Is it possible to turn off all automation in Sigil?

[Iznogood]

Hi

I just tried Sigil for the first time to create an epub. I'm using v0.5.3. I have previously generated several epubs by hand, and know exactly how I want my epubs formatted.

I have turned off Tidy and the check for well-formed errors. But every time I do a global search and replace, Sigil insists that I must have an ID for all my headings; I do not want them, but when I remove them Sigil generates new ones for me.

I also do not like to have blank lines between paragraphs, but Sigil automatically inserts them, much to my despair.

I would like to use Sigil to generate .opf and .toc files for me, and validate the epub, plus switching between book-view and code-view, i.e. doing what sigil is best at, but I do not want anything to temper with my html-code. Is it possible to turn off all the automatic formatting, so that I can be the judge of how the code shall be written?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by norway1456

Hi

I just tried Sigil for the first time to create an epub. I'm using v0.5.3. I have previously generated several epubs by hand, and know exactly how I want my epubs formatted.

I have turned off Tidy and the check for well-formed errors. But every time I do a global search and replace, Sigil insists that I must have an ID for all my headings; I do not want them, but when I remove them Sigil generates new ones for me.

I also do not like to have blank lines between paragraphs, but Sigil automatically inserts them, much to my despair.

I would like to use Sigil to generate .opf and .toc files for me, and validate the epub, plus switching between book-view and code-view, i.e. doing what sigil is best at, but I do not want anything to temper with my html-code. Is it possible to turn off all the automatic formatting, so that I can be the judge of how the code shall be written?

Yes! By not starting Sigil.

Obviously you want a simple Text editor so you can do everything yourself.
Sigil's inserted 'id' hurt only your sense of what is correct.

Some people make books with multipl chapters per segment. a ID is mandatory in that case. Sigil just applies the KISS principle and always assigns an ID to all headers. Any can now be used as an anchor.

Your gripe would be justified if Sigil 'broke' perfectly valid constructs like Tidy was known to mangle.

[Serpentine]

I don't think that worrying about id's is worth it, I can understand the problems with Tidy being annoying and pretty printing everything. This however is fixed in the next version.

So yeah, in short : Either give a valid reason for why you hate hearder id's (which make ToC's work quite simply) or remove them after using Sigil.... or just accept them and move on.

[Iznogood]

Actually I want more than a simple text editor. I have until now used Notepad++, and are very happy with it since I can do whatever I want and know that nothing tries to "fix" code that I have written and are content about.

But Sigil have some nice features that notepad++ does not have:
-auto generation of .ncx- and .opf-files
-Options for symantics, so I do not need to search the internet every time I try to make the two mentioned files
-Automatic splitting of files
-Validation by pressing a button
-Cross-platform(!)
-Spell-check with configurable wordlists that can be copied to the next location when you re-install your OS
-And more options very suited for generation of epubs.

Unfortunately, it is also useless because it destroys my code, even when I have turned off everything I can turn off
-Any meta-tags in the header is deleted automatically (this is very annoying and a major headache)
-Blank line between paragraphs are added against my wish
-id's are added where I do not want any (I want to keep my code readable and searchable without needing to worry about id's in tags)
and some other minor pains in the you-know-what

[meme]

Header IDs are automatically added when you Generate a TOC, or when you Save. I'm not sure why its generating IDs when saving, but we'll look into that. Its possible someone once found that some readers had a problem if there were no IDs? But as mentioned they shouldn't cause any issue.

The meta tags are not deleted automatically. Can you give a step by step example of how to demonstrate this?

You have to wait for the next version in order to be able to stop Sigil's from using HTML Tidy to Pretty Print your code.

[Ahmad Samir]

Originally Posted by norway1456

Hi

I just tried Sigil for the first time to create an epub. I'm using v0.5.3. I have previously generated several epubs by hand, and know exactly how I want my epubs formatted.

I have turned off Tidy and the check for well-formed errors.[...]

Turning off the check for well-formed errors doesn't do what you think it does; actually turning that one off means that Sigil will auto-fix any errors without asking you ... generally, not a good idea. (see the tooltip of that button).

FWIW, when you do a "Replace All" in "All HTML files" any well-formed errors are auto fixed without asking you regardless of the state of "check for well-formed errors" option.

[Iznogood]

Originally Posted by meme

Header IDs are automatically added when you Generate a TOC, or when you Save. I'm not sure why its generating IDs when saving, but we'll look into that. Its possible someone once found that some readers had a problem if there were no IDs? But as mentioned they shouldn't cause any issue.

The IDs are not my main issue, so I guess I can live with them, or remove them after the epub is completed. I do not like unnecessary IDs because it makes it more difficult to search when I have to search for type of tags, classes and contents of tag, and id's on top of it all.

Originally Posted by meme

The meta tags are not deleted automatically. Can you give a step by step example of how to demonstrate this?

Images are attached.
Step1: Have an ordinary epub. Add line

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8"/>

in header. Save file
Search and replace for something
Step2: The meta line is gone.
This happens when tidy is turned off (see image) and when the red sign for well-formed-errors is on or off, it does not matter

Originally Posted by meme

You have to wait for the next version in order to be able to stop Sigil's from using HTML Tidy to Pretty Print your code.

I'm looking forward to it. I like to be in control of my computer, not the opposite way around. Sigil is superb because of the features I stated in post number 4, but I don't like too much automation interfering with my code

[Iznogood]

Originally Posted by Ahmad Samir

Turning off the check for well-formed errors doesn't do what you think it does; actually turning that one off means that Sigil will auto-fix any errors without asking you ... generally, not a good idea. (see the tooltip of that button).

FWIW, when you do a "Replace All" in "All HTML files" any well-formed errors are auto fixed without asking you regardless of the state of "check for well-formed errors" option.

Thanks! I didn't know this. I unchecked it, because I didn't read the tooltip carefully I tried to repeat this with the button enabled (checked) with the same results; too much automation deleted contents from my files. As you say, the state of this switch probably doesn't matter.

But I really do not understand why automatic error-correction is done after each search and replace? When you choose to do something in code view, the programmers of Sigil must assume that the user knows what he/she is doing and allow the user to shoot oneself in the foot if he/she whishes to do so? I'm sure there are scenarios where you could want to do a search and replace in two stages, and auto-correct errors after the second stage, but not after the first