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#1 |
Junior Member
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Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2017
Device: kindle
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Writing straight into Sigil
Has anyone written a novel length ebook straight into Sigil? (not through Scrivener, for instance, then moved it to Sigil for ebook creation)
I was thinking of giving it a go, but what's holding me back is if you have split your chapters into individual .xhtml files I cannot see a way to view all the text in every .xhtml file as one continuous document for editing purposes. Like you can in Scrivener. Thanks (- new to this forum and Sigil) |
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#2 |
Sigil Developer
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Device: many
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I would not recommend it. I would use Word or OpenOffice/LibreOffice and be careful to use proper styles while taking advantage of all of the features Word has to offer to authors. You can then convert your book to filtered html and import it into Sigil, or use Calibre to convert the .docx, or use any of the input plugins that Sigil has to do the conversion, and there are other conversion programs as well.
Last edited by KevinH; 08-23-2017 at 07:56 PM. |
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#3 |
Well trained by Cats
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Karma: 57979022
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: The Central Coast of California
Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A
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I second the 'not recommended'
And a definite NO for anything other than fixing a typo using the Book view. ![]() I mostly leave the Preview pane (F10) up on the second monitor . I only use BV to find code e(pink box) errors, which I manually fix. |
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#4 |
Junior Member
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Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2017
Device: kindle
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Thank you both. I agree. I'll use Sigil solely as an ebook creator. It's a pity that there's not an all in one solution.
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#5 | |
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
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Karma: 158448243
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
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All three of those allow you to type away and then push a button, and VOILA!!!, out pops an eBook. IIRC, they each sell for the princely sum of ~$40.00. I, for one, infinitely prefer that each application sticks to what it's good at doing. Hitch |
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#6 | |
null operator (he/him)
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Sydney Australia
Device: none
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Quote:
![]() ![]() And Ditto as a clipboard extender and lightweight global snippets manager ain't half bad, and its buckshee. If one has MS Word, there's also Tox's ePub-Tools. Includes a raft of other useful features like Dialogue Quote Checking, Word/phrase marking, etc. Even if you don't use it's ePUB creation feature it is worth having... assuming one has MS Word. BR |
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#7 |
Guru
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Join Date: Nov 2011
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If you're going to work exclusively in Sigil, use Code View. You'll then be in the same position as a user of the first word processors, where control codes, similar to HTML markup, had to be explicitly entered inline with the text. This would not be a ridiculous way to work, particularly for a book where layout was an integral part of the message. You have the advantage of the Preview Pane showing the result.
Clicking on the next xhtml file to view the next chapter isn't really such a big deal, is it? For proof-reading (however the epub was constructed) I often make a copy of the epub file and open it in ADE on my second screen. It's good to see what another program makes of the epub code, and good to see line-wrap errors that may have been not apparent in Sigil. Errors can be immediately corrected in Sigil. (You have to display a copy file in ADE, otherwise saving an edit in Sigil will confuse and crash the same file open in ADE.) Don't even consider this method unless you're comfortable in Code View. Really, don't use Sigil at all unless you're comfortable in Code View. Just write your book in your favourite WP program, whether it be WordPad, Word or anything inbetween; resist the temptation to use strings of space characters to control indents, centering etc. and throw it into Calibre for automatic conversion to epub. It'll come out just fine. |
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#8 |
Sigil Developer
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Join Date: Nov 2009
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Or use any of the import plugins that exist for Sigil just for this purpose.
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#9 | |||||
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
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Karma: 158448243
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
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![]() Don't forget, don't use TABS, either, or columns. Neither exists in eBooks, not for a beginner. (A beginner to coding, I mean. You could be James Michener, as a writer, for all we know.) Quote:
Hitch |
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#10 |
mostly an observer
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Device: Kindle
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To this day, I still create all my web pages in WordStar "non-document mode," which is just about the same thing as writing a book in Sigil Code View. But for a book, and sometimes for a first draft for a complicated web page, I start out in WordStar "document mode" because it's ever so much faster for editing. The file has the extension *.ws7, which (with a Microsoft add-in) enables it to be opened in Word. I also have a WS add-in for Word, so most (but not all, and not as brilliantly executed) WordStar editing commands are still available to me. Then I use an online service to get clean html (Word's html is pretty awful IMHO) which I open in or paste into Sigil. Seems complex, but faster and easier for me.
I agree that the search for an all-in-one solution is a honey trap. Much better to find the combination that works for you, then perfect that combination. Oh, and for the print edition I open that same Word doc in OpenOffice Writer, which I find (again) faster & easier for me. And makes a splendid PDF of the perfected book. If you happen to be a Mac user, Mac-happy author-publishers are insanely in love with Vellum for making ebooks. But then they're insane about almost anything Mac-worthy. |
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#11 | |
♫
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Germany
Device: Kobo Aura / PB Lux 2 / Bookeen Frontlight / Kobo Mini / Nook Color
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When you're done writing and the book is nearly finished use "split at markers". |
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