ALTHO, my only warning would be, save often, because when you get the dreaded PINK Screen O'Death, it's a freaky experience, and I've never found a way to satisfactorily recover from it, so--save OFTEN. :-) It takes a little time, but I love Sigil...but it's not a word-processor, at least, not yet. It does have features that others do NOT have, though, like the ability to use the header title tags to create TOC entries (lovely for illustrations and the like) and I love the semantics tags and the meta-data editor that Valloric's added. Brilliant, really.

Hitch