BookDesigner update

[Gudy]

Originally Posted by Ret

Meanwhile I found another solution: I've changed from "keep original fromat" to "reformat completely" on the settings options. I still think the german "workaround" is better

It certainly is. If you do switch from "keep original format" to "reformat completely", be aware that the two can (and often do) give very different results. I've had input files were one of those options produced a Book Designer file that would have taken hours to clean up, while the other allowed me to have the conversion done in ten to fifteen minutes.

[HarryT]

I've now started pasting content into BD rather than loading files. It's the only way I've found the prevent BD from changing paragraph breaks to where IT thinks they should go.

Does anyone know of a way to prevent BD from messing with line endings, other than by pasting in?

[JSWolf]

Harry, can you give an example of messing with line endings please?

[HarryT]

Sure. Download the PG version of Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" into BD and look at what it does to it.

The book starts with a rather long first paragraph:

About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did it very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as pride--from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram's sister; but her husband's profession was such as no interest could reach; and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place. It was the natural result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always produces. To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price never wrote to her family on the subject till actually married. Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper remarkably easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter; but Mrs. Norris had a spirit of activity, which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to Fanny, to point out the folly of her conduct, and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences. Mrs. Price, in her turn, was injured and angry; and an answer, which comprehended each sister in its bitterness, and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the pride of Sir Thomas as Mrs. Norris could not possibly keep to herself, put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period.

Load it into BD and this is what the first paragraph turns into:

About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.

All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it.

She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage.

But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.

Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse.

Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year.

But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did it very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as pride—from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram's sister; but her husband's profession was such as no interest could reach; and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place.

It was the natural result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always produces.

To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price never wrote to her family on the subject till actually married.

Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper remarkably easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter; but Mrs. Norris had a spirit of activity, which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to Fanny, to point out the folly of her conduct, and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences. Mrs. Price, in her turn, was injured and angry; and an answer, which comprehended each sister in its bitterness, and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the pride of Sir Thomas as Mrs. Norris could not possibly keep to herself, put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period.

I've added blank lines above for emphasis. BD has turned the original paragraph into no fewer than 10 separate paragraphs.

The paragraph structure of a novel is an important "structural element" of it. BD can (as here) completely mess it up. I can't find any way to stop it from doing this except by pasting in the text, rather than letting BD "load" the file in the usual way.

[Strether]

Harry, a comment and a question.

Won't running Stingo's macro on the text material take care of the paragraph problem? I've run it with success.

When you paste your material into BD, how do you then start BD's process (for lack of a better word) to convert it to HTML?

Jim

[delphidb96]

Has anyone heard of an update to BD since the 7/30/2007 update?

Derek

[Madam Broshkina]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sure. Download the PG version of Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" into BD and look at what it does to it.

The book starts with a rather long first paragraph:



Load it into BD and this is what the first paragraph turns into:



I've added blank lines above for emphasis. BD has turned the original paragraph into no fewer than 10 separate paragraphs.

The paragraph structure of a novel is an important "structural element" of it. BD can (as here) completely mess it up. I can't find any way to stop it from doing this except by pasting in the text, rather than letting BD "load" the file in the usual way.

I tried loading Mansfield Park and got the same results as Harry did. But when I converted the text using GutenMark (http://www.sandroid.org/GutenMark/) and then imported the resulting HTML file that GutenMark created it came out right.

About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward’s match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did it very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as pride—from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram’s sister; but her husband’s profession was such as no interest could reach; and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place. It was the natural result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always produces. To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price never wrote to her family on the subject till actually married. Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper remarkably easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter; but Mrs. Norris had a spirit of activity, which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to Fanny, to point out the folly of her conduct, and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences. Mrs. Price, in her turn, was injured and angry; and an answer, which comprehended each sister in its bitterness, and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the pride of Sir Thomas as Mrs. Norris could not possibly keep to herself, put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period.

[Strether]

And I tried it with Stingo's Macro, and got:

About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did it very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice. Sir Thomas Bertram had interest, which, from principle as well as pride--from a general wish of doing right, and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability, he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram's sister; but her husband's profession was such as no interest could reach; and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them, an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place. It was the natural result of the conduct of each party, and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always produces. To save herself from useless remonstrance, Mrs. Price never wrote to her family on the subject till actually married. Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper remarkably easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter; but Mrs. Norris had a spirit of activity, which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to Fanny, to point out the folly of her conduct, and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences. Mrs. Price, in her turn, was injured and angry; and an answer, which comprehended each sister in its bitterness, and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the pride of Sir Thomas as Mrs. Norris could not possibly keep to herself, put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period.
***
I occasionally encounter things which the macro won't solve, though, and would appreciate knowing how you paste a document into BD and get it to activate Book Cleaner, et. al.

Jim

[astra]

Weird. I never had this type of problem.

[Patricia]

Strether, as far as I know, if you paste into BD then you can't use book cleaner.

As for pasting, just choose 'select all' then 'copy' from the edit menu of the source document, open BD, then choose 'paste' from its edit menu.

The main annoyance of this method is that all the emdashes will appear as hyphens. There is a workaround: in the source document, use 'find and replace' to replace emdashes with #. Paste into BD. Then use 'find and replace to substitute emdashes for #.

[RWood]

I always pre-edit the works in MS Word prior to loading into BD. Stingo's Macro has been invaluable.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Strether

Harry, a comment and a question.

Won't running Stingo's macro on the text material take care of the paragraph problem? I've run it with success.

I'll try it and see if it makes a difference.

When you paste your material into BD, how do you then start BD's process (for lack of a better word) to convert it to HTML?

The conversion happens in the same way; the only thing that pasting rather than loading does is to prevent BD from reformatting the text.

As I say, try it. Download "Mansfield Park" from PG and see for yourself what the difference is between simply opening the file in BD, and creating a new book in BD and pasting the text into it.

[JSWolf]

Harry, I took the text file, loaded it into word and then preceded to clean up the text. It worked fine when I was done and had it saved as an RTF. Have a look and you'll see what I mean.

[HarryT]

That comes out much better, Jon, I agree. However, I wish there was a way of telling BD "don't mess with the paragraphs". It's passages of dialogue that it seems especially prone to messing up, tending to starting a new line at every close quote.

[JSWolf]

The problem as I see it is that BD doesn't really know how to handle text files with broken lines. So the best solution is to load said text file into Word and fix the broken lines. Also, Word makes it a LOT easier to fix the italics as well given that _word or phrase_ is an italic. Once it's cleaned up and saved as RTF, it loads fine in BD. I don't use any macro to do the cleaning up. I just do it by hand and it's not hard and doesn't take long.