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Glossary

Ad hoc styling

This is the application of a combination of individual attributes such as bold, centering and so on, to an existing span of text or paragraph without defining those attributes as part of a named style. The result of using ad hoc styling is the creation of automatic styles (uniquely-named styles) and, when used widely, problems in maintaining consistency or applying certain Jutoh features such as table of content creation that search for specific named styles. Minimize ad hoc styling by editing and applying existing named styles, and creating new ones. Another name for this is direct formatting, so called because attributes such as bold are applied directly without using a named style.

Application

You can ‘apply’ styles to paragraphs, and text spans, and lists. This means giving your content some formatting attributes, such as centering or bold. It is best to apply named styles from the style sheet.

Asset

An ‘asset’ in Jutoh terminology is a fragment of HTML used either as a template to help Jutoh write a book section HTML file, or as some other part that is inserted into the template. Assets are associated both with individual documents, and with the project as a whole. A document’s assets can be edited using Format | Asset Editor, and the project assets via the Assets page in the Project Properties dialog. Most users will not need to edit assets. See the Jutoh Plus guide for more details.

Automatic style

An automatic style is a named character or paragraph style that Jutoh imports or generates when ad hoc styling is applied to a span of text or a paragraph. An automatic style contains one or more ‘+’ symbols. These styles are not usually shown in the style sheet because they are quietly maintained with each document in the project. You should minimize your use of automatic styles because it makes maintaining document consistency harder.

Character style

Named character styles are applied to spans of text within a paragraph. For example, the “URL” style is defined by default, and applies blue and underlining to text. You can view and edit character styles using Project Properties | Edit and clicking on Styles. Then click on Character styles in the drop-down box under the list of styles.

You can apply character styles by right-clicking on selected text, then choosing Styles | Character Styles in the context (popup) menu. You can also use keyboard shortcuts and the Favourites menu – see Customising the user interface.

Compiling

The process of creating (generating, building) an ebook from a Jutoh project.

Configuration

A configuration, in Jutoh terminology, is a group of properties that together determine how an ebook will be generated, including file format, maximum image size, style sheet to use, cover design to use, and so on. Initially, Jutoh has one configuration per format; however, you can create as many configurations as you wish. For example, you might have a general “Epub” configuration, and also an “Apple Books Epub” configuration which contains Apple Books-specific copyright information and cover design.

Context menu

A menu that is shown by right-clicking over a window (Windows and Linux) or control-clicking (on the Mac). A context menu can also be shown by pressing the context key if available on your keyboard. Notable context menus are those associated with the project outline, the content editor, and the formatting palette.

Dialog

A dialog is a window that appears after invoking a particular command; for example, the Project Properties dialog, or the Preferences dialog. Most, but not all, dialogs have to be dismissed before you can work with your project.

Document

A Jutoh project is comprised of documents; mostly you will be working with ‘book section documents’, perhaps one per chapter, one for the title page, another for acknowledgements, and so on. There are other kinds of document, such as the embedded font document, text document, image document, URL document and more, but most users will only create book section documents. If you have imported an existing file, Jutoh may have created all the documents you need. Otherwise, you can add more with the Documents toolbar button or commands on the Document menu. All documents in a project are stored in the same Jutoh project file.

Epub file

This is the industry-standard, open file format for ‘flowable’ ebooks; it uses XHTML for the content. EPUB is defined in detail at idpf.org. Version 2 of the standard is currently the most used, but version 3 is gradually being implemented. Jutoh can generate Epub 2, and some features of Epub 3. All ebook readers apart from Amazon’s Kindle can read Epub 2 files. Epub readers usually have quirks of their own, and so some optimization of Epub can be required for each platform.

Favourite

There are two kinds of favourite in Jutoh – the dominant meaning used in the documentation is favourite style, command or symbol, that can appear on the Favourites toolbar button or in the Favourites tab of the Formatting Palette. These are defined using the command View | Customize Shortcuts. The other, less used, meaning is a favourite project file as listed on the Favourites tab on the Organizer palette. When you open a project, it is added to these favourites for quick access later.

Keyboard shortcut

A key combination for applying a command or style, or inserting a symbol. There are two kinds of shortcut in Jutoh – primary shortcut (such as Ctrl+B) and secondary shortcut (such as Ctrl+. Ctrl+T). A secondary shortcut allows a greater number of shortcuts to be defined by using the Ctrl+. prefix.

Fixed layout ebook

A fixed layout ebook has a set number of pages and each page has a layout that cannot be altered by adjusting font size or other variables, in contrast with a reflowable ebook. A fixed layout book will be scaled to fit the display, and there may be flexibility about whether double-page spreads or single pages are displayed depending on device orientation. This style suits certain kinds of book such as children’s picture books, photography books, and comics. The main variants of fixed layout file format are Epub 3, Kindle KF8, and Apple Books. Jutoh supports the creation of fixed layout books.

Metadata

The description of the book, such as title, author, publication date, and so on. Metadata is edited in the first tab of the Project Properties dialog.

Mobipocket file

This is the native file format for Amazon’s Kindle books, and uses the MOBI or PRC file extension. Mobipocket files are created either using Mobipocket Creator, or (in Jutoh’s case) using Amazon’s ‘kindlegen’ application, which takes a subset of the Epub format as input. The Mobipocket KF7 file format is not as capable as Epub, but Kindle is the single most popular ebook platform by some margin. The KF8 format supersedes the less capable KF7 format and is equivalent to Epub 2 in most respects.

ODT file

Short for OpenDocument Text file, this is the native format of OpenOffice and LibreOffice which are free downloads and can be used to convert between Jutoh and other popular word processor file formats. Recent versions of Microsoft Word can also open ODT files. Jutoh’s recommended file import format is ODT, and Jutoh supports ODT book export.

Paragraph style

Named paragraph styles are applied to whole paragraphs, and are important in enforcing consistency throughout a project. For example, the Normal style is defined by default. You can view and edit paragraph styles using Book | Project Properties or Edit on the toolbar and clicking on Styles. You can apply paragraph styles using the drop-down list in the formatting toolbar, or by right-clicking on selected text, then choosing Styles in the context (popup) menu.

Reflowable ebook

A reflowable ebook does not have a fixed number of pages since pagination is dependent on display size and user customisations, such as font size and device orientation. Jutoh can create both reflowable and fixed layout ebooks.

Style sheet

Usually used to describe the Jutoh style sheet, a collection of paragraph, character and list style definitions. A Jutoh project can have multiple style sheets. Jutoh style sheets are only indirectly related to CSS sheets, and you cannot import from a CSS sheet. However you can export Jutoh style sheets for import into other projects.

Tip

In the context of compiling a project, a tip is a helpful message about the formatting of your book. Tips are shown when the reporting level is set to High. The other message types are error and warning. A different sense of tip is a short topic describing an aspect of Jutoh use, shown randomly when Jutoh starts up if your settings permit, or when you use the command Help | Tips.

 


Contents | Start | End | Previous: Chapter 27: Marketing Your Book | Next: Appendix A: Installing Jutoh