Question for those who edit .CSS files

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Mr_H_Poirot

5 mins is very quick, but then I guess you are very experienced.

I confess to having got intrigued. I'm not going to start editing all my ebooks but I have got some short pdfs that I may convert into epubs just to play around

I am doing mostly a CSS edit.
The editors both have a jump to link or style, so I simply right click the Class= for the object of my displeasure . For most, tat is all. For some others (not the 5min crowd), I have to work back in the nest.

Nothing I work on (fiction), is complicate (eg fixed layout)

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by theducks

The editors both have a jump to link or style, so I simply right click the Class= for the object of my displeasure .

In the calibre editor? I haven't been able to find such a function.

Edit: never mind, found it.

[Mr_H_Poirot]

The pdfs are 4 pages long. I am not going to convert them. Just manually copy and paste text into sigil. Essentially create from scratch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by icallaci

Interesting discussion. My cleanup routine takes about 15 minutes per book on average. My rule of thumb for tags and classes has always been: if the default behavior of a tag does what I want, then I leave it alone. If I want to change the default behavior, then I define a class. Since the default behavior of <p> is non-indented, I define a class for indented paragraphs. Hearing other viewpoints and the reasons behind them is thought-provoking.

But you can override the default behavior of p in CSS. And it's a good idea to do so so you can add widows and orphans both with a value of 1. Also, if you change the default behavior of some tags, make a clip in Sigil and calibre that have all of these tags in CSS. That way you can add to the CSS when editing. When you finish and remove excess CSS, you will get rid of any of your CSS you are not using. Here's how p should look (IMHO).

p {
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  widows: 1;
  orphans: 1;
  text-indent: 1.2em;
}

[icallaci]

As I said, I leave default behavior alone. You can do what you want. I do not want to change default behavior. If I need different behavior than the default, I define a class. Then I KNOW I have changed it. Simple and consistent. Since you can't change my mind, this will be my last comment on the subject, although I'd be interested in how other people handle bare tags.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But you can override the default behavior of p in CSS. And it's a good idea to do so so you can add widows and orphans both with a value of 1. Also, if you change the default behavior of some tags, make a clip in Sigil and calibre that have all of these tags in CSS. That way you can add to the CSS when editing. When you finish and remove excess CSS, you will get rid of any of your CSS you are not using. Here's how p should look (IMHO).

p {
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  widows: 1;
  orphans: 1;
  text-indent: 1.2em;
}

[Sirtel]

I don't rename existing css classes or replace them with my own. I just change what they do. Sometimes I may add a class, then I give it a totally random name. Building a whole new stylesheet with new names is far more effort than I want to spend on a single book.

[icallaci]

Interesting, thanks. I mostly leave existing class names alone too, but I've found that in books with a ton of errors, class names like "p34," "p35," "p36," etc. make things more difficult for me. So in those cases I will rename them, but not often.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I don't rename existing css classes or replace them with my own. I just change what they do. Sometimes I may add a class, then I give it a totally random name. Building a whole new stylesheet with new names is far more effort than I want to spend on a single book.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by icallaci

As I said, I leave default behavior alone. You can do what you want. I do not want to change default behavior. If I need different behavior than the default, I define a class. Then I KNOW I have changed it. Simple and consistent. Since you can't change my mind, this will be my last comment on the subject, although I'd be interested in how other people handle bare tags.

Have a look at the code for the book I just posted in the library here.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=4598023

[icallaci]

Your code demonstrates why I define classes and don't use bare tags. In your CSS, you define h2 + p as non-indented, but it doesn't work because the <h2> tag is followed by <p class="ph"> and not <p>. So all of your first sentences are indented, which I assume is not what you meant to do.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Have a look at the code for the book I just posted in the library here.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=4598023

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by icallaci

Your code demonstrates why I define classes and don't use bare tags. In your CSS, you define h2 + p as non-indented, but it doesn't work because the <h2> tag is followed by <p class="ph"> and not <p>. So all of your first sentences are indented, which I assume is not what you meant to do.

That is a mistake. I meant to go back at the end and add in the correct call to remove the indent. I have fixed it and posted a new version. The h2 + p was supposed to have been removed. But it would noy have caused any problem at all. It would have been a redundancy.

Now have another look and you'll see the corrected code. In cases where there is nothing after the chapter title and the first paragraph, h2 + p works perfectly on a bare p.

[icallaci]

Thanks for fixing it. Mistakes can happen in anyone's code (ask me how I know this!). I will consider your suggestions, but the thought of reorganizing all my books to incorporate your methods is overwhelming, so it's not likely to happen anytime soon. I think this discussion has shown that your method is not necessarily less error prone than mine, so I will stick with mine for now. But thanks for the discussion and examples.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by icallaci

Interesting, thanks. I mostly leave existing class names alone too, but I've found that in books with a ton of errors, class names like "p34," "p35," "p36," etc. make things more difficult for me. So in those cases I will rename them, but not often.

I have a lot of books bought from Amazon and converted from KFX. Those books have nonsense class names in their css (s1e1, szx and the like). While I do hate such absolutely uninformative names, changing them would take years, as I have many hundreds of KFX conversions. Most of them are Amazon exclusives and there's no original epub version.

[icallaci]

I hear you loud and clear. I'd much rather read a book than go down the rabbit hole of continuously "fixing" things that don't make a real difference in what I see on the page.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I have a lot of books bought from Amazon and converted from KFX. Those books have nonsense class names in their css (s1e1, szx and the like). While I do hate such absolutely uninformative names, changing them would take years, as I have many hundreds of KFX conversions. Most of them are Amazon exclusives and there's no original epub version.

[Amalthia]

I edit the css mostly for consistency. It takes me about 10 minutes, however I'm only really editing the TOC, line spacing, indents, adding my own font classes.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by icallaci

Thanks for fixing it. Mistakes can happen in anyone's code (ask me how I know this!). I will consider your suggestions, but the thought of reorganizing all my books to incorporate your methods is overwhelming, so it's not likely to happen anytime soon. I think this discussion has shown that your method is not necessarily less error prone than mine, so I will stick with mine for now. But thanks for the discussion and examples.

I didn't go back and redo all my eBooks when I changed how I do it. I just started using my new way of doing going forward.