Can I get 0.6.2 and 0.7.1 on the same computer?

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

If you know how to use Windows Explorer you can highlight Program Files (x86), then press the new folder button and give it whatever name you like. Then when you get to that window where they ask where to install just press the browse button and locate the new folder and you are good to go.

As for finishing off a 6.2 document in 7.1, I did it without any concern at all. Save as the 6.2 document with a different name, then open the new named document in 7.1. If it fails you can always go back to the original and try again.

As an author you probably ought to be doing a lot of saving as so you not lose your work no matter what happens, including deciding the murgatroid should not really marry whosit after all!

thanks mrmikel. That sounds like a plan but after reading all these threads I'm abandoning the two versions quest. And what's up with the murgatroid line? lol

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by draknan

Just install v0.6.2 and copy the install folder to another location, then uninstall it.
Now install v0.7.1 and you will have both programs, you only need to create a shortcut for v0.6.2 (it will work like a portable version).

Thanks draknan but I'm jumping ship on this 2 version thing. Appreciate the input.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

In Edit/Preferences/Clean Source turn off all options to do ANYTHING automatically. Don't turn them on until you understand what they do. Information is easily available.

You have a good instinct - finish any project in the program it started in. There's probably no need in this case, but sure, keep that option open. Before starting an editing session on an epub you always make a safety copy, don't you, just in case it all goes belly-up? Well, this time make an extra one, and store it particularly carefully! That's your insurance. In the unlikely event that 0.7.1 ruins your book (or the slightly more likely one that you get confused by the new ways of the new program and mess something up:-) nothing is lost.

Epub files are completely portable between different versions of Sigil. It's not like some programs that keep introducing new, non-backward-compatible storage formats.

I looked at those automatic things and they looked like they were pretty helpful to somebody like me. (I mean, I read up about them in the User Guide.) Like I've run into things where I go to save or whatever and the window comes up saying : 'Do you want to fix this manually or automatically?' I'm usually able to fix it manually but a few times I've been stumped and have gone with the automatic. (I've attached a screenshot of what mine preference window looks like. The only thing I couldn't find in the User Guide was anything about "Replace in all Files." do you know what that means?) And so, unless there's some concrete reasons why not, I was going to keep those automatic features and the Pretty Print Tidy active.

I'm still debating the notion of going with 0.7.1 (I really am a chicken), but I really appreciate your reassurance that the 0.6.2 and 0.7.1 are compatible. Thanks!

[mrmikel]

Pretty print tidy doesn't usually cause too much trouble. HTML tidy can be a real problem.

The HTML tidy problem can show up mostly in the event you do lots of text mangling with search and replace. It can eliminate whole paragraphs or skipped words and if you are not really good at proofreading, it can slip out and the reader catches it. Automatic repairs can be in this category too.

In your position writing the stuff in the first place, you know how it is supposed to go. But it can be like highway hypnosis... you know how is supposed to go so you see what ought to be there, especially after the 17th revision of the scene.

If you going to run on automatic you might consider text to speech to read it back to you and save save save.

[theducks]

For most purposes (Tidy ON being the exception), Sigil does not differentiate between versions. the EPUB structure is the same (Text, Images,Styles)

There are differences that mostly don't matter to the content. Generate (HTML) TOC now makes its own stylesheet

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

Pretty print tidy doesn't usually cause too much trouble. HTML tidy can be a real problem.

The HTML tidy problem can show up mostly in the event you do lots of text mangling with search and replace. It can eliminate whole paragraphs or skipped words and if you are not really good at proofreading, it can slip out and the reader catches it. Automatic repairs can be in this category too.

In your position writing the stuff in the first place, you know how it is supposed to go. But it can be like highway hypnosis... you know how is supposed to go so you see what ought to be there, especially after the 17th revision of the scene.

If you going to run on automatic you might consider text to speech to read it back to you and save save save.

I was using this text editor called HTML Kit and did HTML Tidy ever take me by surprise. But you wrote:

Pretty print tidy doesn't usually cause too much trouble.

Well, I'd really like to have no trouble. That's probably not possible, I know.

When you said:

Automatic repairs can be in this category too.

Were those Pretty Tidy or HTML Tidy automatic repairs you were referring to?

Knock on wood, I've never had to do a major automatic repair with the Pretty Tidy. Just little stuff. I wouldn't go with HTML Tidy.

I guess it's pretty much a trade-off. Go without Pretty Tidy and little errors will work their way in that will need to be cleaned up later in EPUB check, or go with Pretty Tidy and risk a few quirky errors when you use its 'fix automatically' feature. Does that sound about right?

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by theducks

For most purposes (Tidy ON being the exception), Sigil does not differentiate between versions. the EPUB structure is the same (Text, Images,Styles)

There are differences that mostly don't matter to the content. Generate (HTML) TOC now makes its own stylesheet

Thanks ducks

[mrmikel]

I don't think pretty print has ever caused me trouble, on reflection. The automatic repairs is when you try to save and it tells you it is malformed and offers to fix it for you. I don't think I would ever take it up on the offer unless I had just saved it and then saved the automatically fixed version with a different file name.

You can make a note of what line you are on just before you switch views or save, since it will tell you that the paragraph is not closed on line 4000 at the end of the html, when the error is nearly always just where you were working. It will also give you the same sort of message with unclosed anchors in the middle of the paragraph so it can be baffling.

Much depends on what kind of proofreader you are or can drag into it. I am afraid that going over it line after having beaten it into submission is beyond me. I certainly put the document in my reader and read it, making notes of errors on a piece of paper tucked into the back cover (I gave a cover with a little LED light built in.)

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

I don't think pretty print has ever caused me trouble, on reflection. The automatic repairs is when you try to save and it tells you it is malformed and offers to fix it for you. I don't think I would ever take it up on the offer unless I had just saved it and then saved the automatically fixed version with a different file name.

You can make a note of what line you are on just before you switch views or save, since it will tell you that the paragraph is not closed on line 4000 at the end of the html, when the error is nearly always just where you were working. It will also give you the same sort of message with unclosed anchors in the middle of the paragraph so it can be baffling.

Hey mrmikel. I hear you about the pretty print's automatic saving feature, but the thing is when you get that warning (saying,'fix it either manually or automatically') and you go to save it, it won't let you without either manually or automatically fixing the error,and if you don't know how to fix it manually, what do you do? So I agree it's wise to save the old version and then see what the automatic fixing does, but how do you do that given it won't let you without fixing it?

And a second question: Is pretty print's automatically fixing an error that problematic really? I mean, it tells you what the error is, where it is. And if you can't figure it out, it seems pretty print's fixing it would be a low risk thing to do. Do you have experience with getting really bad results using the automatic fixing?

Thanks.

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Hey mrmikel. I hear you about the pretty print's automatic saving feature, but the thing is when you get that warning (saying,'fix it either manually or automatically') and you go to save it, it won't let you without either manually or automatically fixing the error,and if you don't know how to fix it manually, what do you do? So I agree it's wise to save the old version and then see what the automatic fixing does, but how do you do that given it won't let you without fixing it?

And a second question: Is pretty print's automatically fixing an error that problematic really? I mean, it tells you what the error is, where it is. And if you can't figure it out, it seems pretty print's fixing it would be a low risk thing to do. Do you have experience with getting really bad results using the automatic fixing?

Thanks.

The latest Sigil WILL save "bad" code. You get a warning when re-opening the file, but you aren't obliged to let either PrettyPrint or HTML Tidy mess with it. PP is unlikely to do any real harm. Tidy can, and HAS in my experience.

Some of us fought hard for this feature! It lets you save a session "as is" and come back to solving the problem later. Occasionally invaluable, though the arguments why we SHOULDN'T need to do this are easy to list :-)

[Turtle91]

If you use version 7.1 then you can have the preview window open at the same time you are working in code view. If there is an error you will automatically get a little red (pink, salmon??) warning in the preview window that tells you there is a problem AND which row it is (most likely) found on. That instant feedback makes it really easy to correct mistakes as you go, and helps you learn not to make the mistakes in the first place...

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

The latest Sigil WILL save "bad" code. You get a warning when re-opening the file, but you aren't obliged to let either PrettyPrint or HTML Tidy mess with it. PP is unlikely to do any real harm. Tidy can, and HAS in my experience.

Some of us fought hard for this feature! It lets you save a session "as is" and come back to solving the problem later. Occasionally invaluable, though the arguments why we SHOULDN'T need to do this are easy to list :-)

Thanks Wombat. I think I'm getting this little by little. (I read up a bit on another thread about this too.) So it sounds to me like the new Sigil lets you save bad code, like you say "as is." I suppose it could be risky, letting pretty print or esp. HTML Tidy mess with bad code. So if you've got a doc with a lot of bad code that save "as is" would be really convenient. Now, for me, writing fiction with very little bad code, the save "as is" feature is not as valuable.

So, I'm going to get the new Sigil (7.1). So, how do I approach this (as a fiction writer with very little bad code)? I leave the Pretty Print on because it'll tip me off when I have the occasional bad code? (I'm just looking for a system.) Thanks.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

If you use version 7.1 then you can have the preview window open at the same time you are working in code view. If there is an error you will automatically get a little red (pink, salmon??) warning in the preview window that tells you there is a problem AND which row it is (most likely) found on. That instant feedback makes it really easy to correct mistakes as you go, and helps you learn not to make the mistakes in the first place...

Thanks. That sounds like an awesome feature for somebody like me. Thanks for pointing it out. I've got 0.6.2 now and I think I can get 0.7.1 without uninstalling 0.6.2, right?

[exaltedwombat]

In Edit/Preferences turn off all automatic checking by Pretty Print or HTML Tidy.
I suggest you ignore HTML Tidy completely. If you want to tidy up a file with Pretty Print, r-click in Code View and select Reformat HTML:Clean Source.

Unless you take special steps to install in different directories, 0.7.1 will over-write 0.6.2. I suggest you let it. The only notable bug in 0.7.1 is a problem on some systems with docking floating windows like Preview. It's a tiny inconvenience.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

If you use version 7.1 then you can have the preview window open at the same time you are working in code view. If there is an error you will automatically get a little red (pink, salmon??) warning in the preview window that tells you there is a problem AND which row it is (most likely) found on. That instant feedback makes it really easy to correct mistakes as you go, and helps you learn not to make the mistakes in the first place...

THAT is really a cool feature for me! Thanks!