Author Topic: Sigil seems to be broken  (Read 227 times)

Offline stealth

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
Sigil seems to be broken
« on: December 16, 2012, 01:02:11 PM »
According to the rude people on another forum that covers Sigil more specifically. There are some basic functions that can be done in Sigil. Such as add and delete more that one file at a time. My install of it from the PCLOS repo will not do that no matter how I have tried. So I have to assume based on the before mentioned people that it is broken.

Can anyone confirm or deny that Sigil can add and delete multiple files at the same time?

It also appears that the repo version is one version behind the current version. The before mentioned people all suggested upgrading. The one thing that I see about this app is the developer seems to be a pro windows person and does not provide much help toward Linux. He does strongly support windows and Mac.

Offline DeBaas

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1517
    • PCLinuxOS.nl
Re: Sigil seems to be broken
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2012, 03:00:47 PM »
Sgil A WYSIWYG ebook editor
Sorry no ebook or installed ebook reader on my box :(

Offline blarney

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 703
  • I Chose Freedom
Re: Sigil seems to be broken
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2012, 04:30:54 PM »
Can anyone confirm or deny that Sigil can add and delete multiple files at the same time?

I just tested Sigil and discovered I could add several .html files at once but I had to delete them one at a time. Remember you have to convert text files created in other programs into html files before they can be imported.

This was using the File/Add/Existing files dialog (Also available by clicking the + on the menu bar)

Cheers,
Blarney

Offline stealth

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
Re: Sigil seems to be broken
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2012, 05:40:35 PM »
Yes I know about the html requirement and all the other things you mention. How did you select the other files? Because it will not let me select more than one file at a time to import no matter how I attempt it. It will let me do one at a time and not complain unless the file is not well formed.

Offline stealth

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
Re: Sigil seems to be broken
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2012, 08:14:09 PM »
Well you verified that you can't delete more than one file at a time. They say you can add and delete multiple files at a time. But all of them claiming one can add and delete multiple files at a time and saying rude things when asked how are windows and Mac users. The app behavior centers around Microsoft behavior sense that is the OS the app was originally written to run on. Apparently the app is not capable at this time of work correctly in Linux sense the primary focus of the app was Microsoft and apparently still is.

I probably won't waste much more time using it sense epub files can be created with a text editor and a compression app and doing it that way it is actually a lot easier and faster to generate all the necessary files and folders and save the epub file in the finished ready to use form.

Using Sigil is just too limiting and restricting and forces one to do a lot more work.

Offline blarney

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 703
  • I Chose Freedom
Re: Sigil seems to be broken
« Reply #5 on: December 17, 2012, 01:22:59 AM »
Yes I know about the html requirement and all the other things you mention. How did you select the other files? Because it will not let me select more than one file at a time to import no matter how I attempt it. It will let me do one at a time and not complain unless the file is not well formed.

I ctrl-click top file, then shift click bottom file to choose several in a column or ctrl-click on individual files. Still not found a way to delete several.

Despite the odd bug I find Sigil very useful for editing ebooks. I have converted several PDF's into kindle format using a combination of Calibre (To convert to epub), Sigil to edit and then Calibre to convert back to .mobi.

Cheers,
Blarney

Offline stealth

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 635
Re: Sigil seems to be broken
« Reply #6 on: December 17, 2012, 02:10:47 AM »
Okay tried both of those again. After the second attempt they both worked. The first attempt this time froze Sigil.

They also say you can use outside apps like a text editor to do the editing but I haven't been able to get it to open my text editor.

Sigil lets you know real fast if your html files are well formed or not. It also builds a TOC really fast. Other than that if you set up a proper set of folders(one main folder and at least two sub folders) with the proper names and the proper files such as the mimetype and the container.xml and do all your work in those folders and clean up the extra files from your work then just use one of the archive tools to zip the folder and all the sub folders and then just change the zip extension to epub you will have an epub file. I found at least 3 sites that explain how to do it without an app that is specifically written to do it like Sigil. It works just as well if you do it right.

Sigil won't let you see the container.xml file or the mimetype file but you can see all of the epub files and structure and the folders when you open it with an app like ark or something else.

I have a Nook but I don't use it very often. Too hard on my eyes to read very long on anything smaller than a big desktop monitor. Nook reads several more file formats than kindle.