Epub Headings and more

General comments and questions. Technical support.
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mg79
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:25 am

Epub Headings and more

Post by mg79 »

First, thank you for this excellent word processor, I use it beside Word 2003 to do things that aren't comfortable with it, and above all for ebooks.

I noticed that in the last version (beta) headings are formatted as headings also in the Epub file. This is good but it has brought a little side-effect, that is, it isn't possible anymore to make headings non-bold, because headings in my Epubs always appear bold (is this a standard behaviour of HTML files?).

It isn't very important but to make some ebooks identical to their paper counterpart I'd like to keep some headings in non-bold format. Maybe it could be possible to let choose in the epub creation window if you'd like to convert headings or keep them normal?

Also, the first heading in the TOC is always something like 'title page' (I don't know in english) that serves no purpose imo (I always delete it from the TOC with Sigil).

Last, Word 2003 shows both paragraph and character styles in the side panel, whereas Atlantis only shows paragraph styles. In Word it's a bit confusing because they are mixed together. Maybe there could be a switch in the panel to display character styles? Currently it's not possible to select a character style without changing the style for the whole line.

Thanks!
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admin
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Post by admin »

I noticed that in the last version (beta) headings are formatted as headings also in the Epub file. This is good but it has brought a little side-effect, that is, it isn't possible anymore to make headings non-bold, because headings in my Epubs always appear bold (is this a standard behaviour of HTML files?).
This bug has been fixed in the latest beta build of Atlantis. Thanks for reporting. You can upgrade your beta version of Atlantis through the "Help | Check for Updates..." menu command of Atlantis.
Also, the first heading in the TOC is always something like 'title page' (I don't know in english) that serves no purpose imo
When saving a document as eBook, Atlantis in most cases adds a "Title page" item to the eBook's table of contents. This item points to the first paragraph in the eBook. Starting with the latest (as of now) beta version, you can instruct Atlantis not to add that "Title page" item to the eBook's table of contents. All you need is to create a blank heading at the beginning of the source document, and format it with "strikeout". Here is how to proceed:

1) press Ctrl+Home in the source document,
2) press Enter to insert a new blank paragraph at the beginning of the document,
3) press Ctrl+Home again,
4) press Ctrl+Shift+S do display the list of the paragraph styles, select the "Heading 1" style with the cursor keys, then press Enter,
5) press Shift+End to select the entire blank heading,
6) press Ctrl+D to display the "Font Format" dialog,
7) check the "Strikeout" box, and click "OK".

Please also click the following links:

Heading-less chapters
Heading-less chapters (2)
Last, Word 2003 shows both paragraph and character styles in the side panel, whereas Atlantis only shows paragraph styles. In Word it's a bit confusing because they are mixed together. Maybe there could be a switch in the panel to display character styles? Currently it's not possible to select a character style without changing the style for the whole line.
Not sure that understand what you mean. The present version of Atlantis Word Processor does not support character styles.
mg79
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:25 am

Post by mg79 »

Thanks for the fix and the indications.

I also noticed that it is possible to make footnotes restart at each section, but in the epub file all notes are continuous. Is there a way to change this?

Thanks!
Robert
Posts: 1890
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2003 8:27 pm

Post by Robert »

Hi,
The official EPUB Format Specifications do not provide for “page” footnotes, simply because the EPUB format is essentially a reflowable format, and the actual pages are created on-the-fly by each ePub reader, depending on the EPUB rendering engine and the eReader screen size.

Here is from http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/footno ... 01275.html:
As the epub format is actually xhtml at its core, the concept of footnotes is not available. This is actually one of the greatest weaknesses of epub. The current workaround suggested by epub specialists is to use some type of endnotes which provide a 'back link'. Basically, when you click the endnote marker, the ereader takes you to the endnote, and then when you click the endnote, the ereader takes you back to where you were reading.
Having footnotes retain their placement is pointless. The entire concept of epubs (or any decent digital book format) is that they reflow according to the specifications of the device. The same book on a 6'' PRS-600 and a 9.7'' Kindle DX will look totally different. The latter will hold way more text on one page (if you use the same letter size).
Note that Atlantis automatically creates “backlinks” to your EPUB endnotes. As mentioned above “when you click the endnote marker, the ereader takes you to the endnote, and then when you click the endnote, the ereader takes you back to where you were reading”.

In other words, in EPUB documents, the footnotes are automatically converted to endnotes. There is nothing you can do about this, apart from using a different document format.

HTH.
Cheers,
Robert
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