e-Book Tools - a Word add-in

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Leonatus

All right! This time it was BetterRed's hint that helped to solve the problem (many thanks!).

Glad to help out.

Just for the record: I installed the add-in out of curiosity when I kept seeing posts about how good the PI was at creating ePubs from Word. At the time I was converting filtered html or RTF with calibre, which for my purposes was adequate (I now convert DOCX with calibre which is also adequate and better than f-HTML or RTF).

Having multiple documents open in Word concurrently is essential to my workflow, I have a tabbed document addin to facilitate this. Given I had a working solution for conversion I wasn't too bothered this one didn't work in that scenario. But I didn't have anything similar to the PI's S&R, Dialogue Check features etc, etc so I was much more interested in seeing what they could do for me

BR

[BetterRed]

Suggestion - AFAIK there is no easy way to get a straightforward word list within an MS Word document. If I need one, I import the DOCX into the calibre editor and use its Reports function.

It just occurred to me, now that ePub Tools has a list based spell checker something similar to the word list available from the calibre editor's Tools->Reports function, could perhaps be added to ePub-Tools. For me the save to csv is particularly useful especially in combination with filtering.

BR

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Suggestion - AFAIK there is no easy way to get a straightforward word list within an MS Word document. If I need one, I import the DOCX into the calibre editor and use its Reports function.

It just occurred to me, now that ePub Tools has a list based spell checker something similar to the word list available from the calibre editor's Tools->Reports function, could perhaps be added to ePub-Tools. For me the save to csv is particularly useful especially in combination with filtering.

BR

You can already do that... See the 'Save list to file' option when you right-click on a word. In fact, the option is there because you requested it earlier!

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

In fact, the option is there because you requested it earlier!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

You can already do that... See the 'Save list to file' option when you right-click on a word. In fact, the option is there because you requested it earlier!

- I had a vague feeling I might have done, so I had a look, for a button

The spell checker puts Word into a not responding state too easily, which means I have to kill it. I think its OK if I only have one document open, but as you know I usually have multiple documents open. So I suspect it's the same problem I have, and Leonatus recently had, with ePub generation doing strange things when there's more than one document open in Word.

And the Progress task often just sits there doing nothing. To get rid of it, I have to right click the Word taskbar item, select the 'Progress' item and click the 'X'; and then close the document and reopen it, if I don't the same thing happens. I assume this may also be something do with multiple documents being open.

So the bottom line is that I don't use the spell checker either. Having to repeatedly restart Word and reload up to dozen documents and remember where I am at with them is too frustrating. But the S&R, Dialogue Checker, Word Marker etc functions are fine.

BR

[Toxaris]

It is strange that you have these issues with multiple documents open. It should not really matter as it works with the current active document. Multiple documents in Word are not that easy to handle and distinguish programmatically.
I also suspect that the add-in you use to easily handle the multiple documents is causing some interference here.
Anyway, as soon as I have worked the net HTML conversion engine in, which might also help the issue you have with the ePUB generation, the spelling part will be investigated again. I am still not happy with its performance, although there is probably not a lot I can do about it...

[BetterRed]

Toxaris - when I first ran into the issue with epub generation I un-installed Office Tabs and still had the same problems. Shortly after that, I installed Office on a friends new laptop without any 3rd party add-ins except ePub-Tools, and still the epub-generation feature didn't work when I had multiple documents open

I'm pretty sure I conveyed that to you at the time. I thought we reached the conclusion that it wasn't worth putting any more effort into resolving the problems because

• my usage patterns of Word are 'abnormal',
• the handling of multiple documents in Office add-ins is 'hard'
• not using Word's multiple document capabilities with Office Tabs (or a functional equivalent) is not an option I am willing to contemplate.

I have several other add-ins installed, Save Reminder, Language Tools grammar checker, Prowriting Aid, plus a couple more from Extend Office. They don't have the problems I have experienced with the epub-tools epub-generation and spell-checking functions when I have multiple documents open and Office Tabs installed. Nor do the Dialogue Checker, Search and Replace, and Mark functions of the ePub-tools add-in have any problems and I use them intensively every day.

This is not a big deal for me, I have three other adequate solutions for the epub-generation, two in calibre and more recently DiapDealer has provided an 'interesting' Sigil DOCX Import plugin.

Unlike some, I don't expect everything to work in every situation, there's always another way to skin the cat.

FYI : I've also changed when and how I do spell checking and grammar checking.

• a pass using the dialogue we all love to hate, but just to deal with proper nouns, abbreviations and acronyms - which is usually a big chunk of the 'errors',
• check & correct spelling and a subset of Grammar Only - inline
• use the Language Tools addin to provide a 'second opinion',
• convert the docx to epub and get a 'third opinion' from the calibre editor spell checker, this is especially helpful for multi-lingual transcripts.
• a final check after I have done the formatting, table layouts, image insertions etc using Word's Spelling, Grammar and Style checks.

===============
Suggestion - put the Save to CSV option on a button, maybe next to the Refresh button as a diskette icon. Having a list level function in the context menu for individual items seems out of place to me.

BR

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Suggestion - put the Save to CSV option on a button, maybe next to the Refresh button as a diskette icon. Having a list level function in the context menu for individual items seems out of place to me.

When we talked about the export function this was considered. I decided against this for the reason that I didn't wanted to put another button on the form, especially since it has a small target audience.
This might change of course, but not for now at least.

[patrik]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

It has not been asked before. Would it be possible to create something similar for LibreOffice? Perhaps. It would not be the same, since it uses a lot of Word features directly. I do not use LibreOffice myself, so I don't know if these features are available but they probably are. Then there is a question if these features can be called and used by external programming.

So, can it be ported? No. Can something similar be made? Perhaps/probably.

Now, for the bonus question. Would I be willing to do it? To be honest, I don't know. It depends on the work that would be required. However, I will dive a little in plugin/add-in programming for LibreOffice. Don't get your hopes up however, the chance I will do it is slim.

Did you ever get some time to take a look at this?

Holding the thumbs as we say in Sweden...

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by patrik

Did you ever get some time to take a look at this?

Holding the thumbs as we say in Sweden...

Very briefly. I am not going to do it, sorry. I am willing to someone that does though.

[explorabeth]

I am very impressed with the possibilities provided by your tools.
I am concerned about alternative text being carried from docx to epub3. Do you have suggestions on maintaining the alt text while using your conversion tools?

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by explorabeth

I am very impressed with the possibilities provided by your tools.
I am concerned about alternative text being carried from docx to epub3. Do you have suggestions on maintaining the alt text while using your conversion tools?

What do you exactly mean by alternative text? It is not something I am familiar with in Word.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

What do you exactly mean by alternative text? It is not something I am familiar with in Word.

I suspect they mean the alt text that gets inserted in images:

<img alt="Photograph of an Eagle" src="../Images/eagle.jpg" />

Here are the instructions on how to add alt text in Word:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-outlook-2010

[explorabeth]

Yes, Tex2002ans.

The alt text field is located in Word by following these steps for 2013: right click, format picture, layout and properties, alt text, the description.

The alt text field hold integral information for visually impaired users that require a description of the image. I do not use the title field, but the description field ideally is carried through as an image alt attribute like this in the EPUB:
<img src="../Images/image.png" alt="Alt text imported from Word description."/>

Info from MS: https://support.office.com/en-us/art...2-6a75b451c669

[Toxaris]

I see. Well, since it has been available since Word 2007, it should in theory be possible to keep that text. In fact, it might even already do this, I don't know. I do now that even if it works in the current version (just try...), it will not work in the new version (2.0) as of now. Conversion to HTML is done completely different there. Good part is, it is more flexible, so I will probably be able to make it work.

If it doesn't work in the current version (1.7.x), you will have to wait for the 2.x release. I don't have a date for that yet, but I will place this request on the list.