How to remove CSS styles completely?

[DiapDealer]

Jutoh is an editor that gets a lot of recommendations for those looking for more of an authorial tool. I've never used it (it's not free), so I can't vouch for its spec-compliance (or compatibility with a lot of epub rendering engines), but there's a free trial.

[phillipgessert]

I don’t think there can be a good WYSIWYG editor for anything that relies on document semantics. Because folks drawn to an editor like that are generally not into semantics (as in, a software choice like that is meant to avoid working with it), and will tend to do arbitrary things like “make this bigger” or “move this over” with no discernible logic to it. You already see it anytime you check out someone else’s InDesign/Word file or something, and it’s littered with little inconsistencies and exceptions.

[DiapDealer]

Another reason good WYSIWYG editors are hard to find, is that many people are not satisfied with the code being written for them "behind the scenes". They not only want it done for them, they want the coding to be done to suit their particular--and usually exacting--standards. You can't have both. You'd need to train an AI for a long time to get code written for you from a WYSIWYG editor that would meet EPUB's standards, semantic structure, accessibility needs, AND your own particular coding habits.

[DNSB]

For those running on a Mac platform, this is also Vellum which many authors I've spoken with seem to love. Part of that love seems to be that it include a mass of media queries to allow epub, KF8 and mobi ebooks to be readable without needing special handling.

For the most part, a group who have a total lack of interest in what is going on behind the scenes.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

For those running on a Mac platform, this is also Vellum which many authors I've spoken with seem to love. Part of that love seems to be that it include a mass of media queries to allow epub, KF8 and mobi ebooks to be readable without needing special handling.

For the most part, a group who have a total lack of interest in what is going on behind the scenes.

Please don't ever use Vellum. The code that comes from it is awful and that's on a good day.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Please don't ever use Vellum. The code that comes from it is awful and that's on a good day.

Please don't ever issue blanket statements like this just because you don't care for the code it produces. WYSIWYG is not about creating code that YOU like to look at.

You want to comment on the "awful" code you think it produces? Fine. But don't tell people not to ever use it. Not here, anyway.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by DNSB

For those running on a Mac platform, this is also Vellum which many authors I've spoken with seem to love. Part of that love seems to be that it include a mass of media queries to allow epub, KF8 and mobi ebooks to be readable without needing special handling.

For the most part, a group who have a total lack of interest in what is going on behind the scenes.

There is It Works, and there is lean and Elegant code .
Vellum is NOT the latter.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Please don't ever use Vellum. The code that comes from it is awful and that's on a good day.

Originally Posted by theducks

There is It Works, and there is lean and Elegant code .
Vellum is NOT the latter.

@JSWolf: The code produced by Vellum is not that awful and if you are interested in publishing to epub/mobi/KF8, it is one of the few programs that will work for the non-techie author. Yes, Vellum goes overboard with the number of media queries and it's attempts to make dropcaps easier by special casing every letter plus the opening quote but it takes relatively little work (after you're built the collection of search/replace items) to clean up.

@theducks: The average author is interested in It Works and has no interest in what is going on behind the scenes. Otherwise, my hobby of fixing ebooks for some authors would be not be viable.

[JSWolf]

But even if It Works, it doesn't really if the formatting is poor.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But even if It Works, it doesn't really if the formatting is poor.

Enough. Everyone's needs are not the same as yours. Everyone's standards are not the same as yours. The sooner you accept this, the better off everyone will be.