Spaces between paragraphs

[Bigo2]

Hi

When converting from epub to mobi I often remove spaces between paragraphs using the feature "Remove spacing between paragraphs" in "Look & Feel".

However, in some cases this does not work.

When touching the "Remove spacing between paragraphs" there is this message "Spacing removal will not work if the source does not use paragraphs <p> or <div> tags" - which is probably the reason.

So, what is the solution to this? Could you help please?

[Adoby]

Look at the source epub book and figure out how the spacing is done. Change it to <p> or <div> tags or remove whatever it is that takes extra space. Possibly using search and replace.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Adoby

Look at the source epub book and figure out how the spacing is done. Change it to <p> or <div> tags or remove whatever it is that takes extra space. Possibly using search and replace.

It could be some class like <p class="tx"> where tx is what would need to be fixed.

[Bigo2]

Hi Adoby and JSWolf - thanks for your suggestions...
I know I can change the epub. Often I would convert it to html, edit whatever in Word, open it in Sigil and save it again as epub.

Recently I was asking how to convert an epub book which was completely in a bold font to mobi so the font would become normal.

Kovidgoyal suggested to use the Filter Style Information in the conversion dialog and filter out font-weight. And it works nicely!

For removing the spaces I thought that there would be some similar simple solution in the Look & Feel, perhaps putting something in Extra CSS or Filter Style Information…

Regards

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Bigo2

Hi Adoby and JSWolf - thanks for your suggestions...
I know I can change the epub. Often I would convert it to html, edit whatever in Word, open it in Sigil and save it again as epub.

Recently I was asking how to convert an epub book which was completely in a bold font to mobi so the font would become normal.

Kovidgoyal suggested to use the Filter Style Information in the conversion dialog and filter out font-weight. And it works nicely!

For removing the spaces I thought that there would be some similar simple solution in the Look & Feel, perhaps putting something in Extra CSS or Filter Style Information…

Regards

What is seems that you are doing is taking these eBooks and making them harder to edit. There is no reason to convert ePub to HTML just to crap them up with Word. Leave them in ePub and use Sigil to fix what's wrong. Using Calibre to convert to fix things that are easily fixable with Sigil also also a bad idea. All you do is (very possibly) make the code that much harder to deal with.

[Bigo2]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What is seems that you are doing is taking these eBooks and making them harder to edit. There is no reason to convert ePub to HTML just to crap them up with Word. Leave them in ePub and use Sigil to fix what's wrong. Using Calibre to convert to fix things that are easily fixable with Sigil also also a bad idea. All you do is (very possibly) make the code that much harder to deal with.

Thanks JSWolf - I believe you - I would prefer to use Sigil to remove the spaces between the paragraphs (in this case there are empty lines) but I don't know how to change the entire book easily. However, I know how to do it in Word, that's why I'm using it. In Word I am saving it as a Web Page, Filtered and then go to Sigil to be able to save it as epub...

[JSWolf]

What you are doing is adding layers of code and other junk that you don't need or even want.

Post a sample of your XML files and your CSS and maybe someone can help.

[Bigo2]

Thanks JSWolf - I am going to find out how to edit it in Sigil or Calibre Edit Book so I don't have to use the Word...

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Bigo2

For removing the spaces I thought that there would be some similar simple solution in the Look & Feel, perhaps putting something in Extra CSS or Filter Style Information…

When converting try the Delete blank lines between paragraphs option under Heuristic processing.

[Bigo2]

Hi DoctorOhh - it does not work...

When checking this epub in Sigil, I have found that after every paragraph instead </p>, there is </p><br class="calibre1" />

So I used find and replace and after some time I was able to fix it all. I know I could've use Repace All, but I wanted to make sure not loosing something I did not want.

Thanks

[Bigo2]

One more question:

When converting to mobi I like to indent the first line of the paragraph. I am setting the Indent size (about 0.2) in Look and Feel, but it is only available together with the Remove spacing between paragraphs. But this removes all the spacing, even between the sections...
So, is there some other way how to set the Ident?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Bigo2

Hi DoctorOhh - it does not work...

It doesn't work on <br> but as the tool tip explains it does work when the space between paragraphs is created by blank paragraphs.

Originally Posted by Bigo2

So, is there some other way how to set the Ident?

I don't know if this can be done automatically. If needed I usually edit the css in the editor to accomplish the change in indent.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Bigo2

Hi DoctorOhh - it does not work...

When checking this epub in Sigil, I have found that after every paragraph instead </p>, there is </p><br class="calibre1" />

So I used find and replace and after some time I was able to fix it all. I know I could've use Repace All, but I wanted to make sure not loosing something I did not want.

Thanks

That construct is a forced break (after a paragraph ends . I thought BR's had to be inside a block element?)

search: </p>\s*<br class="calibre1" />\s+(<p class="value_here">)

replace: </p> \1

You might get away with just removing just a BR if it follows a </p>
(?</p>\s*)<br class="calibre1" />

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

When converting try the Delete blank lines between paragraphs option under Heuristic processing.

That sometimes removes section breaks as well. Better off doing it via the code/CSS.

[Adoby]

Originally Posted by Bigo2

Hi DoctorOhh - it does not work...

When checking this epub in Sigil, I have found that after every paragraph instead </p>, there is </p><br class="calibre1" />

So I used find and replace and after some time I was able to fix it all. I know I could've use Repace All, but I wanted to make sure not loosing something I did not want.

Thanks

Well done!