Okay, Thanks. I guess I am working on some false assumptions. I will need to test a properly formatted EPUB from Atlantis on my IPOD in both STANZA and I-books to see what I get.
I guess my assumption was based in part how SIGIL would assign an "ID" attribute to any of the <H> tags. I figured this was how the TOC would get generated within Stanza. When I looked at the coding within Atlantis's EPUBs, there was only a class attribute (from what I remember) assigned to a <p> tag, so I didn't see how an eBook reader might distinguish a header from stantdard body text.
epub!
Table of Contents
Last edited by purcelljf on Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
Another thing
Also, I assumed when I opened the EPUB from Atlantis in SIGIL I would immediately see all the headings I had assigned in Atlantis in the TOC editor.
We've returned to where we started. 
It is a limitation of Sigil, not a problem of Atlantis. Chapters in EPUBs do not need to be marked with <hN> elements. Any EPUB file includes an NCX (Navigation Control file for XML) file with the hierarchical table of contents. It is where EPUB readers can find all the required chapter links. Please note that the current version of Sigil is alpha. Its author might improve the TOC-related features of Sigil in the future.
By the way, have you tried the desktop version of Stanza? If so, is it much different from its iPhone version?
It is a limitation of Sigil, not a problem of Atlantis. Chapters in EPUBs do not need to be marked with <hN> elements. Any EPUB file includes an NCX (Navigation Control file for XML) file with the hierarchical table of contents. It is where EPUB readers can find all the required chapter links. Please note that the current version of Sigil is alpha. Its author might improve the TOC-related features of Sigil in the future.By the way, have you tried the desktop version of Stanza? If so, is it much different from its iPhone version?
Table of Contents
I tried to install Stanza Desktop a couple of months ago but it crapped out during the install and I gave up on it. I will probably give it another shot. I generally use Calibre for transferring EPUBs on to my IPOD, as well for reading books on my computer.
Obviously, I need to understand the EPUB specification better. I recently purchased a book on it by Elizabeth Castro called EPUB Straight to the Point. However, I think she spends too much time on Adobe InDesign and Microsoft Word 2007.
Last question. To properly generate a TOC in EPUBs using Atlantis, do I need to insert a Table of Contents into the document using the "Insert" "Table of Contents" feature, or is it enough for me to "style" the headings and be able to see the proper structure in the control panel prior to saving it as an EPUB?
Thanks.
Obviously, I need to understand the EPUB specification better. I recently purchased a book on it by Elizabeth Castro called EPUB Straight to the Point. However, I think she spends too much time on Adobe InDesign and Microsoft Word 2007.
Last question. To properly generate a TOC in EPUBs using Atlantis, do I need to insert a Table of Contents into the document using the "Insert" "Table of Contents" feature, or is it enough for me to "style" the headings and be able to see the proper structure in the control panel prior to saving it as an EPUB?
Thanks.
You do not need to insert a table of contents through the "Insert | Table of Contents..." menu command of Atlantis. Inline TOCs are optional. Just format the headings in your document with the "Heading N" styles. Please click here for details.
Table of Contents
Thought I would mention the TOC works fine just as you said.
I realize now that Atlantis assigns an "ID" attribute to each of the headings within an <a> tag similar to the way SIGIL does. The only difference is you guys don't use <h> tags.
Anyway now that I know what is going on, I can still use SIGIL to tweak the contents of an EPUB created within Atlantis without freaking out about my headings.
P.S.
I installed Stanza Desktop on my computer. That application is LOUSY. I can read the EPUB from Atlantis in Calibre just fine, including the TOC. I will stick to Stanza on my IPOD.
Thanks.
I realize now that Atlantis assigns an "ID" attribute to each of the headings within an <a> tag similar to the way SIGIL does. The only difference is you guys don't use <h> tags.
Anyway now that I know what is going on, I can still use SIGIL to tweak the contents of an EPUB created within Atlantis without freaking out about my headings.
P.S.
I installed Stanza Desktop on my computer. That application is LOUSY. I can read the EPUB from Atlantis in Calibre just fine, including the TOC. I will stick to Stanza on my IPOD.
Thanks.
SIGIL
Well, I spoke too soon. I made some minor tweaks in SIGIL of the Epub I had created in Atlantis and when I transferred it to my eBook reader, the TOC detail was no longer present.
Anyway, I know now that this is not Atlantis's fault. I look forward to the day when an EPUB editor will work well in conjunction in Atlantis.
Anyway, I know now that this is not Atlantis's fault. I look forward to the day when an EPUB editor will work well in conjunction in Atlantis.
Re: SIGIL
Hi,purcelljf wrote:Well, I spoke too soon. I made some minor tweaks in SIGIL of the Epub I had created in Atlantis and when I transferred it to my eBook reader, the TOC detail was no longer present. Anyway, I know now that this is not Atlantis's fault.
If I create a “.docx” document in Atlantis with Heading 1 and Heading 2 paragraphs (chapter headings) and an inline TOC, and I save that document as EPUB from Atlantis, the resulting EPUB file displays with a correct 2-level TOC in the following Windows Desktop e-readers:
ADE
Firefox (with the EPUB reader add-on found at http://www.epubread.com/en/)
Azardi
Mobipocket Reader
Sony eBook Library
Calibre Viewer
On the other hand, the same 2-level TOC is not displayed correctly in Sigil, which shows only the Heading 1 level.
HTH.
Cheers,
Robert
Can you tell what changes you need to make to your EPUBs? If they are really minor, you can use the tweak_epub utility. It would not ruin the existing TOC of your EPUBs.purcelljf wrote:Well, I spoke too soon. I made some minor tweaks in SIGIL of the Epub I had created in Atlantis ...
Tweak
Well, there were a number of images (back to back) that I had manually added page breaks to in Atlantis that were ignored when I saved it as an EPUB. Normally any time I add a page break manually in my docucment Atlantis will create a separate HTML file for it. Therefore in Sigil, I used the "insert chapter break" between a number of these images.
I also wanted to remove the width and height attributes from the image tags. In party for testing purposes, because I have read in a forums that Stanza and Ibooks will automatically resize the images and they prefer you not assign width and height attributes. I also add a couple of attributes for images such as max-width. Again, for experimenting with the display.
Finally, i think I wanted to see the effect of modifying the margins property that are assigned to the body tags.
I also wanted to remove the width and height attributes from the image tags. In party for testing purposes, because I have read in a forums that Stanza and Ibooks will automatically resize the images and they prefer you not assign width and height attributes. I also add a couple of attributes for images such as max-width. Again, for experimenting with the display.
Finally, i think I wanted to see the effect of modifying the margins property that are assigned to the body tags.
As I understand, you are using Atlantis 1.6.5.1 (please choose the "Help | About..." menu command for the version info). The latest beta version of Atlantis is 1.6.5.2. It will soon be released as a public version.
Atlantis 1.6.5.2 includes a number of changes and improvements to the Save as eBook feature of Atlantis (please click here for details). There are changes affecting page breaks in EPUBs (you can find details here). The "body" page margins can be now specified directly through the "Save as eBook" window of Atlantis.
Please upgrade your Atlantis to the latest beta version 1.6.5.2 – just download the setup file of the latest beta version of Atlantis from the Betatesting page, run it, and follow the onscreen instructions. Then launch the new version of Atlantis, and try saving your documents as eBook.
Most probably you would not need to make any tweaks related to page breaks or "body" margins. If I understand you correctly, the remaining tweaks can be easily done with the tweak_epub utility. The utility is freeware, and it preserves the original TOCs of EPUBs.
Atlantis 1.6.5.2 includes a number of changes and improvements to the Save as eBook feature of Atlantis (please click here for details). There are changes affecting page breaks in EPUBs (you can find details here). The "body" page margins can be now specified directly through the "Save as eBook" window of Atlantis.
Please upgrade your Atlantis to the latest beta version 1.6.5.2 – just download the setup file of the latest beta version of Atlantis from the Betatesting page, run it, and follow the onscreen instructions. Then launch the new version of Atlantis, and try saving your documents as eBook.
Most probably you would not need to make any tweaks related to page breaks or "body" margins. If I understand you correctly, the remaining tweaks can be easily done with the tweak_epub utility. The utility is freeware, and it preserves the original TOCs of EPUBs.
Hi there,
I have seen, that the new release allows to configure the margin at the creation of the epub. Splendid.
May I ask, that the "mandatory elements", like the Title Page from the TOC can be similarly configured? (Like in Mobipocket Creator, the title for TOC can be manually given, as "Table of Contents" looks strange, if the publication is non-english)
The reason behind it, that I create non-english publications, and it needs some manual work to tweak the TOC element text all the time. It is just a "nice to have" feature, as tweaking is not a big deal, just it was the case with the margins.
Thanks in advance.
I have seen, that the new release allows to configure the margin at the creation of the epub. Splendid.
May I ask, that the "mandatory elements", like the Title Page from the TOC can be similarly configured? (Like in Mobipocket Creator, the title for TOC can be manually given, as "Table of Contents" looks strange, if the publication is non-english
)The reason behind it, that I create non-english publications, and it needs some manual work to tweak the TOC element text all the time. It is just a "nice to have" feature, as tweaking is not a big deal, just it was the case with the margins.
Thanks in advance.
oops,
you were faster than me, I found this: http://atlantiswordprocessor.blogspot.c ... ers-2.html
A good workaround anyway
you were faster than me, I found this: http://atlantiswordprocessor.blogspot.c ... ers-2.html
A good workaround anyway
epub
I believe that the combination of HTML and CSS are now sufficiently public that they together with e-pub can be considered portable document formats, which can now compete with Microscope Word. I would like a version of Atlantis where e-pub was the actual file format and the file format for the styles was CSS. If CSS were the basis of the style format, the menus could be based on the CSS nomenclature. Microsoft Expression Web and other tools have this type of technology. A model for this exists in Adobe FrameMaker. This would permit an e-pub document to be opened and subsequently edited in Atlantis. The quality of your code generation needs to be improved to increase its readability. It would be elegant and very powerful if XHTML5 were the basis of e-pub.
Robert Leif email: rleif@rleif.com
Robert Leif email: rleif@rleif.com