Published
An update to the Digital Hub has been released that features a new conversion, new settings, updated file checks, and several small improvements and fixes.
ScML to Reprocessed ScML Conversion
A new conversion in the digital Hub enables the user to perform additional processing of ScML files. This allows certain Hub conversion options to be changed if the requirements of a project changed at the ScML stage. This provides the opportunity to reprocess an existing ScML file with the following configurable settings:
- Rebuild Table of Contents
- Place Footnotes at End of Chapter
- Renumber Footnotes by Chapter
- Reletter Footnotes by Chapter
- Scribe Language Styles
This conversion also features the new Place Hub Short Descriptions in ScML File conversion setting. If alt text has been added in the Hub record’s Short Description field with uploaded images, this setting will insert that alt text into the ScML file. If there is already alt text for the image in the ScML file, that existing alt text will be retained and the conflict will be reported.
This conversion will also do the following on all files:
- Re-indent the ScML document if indents were removed.
- Change the image extension to match the images in the record where present.
Preserve Word Comment Metadata Conversion Setting
This new setting in MS Word to sam conversions enables round-tripping Word comments. The comments will appear in the sam/ScML file as XML metadata at the beginning of the file instead of as {~?~Scribe-style text callouts} and will be reinstated as Word comments when converting from sam back to MS Word files.
Upon conversion to ePub, these comments will be removed with a notification. Upon conversion to IDTT, they will be converted to Scribe’s standard text callout formatting.
This setting is on by default.
Hub File Check Improvements
Digital Hub file checks have been redesigned to improve clarity. In some cases, yellow file warnings have been recategorized as blue file notices, with one file notice recategorized as a yellow file warning.
While all file checks should be reviewed, this recategorization reinforces a distinction between yellow warnings and blue file notices.
- Yellow warnings point to potential structural issues that can eventually affect conversions and content integrity. These warnings typically indicate issues that must be addressed before proceeding.
- Blue notices point to potential text issues and unusual file decisions that may be incorrect or unintentional. These notices indicate aspects that may be acceptable depending on the particular needs of the project.
This recategorization will only affect newly uploaded/converted files. Files that were processed prior to this Hub update have not been reprocessed.
In addition, if an ScML style in a Word file includes language tags or other attributes (e.g., i@lang=es), this style will not be highighted as a non-ScML style in the file stats.
New AI Text File Notice
A new sam/ScML file notice will warn for the presence of certain key phrases associated with AI-generated alt text from Word and InDesign, which is often added by mistake and does not follow best practices for alt text.
Image Callout Handling
When converting to ScML, all image callouts will be changed to ScML style markup, even if a corresponding image cannot be found in the Hub project. If no corresponding image can be found, the placeholder image filename in the ScML file will use the .jpg file extension. The MS Word callout {~?~IM: insert scr-image-0101 here} will appear in the ScML file as <img src="scr-image0101.jpg"\/>.
Additional Conversion Changes
- When converting ScML to ePub, entire chapters with a lang attribute applied will also have the xml:lang attribute applied to the chapter.
- Conversions to IDTT will retain embedded footnotes in tables. A blue file notice will remain in place for MS Word, sam, and ScML files with embedded footnotes in tables to indicate potential risks. Frequently these notes should be table notes rather than footnotes. Embedded notes within tables can run into numbering issues in print layouts if the tables are taken out of the text flow and placed elsewhere.
Improvements to Alt Text Handling
- Line breaks within alt text will be converted to spaces.
- Using the straight double quote character ("), less than character (<), and greater than character (>) in alt text within Word and InDesign no longer causes catastrophic well-formedness issues when converted to another file format. While these characters still have limited use within alt text, their presence will not completely halt the progress of a file.
- When converting to ePub (or Reprocessed ScML using the new Place Hub Short Descriptions in ScML File setting), a conversion alert will be added if alt text within an ScML file does not match the alt text in the Hub record. This indicates that the version of the alt text in the Hub record will not be placed in the file and the mismatch should be reviewed.