Smashwords finds errors in my ePub file

[exaltedwombat]

<h1> is a marker. What it DOES is defined by css code. Maybe inline, maybe in the header of each individual chapter, hopefully in a separate stylesheet file. If all the chapter files in your book are linked to the same stylesheet, all your <h1> tags should have the same effect.

But this is about HTML coding. And you don't want to learn that.

[theducks]

Johneltin
Learning basic HTML (The allowed HTML used in EPUB barely scratches the surface of what WEB designers do wit it ) is excellent advice.
Sigil color codes things to make some of it easier.

But first, if you have heading levels defined, and they are just in a mish-mash of levels, Sigil has a couple of ways that can speed things up.

Saved searches has a section that includes Promote or Demote ALL headings. I use commonly that to set all headings to the most frequently used level (usually 'Chapter') .
Now I use the TOC editor (bars icon) to raise individual lines (select, then click the arrows)
My standard is: h2 for Part, h3 for Chapter, and for Anthologies, h1 for book-story (only if h2 is needed because one book has a Part used

Lets face it, if your headings are a really wild jumble, you will need to learn REGEX fairly soon.

There are a couple of threads here at MR. I would start with the one by Manichean (that was the one that turned on the for me) ,Then there is the one with the cute name: TranasaurusRegex for solving specific problems

[DaleDe]

Johneltin

If you really don't want to learn HTML or CSS then buy Atlantis Word Processor. A free 30 day trial is available. It lets you write in word style and can import word documents and then it will create the ePub for you.

Dale

[mrmikel]

And Atlantis can make it very easy to make a book with pictures. You copy and paste images just like you do for any other Windows document. The resulting file will be somewhat bigger than with Sigil, but unless you go hog wild, it will not be a problem.

The original document stays an rtf and you publish it in an epub format, so you are not editing HTML.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Johneltin

Thanks again everyone but SURELY there must be a way to make all my (29) chapters and headers h1 and h2 consistent WITHOUT having to figure out the HTML which is beyond me.

I have started a completely blank, totally new file (all 29 pages) and transferred all the 'body' of text but was sure to type in the chapters and headers and assign them the appropriate h1 or h2 - no chance of contamination.

However, there is no consistency when reviewed - Sigil just abuses them all - turning them into any size it wants and there is NO option within the Sigil program - unless I'm missing something. Even my father's old computer back in the last century had a 'change font' option; back in 1980 - or was it 1890?

I have even ignored the original 'word' file to make these changes but, even though my file still passes both Sigil validation checks AND the Smashwords test, it still tells me 'Congratulations my child - your file has passed our ePub check'. but then it has a note in 'dashboard' that says 'Unacceptable for our PREMIUM CATALOGUE' because it needs modification - different font sizes in the headers.'

Any easy way to fix without looking for html differences? Some suggestions received here were beyond me - If I found them I wouldn't know what to do with them anyway and, unfortunately, I am too busy at present spend hours learning to tame that HTML animal. Thanks, J

Johneltin:

That's because you are confusing two different things, which is an error often made by many people, partly due to how Microsoft phrases things. You are confusing a STYLE or FONT with an "element." There are basic elements in every single document that's word-processed; a character; a word; a paragraph, and then headings, then sections, and finally a document. Each of these is an element, and each of these is built of the previous elements. (i.e., a word is made up of characters; a paragraph is made up of words, which are made up of characters; headings are actually paragraphs of a unique sort, which are made up of words...etc.) An element is structural. It's not a STYLE. A character does not have a specific "style" assigned to it; you have to tell Word (or Sigil, or Atlantis Word processor, etc.) what style to use to display it.

In HTML, which is actually what underlines all word-processing documents, these elements are structural, and as each makes up the next, in total, they make up the whole. A heading tells HTML what "level" of structure a document has, and what level the text following the header has--think of an outline. That's what headers are. The word "header" is not interchangeable for "all these elements are supposed to look the same," unless you tell the program that they should. Using a header tells the program that all these elements are at the same structural level--not that "all cats are grey," so to speak. When you think about words, paragraphs, headers, etc., you need to think about them--and this is true in word-processing just as it is in HTML--in terms of what they ARE, not what they LOOK LIKE. You can change what something looks like rather endlessly, and not change what it IS; but when you change what an element IS, (say, from a header to a paragraph), you change its function and its level in the hierarchy of the document.

When you use Word or OO or LO or AWP or Wordperfect, all those "styles" that you see available to you are GUI for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). These CSS Styles are the instruction set that tells the word-processor how to display each of these elements.

Thus, when you tell Sigil, in 29 different documents (which is what an HTML or XHTML chapter is), that each has h1's and h2's, it has no way of knowing, without you having provided an instruction sheet (this is called CSS) that all your headers should be the same size, or the same color, or the same font. When you use something like Word, which makes certain assumptions, and you click "h1" for each header, and you're clicking the same h1 style for each one, the appearance instruction for that h1 element is conveyed in the backend of Word. Unless you've really learned how to use Word's styles, you don't actually "see" what's going on. From your posts, I suspect you haven't spent a lot of time using Word's styles, or much of this would be familiar to you.

The easiest way for you to do this, I believe, would be for you to concatenate all 29 of your chapters into one large Word file. Use a specific h1 and h2 header style to mark each of your headers--use the exact same STYLE of h1 and h2 header each time, as applicable. The export the file to HTML, and import the file to Sigil. This should result in a consistent look across all your chapters. You can then split the book into chapters using the chapter marker, and you will have a viable ePUB file.

In the alternative, use a stylesheet and delete all the styles that you see at the top of each chapter. OR...and this might appeal to you--delete all the styles that you see at the top of each chapter, and then merge all the files together, in Sigil. Apply the h1 and h2 styles to the headers, from start to finish. THEN, check the file in BookView and Preview--all the headers should be the same (as you'll be working in a single file, not 29 different files). Then use the chapter marker to split the book back into the 29 chapters, and the style that's used should be duplicated in all 29.

However, if you plan to do this more than once, really, you would be best served by learning a tiny bit of html and CSS, which would make this all much, much easier on you. Failing all of the above, as suggested by DaleDe and mrmikel, just use a Word Processor like Atlantis or Jutoh that will do this all for you. These are better products for a DIY'er that doesn't want to have to learn HTML and CSS; Sigil is a program for people who are either already familiar with HTML and CSS or are willing to learn it, in order to make their books properly (so that they validate and function correctly).

Hope that helps.

Hitch

[mrmikel]

The confusion you write of is very common and even shown by how books are formatted coming out of the various Project Gutenbergs.

Instead of using headings to indicate this is the top of the document, this the first level below that, etc., they use headings for formatting. This makes for a lot of work in Sigil when you are trying to use Tools, Generate Table of Contents. You end up unchecking line after line because they are not Contents or Chapter I, or subheadings under those, but information about the book, or lists of other books by the author.

Many of the PG books come out looking very nice, but the tools like Sigil are based not on appearance, but on using headings, etc to indicate how the book is put together, so it is not surprising the OP is having trouble.

Everyone has their own aims in doing ebooks. I do not make them for other people, so I can indulge my own preferences and I don't want to work too hard at doing it. I have my own customers in my repair business I have to keep happy. I do not have to worry about that in my epub creation.

I have been pounding away at it for 5 years now, so HTML and CSS have begun to make sense. (I had a little edge because I made my own simple web pages many moons ago.) But it is possible that if I were just starting now I would just use Atlantis or Jutoh, so long as I could get the results I want. I am making a book of local flora and fauna appropriated from various web sites for just my own use and am using AWP because it is easier to cut and paste into it. For things that are already HTML or convert to HTML, like the US Army's book, Merrill's Marauders, I use Sigl.

[Johneltin]

Thanks for all the advice and everything turned out OK in the end.
I spent time on my original document - learning a bit of HTML and the meaning of 'styles'.
Then I transferred it to Sigil and it validated without errors.

However, SMASHWORDS declined all new uploads with 'error in copyright page'.
I sent every possible variation of that page but still no luck until I emailed 'Raylene' who said it was probably an error in THEIR system - great!

So ...(are ya still with me?) I just received an email stating 'passed for premium catalogue'. WONDERFUL - but all that time wasted when I could have been writing my best-seller while I was still HOT!! Now I'm just deflated and never want to see my book again - sick of it!

BUT... thanks to all for the advice. John

[Johneltin]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Johneltin:


The easiest way for you to do this, I believe, would be for you to concatenate all 29 of your chapters into one large Word file. Use a specific h1 and h2 header style to mark each of your headers--use the exact same STYLE of h1 and h2 header each time, as applicable. The export the file to HTML, and import the file to Sigil. This should result in a consistent look across all your chapters. You can then split the book into chapters using the chapter marker, and you will have a viable ePUB file.

Hitch

Thanks - and that's EXACTLY what I did to achieve the successful end result!

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by Johneltin

Thanks for all the advice and everything turned out OK in the end.
I spent time on my original document - learning a bit of HTML and the meaning of 'styles'.
Then I transferred it to Sigil and it validated without errors.

However, SMASHWORDS declined all new uploads with 'error in copyright page'.
I sent every possible variation of that page but still no luck until I emailed 'Raylene' who said it was probably an error in THEIR system - great!

So ...(are ya still with me?) I just received an email stating 'passed for premium catalogue'. WONDERFUL - but all that time wasted when I could have been writing my best-seller while I was still HOT!! Now I'm just deflated and never want to see my book again - sick of it!

BUT... thanks to all for the advice. John

Yeah, Smashwords have done that to me too. Not a very clever system.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Johneltin

Thanks - and that's EXACTLY what I did to achieve the successful end result!

GREAT. I'm glad it worked for you.

And, yes, we've had lots of authors with that stupid error message. It's possible that Smashwords and Apple are neck-and-neck with impossibly idiotic intake systems for books. I see below that you got it going; good for you.

Hitch