About "good order list" of things to read for beginners

Dear Mr.Mark Anderson,
Thank a lot for taking time out of your hectic schedule to reply.
I believe exported HTML have right spacing.

[ wkhtmltopdf …Table of Contents” --toc-text-size-shrink 1 --toc-level-indentation 4em … ], contain some dubious descriptions, I think.

Only my problem is when I get the PDF with Preview.app, TOC become too small display size.
[Table of Contents text size very small -Help · Issue #756 · mileszs/wicked_pdf · GitHub], I read this problem here.
Today, I install wkhtmltox-0.12.6-0.20200605.30.rc.faa06fa.macos-cocoa.pkg,
may well be able to get right font size, I hope.
If I was free tomorrow, check it out.

Could I ask about CSS files ?
Q01:
Which CSS file should I check again ?
There are 3 css, manual.css, print.css and screen.css,
those which came from your drop Box.
And other hand, article.css I use to export, too.
Attached for your review is this article.css.
Q02:
Should I use same type of font-family for every css??
article.css is Times New Roman.
Your css are HelveticaNeue.(American Typewriter for code)
Should I preserve the unity of font family??
Please lead me toward.
Respectfully, WAKAMATSU
NOTICE:3 png from HTML & 2 article.css.png





article.css2

I’m afraid, that helpful as the pictures are to show the problem, them do not explain why the line-space problem is happening.

I see from wkhtmltopdf that wkhtmltopdf v0.12.6 should be released in a week or so. Meanwhile, I am happily using v0.12.5 at present**. Note: I’m not expert with this and I use the wkhtmltopdf tool only occasionally.

** Oops it looks like i’m actually using a beta of v0.12.6. I’d try v0.12.5 awyway as it is more recent than your current version.
If you do want to try v0.1.2.5 here are the command lines I use. Note the filenames are set for the Tinderbox help-file so you will need to edit the script accordingly.

/the first script, run on the HTML after export from Tinderbox, and which fixes the in-page HTML links is:

sed -E 's:href=\"help[^\.]*\/([^\.]+)\.html\":href=\"#x\1\":g' print-export-source.html > print-export-source-proc.html

The wkhtmltopdf script is:

wkhtmltopdf --outline --page-size "A4" --footer-spacing 4 --print-media-type --footer-center "[page] of [topage]" --footer-font-name "Helvetica Neue" --footer-font-size 11 --footer-line --footer-spacing 5 --header-spacing 5 --header-line --header-center "Tinderbox v8 Manual" --header-font-name "Helvetica Neue" --enable-toc-back-links toc --enable-toc-back-links --toc-header-text "Tinderbox v8.6 Manual - Table of Contents" --toc-text-size-shrink 1 --toc-level-indentation 4em "print-export-source-proc.html" "Tinderbox v8.6.0 Manual.pdf"

Install and try the newer wkhtmltopdf version and see if that helps. Otherwise, it might help to see your HTML page, i.e. be able to load it into my web browser.

Dear Mr.Mark Anderson,
Thanks a lot.
I will wait untill July 11 to get new release wkhtmltopdf.
This evening I will try out an experiment with v0.12.5, anyway.
I will tell you more about outgrowth later on.
Quick-fix acknowledge.
Thx and regards, WAKAMATSU

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Good luck and do ask if you get stuck again.

I found that each time I updated wkhtmltopdf I needed to check my scrip and sometimes—for reasons I never understand—had to add or change the parameters I used. I guess that is all part of using small undocumented open-source software: it doesn’t work, until it does, then it doesn’t again. :open_mouth:

Dear Mr.Mark Anderson,
I am delighted to report that with wkhtmltopdf v0.12.5, Jankelevitch Manual, using PDF Expert.app to the following additional effect [–zoom 0.9 --disable-smart-shrinking]&[ --toc-text-size-shrink 0.9] come within an inch of desired display list.
(both digitize size should be identical in order that 0.8 ~ 0.9)
If I simply by changing [–zoom 1.0] , long sentences are interrupted on the extreme right.

wkhtmltopdf --outline --page-size “A4” --zoom 0.9 --disable-smart-shrinking --footer-spacing 4 --print-media-type --footer-center “[page] of [topage]” --footer-font-name “Helvetica Neue” --footer-font-size 11 --footer-line --footer-spacing 5 --header-spacing 5 --header-line --header-center “Jankelevitch Manual” --header-font-name “Helvetica Neue” --enable-toc-back-links toc --enable-toc-back-links --toc-header-text “Jankelevitch Manual - Table of Contents” --toc-text-size-shrink 0.9 --toc-level-indentation 4em “LaMusiqueEtIneffabl-proc.html” “Jankelevitch Manual-11.pdf”

I will take a delight in doing With wkhtmltopdf v0.12.6, on the weekend.
Yours sincerely, WAKAMATSU

Happiness! Your persistence has paid off. These command line tools can take some tinkering, but i’m really happy to know this now works for you. Doubtless, when v0.12.6 comes out we will all be changing our scripts again. :roll_eyes:

It is useful to remember that there are two parts to this process. Most can we done in the Tinderbox export with the exception of the ‘sed’ command line I posted above. Once exported from Tinderbox and that command is run it is likely other HTML → PDF tools may work, if you have them. There are things like Prince which cost $$$, but some people may have access, e.g. via a University library or similar.

Thank you for sharing your progress with us. :slight_smile:

As a native frenchman I’d be glad to help with the french translation.

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Dear Dr. Mark Anderson,
How are you getting on?
I am delighted to report that, about apply to wkhtmltox-0.12.6.
Today, I download wkhtmltox-0.12.6-2.macos-cocoa.pkg,
finally start to make “Jankelevitch Manual-35.pdf”.
As the result :
Without [–zoom] , pdf file is too small font-size for an accurate diagnosis.
–zoom 1.8 : Too small body text
–zoom 2.5 : suitably sized
–zoom 2.5 --disable-smart-shrinking :seem worth a try, as-yet faceless
Applicable condition :
Using [ sed ] is same old routine. Under OSX Mojave (10.14.6)

wkhtmltopdf --outline --page-size “A4” --zoom 2.5 --footer-spacing 4 --print-media-type --footer-center “[page] of [topage]” --footer-font-name “Helvetica Neue” --footer-font-size 11 --footer-line --footer-spacing 5 --header-spacing 5 --header-line --header-center “Jankelevitch Manual” --header-font-name “Helvetica Neue” --enable-toc-back-links toc --enable-toc-back-links --toc-header-text “Jankelevitch Manual - Table of Contents” --toc-text-size-shrink 1 --toc-level-indentation 4em “LaMusiqueEtIneffabl-proc.html” “Jankelevitch Manual-35.pdf”
To the following effect :


Yours sincerely, WAKAMATSU kunimitsu

Well done! I’m so happy it worked and to see an example of the technique being used for content other than the Help file. :smile:

I’m also reminded to update my wkhtmltopdf to v0.12.6 (now done). It is easier now recent versions have a normal macOS installer.

Thanks for sharing your example with us, which may hopefully help others wanting to try out the process.

Dear WAKAMATSU,
I am interested in “La Musique et l’Ineffable.tbx”.
I would like to learn how you structure the information.

Thank you very much!
Cheers,
Khon

Dear Khon,
Thank you very much for your interest in my tbx.
I am not sure what you mean by “how you structure the information” in your question.
I just followed the table of contents of “La Musique et l’Ineffable”
and picked up some things what I did not know.
I am just following the subject of this book by Jankélévitch.
I just took out one thing at a time that I did not understand
and summarized it as an item.
The philosopher and musician Jankélévitch is far beyond the scope of what I learned in Europe.
Bergson is one of my teacher of philosophy.
Bergson and Jankélévitch may have been acquaintances of Marcel MOYSE, my music teacher.
I also wanted to compare and examine the culture of my teacher’s generation.
At the same time, I wanted to compare and investigate.
I was concerned that the Japanese translation did not reflect the French content very accurately, so I decided to rewrite half of it.
I have picked up an overview of the musicians from WiKi. The musical content was examined by collecting and analyzing the scores of the works cited whenever possible.
Thx and regards, WAKAMATSU
P.S
Where does your cultural background come from?

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Dear WAKAMATSU,
Thank you very much for the very details! You are very kind and open.
I am also very grateful to this forum community which is so great with so many generous people sharing different guidelines, tips and template starters.
About me, I am a software engineer and live in Vietnam. And I am a newcomer to this community. Beside the technical topics, I am also interested in history, economics market and Buddhism.

Personally, I realized my limits in term of body, energy, time, constraints, but so many things I want to read, grasp, do and achieve. To complement the physical limits, I have been searching for different kinds of support systems to realize the “Memex” (later, I learned the term “hypertext” in this community) or Knowledge Management System which I usually call it.

I found that Tinderbox is a very “precious device” that I have been seeking, beside my current toolbox of emacs and org-mode, DEVONthink, Curio and fzf (for indexing/searching my ideas in org-mode text files). Tinderbox helps me capture the atomic thoughts at runtime effectively, connect them perfectly over time and gradually produce higher stories and patterns. I am still a beginner of learning and integrating Tinderbox into my workflows.

I am quite satisfied with Tinderbox, my current toolbox and workflows to help organize information in the “mechanical-level” processes (taking notes, read/write/query/aggregation, analysis/synthesis). However, I would like to learn the “mental part” of reading process how professional people identify “what matters” via data sources (books, news, etc.) according to their priority and value system. I believe effective readers don’t just simply consume information in one direction, but have a two-way conversation with the book content (authors’ thought) in which the readers might develop some controlling questions, mental models and search criteria while digesting and internalizing the book contents.

In short, I would like to learn the “art” how professional/effective readers in other fields (e.g. musical, philosophy) use Tinderbox in their reading process by looking at their real Tinderbox documents. Please feel free to say “no” if the document is private to you.

Thank you very much!
Yours respectfully,
Khon

Dear Khon,
Thank you very much for your information about fzf.
I would like to try it to index ideas in org-mode text files.
I am currently using Emacs 27 as spacemacs27 and using org-roam for diary-like notes.
I have been using Peronal Brain (now renamed The Brain) for many years, so I am familiar with org-roam-ui.
I have been trying to port my LaTeX files stored in Emacs to Tinderbox.

Mr. Paul Walters gave me some advice in this column.
Quote Above:
Respectfully, though, I suggest you will learn more by creating your own personal manual
(in Tinderbox of course) than translating whole books, sites, or other manuals. other manuals.

La Musique et l’Ineffable.tbx is a personal manual for understanding Jankélévitch,
so unfortunately I am keeping it private.
Please understand that it is not available to the public.
Also, aTbRef-8.tbx into Japanese is no longer of much use to me.
The reason is as Dr. Mark Anderson pointed out, aTbRef source TBX can be read in any foreign language as a native language because it can be translated by Google Translate.
(I do not want discuss the mistranslation of google translation here).
If you have any questions about Mr. Jankélévitch, not only about “La Musique et l’Ineffable”,
please contact me.
Sincerely yours, WAKAMATSU(From Japanese over 70 years old)

1 Like

Dear WAKAMATSU,
Thank you for your informative details.
About the fzf, I usually have the org-mode headings to contain taggers (like hashtag, but instead of starting withh ‘#’, my choice was ‘@’), contextual information, or even any Curio/DEVONthink/Tinderbox/Google Doc/etc URL in one-line. By this way, I can use Linux commands like grep to collect all org-mode headings in multiple org-mode text files into one place and feed into fzf for search/query. The fzf command serves as a top-layer query interface that quickly leads me to other applications (DEVONthink, Curio, Google Doc, etc.) or the original location of the org-mode entries. I am also thinking of export the Tinderbox notes (headline only with some contextual information) into org-mode entries so I could query all data in one single interface. This task is on my list now.

About Mr. Paul Walters’s advice of creating personal manual of Tinderbox, that’s very nice idea! I am currently running that path.

About “La Musique et l’Ineffable”, I understand it. No worry!

Thank you very much for your kindness!
Yours respectfully,
Khon

Dear Khon Trieu,
Yesterday, I got fzf via Homebrew.
I am going to learn how to use it a bit.
You use Linux commands like grep to collect all org-mode headings in multiple org-mode text files into one place and feed into fzf for search/query.
How about
[[Searching for a note across several folders and or files (XQuery + Keyboard Maestro) - External Scripting of Tinderbox - Tinderbox Forum]]

Thx and regards, WAKAMATSU

Dear WAKAMATSU,
Sorry for my late reply.

I got fzf via Homebrew.

Very nice to hear it! If you have any trouble of collecting/indexing your Emacs org-mode headings (ideas/notes), please let me know your problems, I could support or share some scripts.

[[Searching for a note across several folders and or files (XQuery + Keyboard Maestro) - External Scripting of Tinderbox - Tinderbox Forum]]

And many thanks for the pointer. It’s very useful for me to extract/search notes of Tinderbox documents and feed into my fzf system.

Yours respectfully,
Khon

Dear Khon Trieu(tkt028),
It’s been quite a while since I posted on the Tinderbox Forum.
How are you spending your time at the moment?
Now, regarding this post, when you use tzf on Tinderbox,
What kind of work do you do?
What kind of usage do you recommend?
I would appreciate it if you could teach me how to use it.

The usage environment on Mac has changed significantly.
Currently Mac Studio M1 OS Ventura13.6.5
Tinderbox 9.6.1
fzf–0.48.1.arm64_ventura
Yours respectfully, WAKAMATSU
P.S.
Japanese version of Mellel 6 (ver.6.0.3)
I plan to retire from helping after the project is completed.