e-Book Tools - a Word add-in

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by immaginativa

I just wanted to say that I have the same problem as NotJohn. After I installed the new version, I was able to covert my first document to HTML just fine, but when I went to convert the second document, the "convert to HTML button" was greyed out an doesn't work at all. Don't know what to do, but will look at settings file.

That is not the same problem. A conversion to HTML can only be converted once. After it has been converted, the button will be grayed out. It will become available again when the export to ePUB has been done and when all documents were closed and a new document opened. That being said, the last part is only part of the new release.
For now, if you don't export to ePUB, you need to restart Word for the option to become available again.

What I will do for the next release is make an additional setting that will ignore this. However, be careful as this would make a double conversion to HTML possible. The default value will reflect the old situation.

[immaginativa]

I may not have made it clear in my first post, but I was trying to convert a completely different document from the first one, and neither that or any other document I have tried will work, as the button is still greyed out. Closing and restarting Word does not help. Nothing has so far. I don't see anything amiss in the settings (cfg file), but wouldn't know what to look for.

I basically don't use the "convert to EPub'" part, since I prefer to insert the
Html into Sigil manually. I just want the clean html - the program is fantastic for this, especially for footnotes/endnates -- and have never had any trouble - now I'm stumped.

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by immaginativa

I may not have made it clear in my first post, but I was trying to convert a completely different document from the first one, and neither that or any other document I have tried will work, as the button is still greyed out. Closing and restarting Word does not help. Nothing has so far. I don't see anything amiss in the settings (cfg file), but wouldn't know what to look for.

I basically don't use the "convert to EPub'" part, since I prefer to insert the
Html into Sigil manually. I just want the clean html - the program is fantastic for this, especially for footnotes/endnates -- and have never had any trouble - now I'm stumped.

The button should only be grayed out when there is no open document or when the conversion has been performed. That is how it is now. Now, in the new version there will be an option that the check for conversion can be ignored. That would prevent greying out the button after the conversion.

Are the other options also grey or can they be selected? I don't expect anything interesting in there, but can you sent me the log file and the old logfile?

You know btw that if you convert to ePUB you can open the ePUB in Sigil automatically if you want to? It will ensure that the HTML is converted to XHTML and it can also split the document into chapters and you can already set some metadata if you want. There are much more options there that can save you time.

[Toxaris]

I just thought of something. Can you check in the settings if on the ePUB page the option 'Process conversion to HTML automatically' is checked? If so, the HTML button will also be greyed out, since that part is then combined with the export ePUB part.

[immaginativa]

OK, I went through the process of converting a file to epub and that does free up the html button for use the next time. It does not work if you close the program and open a new file though it used to in the earlier version. This is going to take me longer, but it does work.

I do appreciate the fact that a new version will make this unnecessary. For my purposes I edit each chapter of my works in separate Word files because I also use the same files for the print version, combined into a single pdf for upload to Create Space. I've found it's nearly impossible to put in the properly formatted page numbers and running heads if you have more than chapter in the same file, or if you want to put anything like bibliography, index, etc. after the endnotes - you can't do that in a single Word file. So for e-pub I don't need the scene or chapter division function, nor am I going to want to have each chapter converted to a different epub file with the metadata added for each. Adding the html for each chapter separately to Sigil is much easier. Then I add the metadata and my standard style sheet. Sorry to bore you with this, but you did ask!

Fortunately, I have just one more file to finish for this book. Sorry to be a bother.

[Toxaris]

No problem. It is strange that a restart of Word doesn't work, since the check is not carried to a new session at all. It is only stored in memory used by the add-in while Word is running. Also, that part of the code has not been touched for a long time, so I cannot imagine why it stopped working altogether.

I cannot say when the new version is done though. I still have some things I want to add to it and then some testing. I hope to have a release next week, but that depends on my free time this week and weekend.

[Toxaris]

New release is out. A lot of changes/updates/fixes this time round. For a full list of changes, please see the changelog.

Main changes:

• Export to either ePUB2 or ePUB3 now possible.
• MathML for equations can be used for ePUB3
• Better handling of multiple authors
• Genre/subject can be added to the ePUB metadata
• Option to turn field codes on or off
• Option to always go to manual correction in Check Dialogue procedure (There you go BR!)

Enjoy.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

• Option to always go to manual correction in Check Dialogue procedure (There you go BR!)

Excellent - until mid July I'm up to my eyeballs in extraneous affairs, but I know of a couple of people who will welcome this with open arms.

While I'm here, a couple of suggestions

1. Provide 'something' to select the Mark Rules file from the main ribbon - maybe a right click option. Similar to what you've done for S&R, but perhaps based on a list of 'known' mark rule files, rather than sections in one file.
   
2. Move the Configure Ribbon Setting to the far right, and don't display settings icons for features not configured. Its irritating having to scroll the settings icon bar past a bunch of things one doesn't even use to get at the settings panel one wants. This would be less of an issue for me if the previous item were implemented

Not sure if its related to the problem reported by immaginativa

I occasionally find everything in the Ribbon is greyed out except Check for update and Settings. My solution is to close all open documents and reopen them - without terminating Word. As you know I use Office Tabs add-in to facilitate multiple documents in the one apparent instance of Word.

However, it can happen even if I only have one document open. But it only seems to happen if I've opened (and closed) multiple documents within the one Word 'session'. It doesn't happen often enough to be a major irritant/burden.

Let me know if you want me to 'capture' anything next time it happens.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

New release is out. A lot of changes/updates/fixes this time round. For a full list of changes, please see the changelog.[/LIST]

@Toxaris - having a problem with this change

New: Number of marks will be given for the mark procedure

If none of the tokens in the selected mark file are present in a document, then the ending dialogue has a spurious count, getting numbers like 182, 76 when it should be 0 (zero).

BR

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

1. Provide 'something' to select the Mark Rules file from the main ribbon - maybe a right click option. Similar to what you've done for S&R, but perhaps based on a list of 'known' mark rule files, rather than sections in one file.

I have thought about changing that part, but so far I have opted not to do so for this release. I am going a bit to and fro about changing the format for the markfile like the SR file. Somehow it feels not right. I do want to do 'something' in this area though. It is on my 'to-do' list.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

1. Move the Configure Ribbon Setting to the far right, and don't display settings icons for features not configured. Its irritating having to scroll the settings icon bar past a bunch of things one doesn't even use to get at the settings panel one wants. This would be less of an issue for me if the previous item were implemented

I can move it to the far right, not an issue. Hiding is more cumbersome, as it is unrelated to each other. The order of the icons (both Ribbon and settings) will change for the next main release anyway.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Not sure if its related to the problem reported by immaginativa

I occasionally find everything in the Ribbon is greyed out except Check for update and Settings. My solution is to close all open documents and reopen them - without terminating Word. As you know I use Office Tabs add-in to facilitate multiple documents in the one apparent instance of Word.

However, it can happen even if I only have one document open. But it only seems to happen if I've opened (and closed) multiple documents within the one Word 'session'. It doesn't happen often enough to be a major irritant/burden.

Let me know if you want me to 'capture' anything next time it happens.

It is strange, since it will only 'grey-out' if there are no documents open. It actually counts the number of open documents.

For this release I also change some things in the 'import ePUB' procedure. I hope this counters the issue you had with adding the text to a wrong document.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

I have thought about changing that part, but so far I have opted not to do so for this release. I am going a bit to and fro about changing the format for the markfile like the SR file. Somehow it feels not right. I do want to do 'something' in this area though. It is on my 'to-do' list.

It would good if they were consistent - ie multiple files, or one file with multiple sections. I lean towards multiple files, if one needs/wants to edit something manually its easier to manage. And having separate files allows one to easily create a 'one-off' rules file without jeopardising the existing files - just copy an existing rules file, give it a name, hack it, use it, throw it away.

BR

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@Toxaris - having a problem with this change

New: Number of marks will be given for the mark procedure

If none of the tokens in the selected mark file are present in a document, then the ending dialogue has a spurious count, getting numbers like 182, 76 when it should be 0 (zero).

BR

Really? That is strange, since it just counts the actual replace actions. To be honest, I haven't tested it with none though. I will put it on the list.

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

It would good if they were consistent - ie multiple files, or one file with multiple sections. I lean towards multiple files, if one needs/wants to edit something manually its easier to manage. And having separate files allows one to easily create a 'one-off' rules file without jeopardising the existing files - just copy an existing rules file, give it a name, hack it, use it, throw it away.

BR

That is actually my issue. That is why I am leaning towards multiple mark files instead of one big one. Challenge will be to let the add-in know what mark files are out there in a consistent manner.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

That is actually my issue. That is why I am leaning towards multiple mark files instead of one big one. Challenge will be to let the add-in know what mark files are out there in a consistent manner.

How about a 'Register Rules' checkbox in Settings->Mark, and a list of paths to them in ePUBTools.cfg. The list would be presented in the Mark Tool dropdown. If the add-in can't find a registered rules file then it would remove it from the list and pop a message. For the one-offs the dropdown would have an option to manually select a rules file via an Open file dialogue.

Theoretically, I can't see why a similar scheme couldn't be used for S&R rules. However, there are a lot more users of the S&R tool than the Mark tool, and most probably only have one set of S&R rules. So probably I'd leave S&R as is - i.e. IIABDFI

BR

[Toxaris]

It was brought to my attention that there was a bug in release 1.23.0 that could occur when exporting an ePUB. I have fixed this (and some other code changes) in release 1.23.1 that can be found on the site.