PPTools/Guiguts/Install/Windows
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Note
This page refers to installation of Guiguts 1, which is no longer being actively maintained. You are recommended to use Guiguts 2, details here |
Install Guiguts (and Perl if necessary)
Step-by-step installation instructions are provided within the Guiguts zip download, in a file called INSTALL.md.
You can also read this file directly at GitHub.
To download the Guiguts package as a zip file, open the Guiguts GitHub page
Follow the instructions in INSTALL.md to get Guiguts installed. If you haven't previously installed it, you will need Perl, which is also explained in INSTALL.md.
Notes on old versions of Perl
If this is the first time you have upgraded to a version of Guiguts that needs Strawberry Perl, and you still have old versions of Guiguts on your computer, you may have settings on your system that point to the old version of Perl that was used. If you do, you will probably notice this when you try to run install_cpan_modules.pl, when you will get lots of errors. If you don't notice at that point, you will notice when you try to run Guiguts and the black command window appears and disappears almost instantly, and Guiguts doesn't run. Note that this latter event is also a symptom of not having tried to run install_cpan_modules.pl at all. So, first just try double clicking install_cpan_modules.pl and see if you get lots of errors rather than successful installation messages.
To check if the problem is an old Perl version, start a command window and type perl --version. If this reports a version of Perl such as 5.8.9, rather than a much higher number, such as 5.30, then your system is still using the old Perl. To fix this, you need to edit your system PATH. This is an environmental variable, and the exact method of editing it depends on your version of Windows. You can see the current setting for PATH by typing PATH into the command window. It will output a list of folder names, separated by semicolons. Somewhere in that list you will see folders such as
C:\Strawberry\c\bin;C:\Strawberry\perl\site\bin;C:\Strawberry\perl\bin;
You need to edit the path so that those folders come at the start, and definitely before any other folders that mention perl. Under Windows 10, go to Settings, and type path into the search bar (within Settings). One of the results will be to "Edit the system environment variables", and when you choose that it will pop a System Properties dialog, showing the Advanced tab. Under other versions of Windows, you may be able to bring up the same dialog from the Control Panel, then choosing System. In that dialog, choose Environment Variables, and look in the System variables list for PATH (may not be capitalised), and edit it. In some versions of Windows, you can click on a folder that you want to prioritise then use Move Up to move it to the start. Do this for the Strawberry Perl folders. In other versions, you may need to manually select the folders you want to move (including the final semicolon) then cut them and paste them into the desired position nearer the start of the Path.
Once you have exited the dialog, you should also exit the command window you had open before and open a new one before trying to run the install_cpan_modules.pl script again.
As an alternative, or if all else fails, try the following steps:
- Copy run_guiguts.bat to run_cpan.bat in your Guiguts installation folder.
- Edit run_cpan.bat (you can right-click and edit, or use any other editor)
- Look for a line perl "%GG_DIR%guiguts.pl" "%ED_FILE%"
- Replace it with perl "%GG_DIR%install_cpan_modules.pl"
- Save run_cpan.bat
- Double-click run_cpan.bat
- If that appears to successfully install things, try double clicking run_guiguts.bat to run Guiguts.
If Guiguts starts OK, then you have succeeded.
Optional: Install Aspell Spell Checker
From Guiguts release 1.4.1 onwards, using the new Spell Query tool rather than Spell Check does not require Aspell.
To use the original Spell Check tool you need to have installed the Aspell (version 5) spell checker. See PPTools/Aspell.
The latest Windows version is here: Windows Aspell
Note that this version does not correspond to the latest Aspell. This is the only version for Windows at the moment.
Install Aspell Dictionaries
Aspell is of no use without at least one dictionary. Dictionaries are available for many languages and variants from the same page indicated by the above link.
Download and install the dictionaries for the languages you will proof. If you download the English dictionaries be sure to include US, British, and Canadian spelling variants.
Install an Image Viewer
In order to have Guiguts display the image of a page whenever you click the button in its status bar, you need to install an image viewer.
XnView
One free viewer that works well with Guiguts is XnView. It exists in two forms, either of which will work well as an image viewer and simple editor.
XnView Classic is Windows-only. Guiguts will normally find this automatically if you have installed it to the default location.
XnViewMP is a newer multi-platform version version with similar features. If you choose XnViewMP, you will probably need to tell Guiguts where you have installed it.
These Xnview options are helpful for Guiguts interaction:
Tools -> Settings... -> General -> Allow only one instance of XnView
-> Interface -> Mouse -> Mouse Wheel -> Scroll up/down
-> Interface -> Remember last window position/size ???
-> View -> Only one window view opened (or Only one instance)
-> Auto Image Size -> Fit image to window width
-> High zoom quality -> Reduce, Enlarge
Irfanview
Another nice free image viewer.
Link: Irfanview
Windows Default Viewer
If you're happy with the default viewer for Windows, you can access it as follows.
- Make a text file in the same directory you have Guiguts in, called "open.bat". You can use a different name, if you'd like, but keep the ".bat" extension.
- Put the following code in it. The first line turns off echoing of the lines; the second invokes the first argument passed to the script.
@echo off start "" %1
Once you set open.bat to be your viewer, when Guiguts invokes it, the name of the file to be viewed is passed to the script, which passes it to Windows, which opens it the default way.
Optional: Install Calibre or kindlegen
Ebookmaker (included with Guiguts) creates an epub file from an HTML file. It can also create mobi files for viewing on older Kindle devices. If you want ebookmaker to do this, you need a conversion tool on your system.
From release 1.4.1 onwards
Install Calibre. No further setup is necessary.
For releases up to and including 1.4.0
Install kindlegen. This is contained within Amazon's Kindle Previewer, which you can install, and then ensure that Guiguts knows where kindlegen is - see below.
If you prefer not to install Kindle Previewer, you can use a version of kindlegen.exe from an earlier release of Guiguts that's already on your computer. If you have such a version, you may want to place a copy of kindlegen.exe in a separate, permanent folder to protect it should you decide to delete the older release of Guiguts. (In releases of Guiguts before 1.3, kindlegen.exe is in the tools->kindlegen folder of your Guiguts installation.)
Set Up Helpers
In recent versions (1.1.0 and later), Guiguts will be able to locate most of the helper applications by itself. Otherwise, you need to tell Guiguts where to find them.
Start Guiguts by double-clicking run_guiguts.bat. Select Preferences --> File Paths --> Set File Paths
Optionally, select Locate Aspell Executable. Browse to find C:\Program Files\Aspell\bin\Aspell.exe or C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspell\bin\Aspell.exe. Click Open.
Select Locate Image Viewer Executable. Browse to find C:\Program Files\XnView\XnView.exe or C:\Program Files (x86)\XnView\XnView.exe or the executable of another viewer. Click Open.
Optionally, select Locate Kindlegen. Browse to find C:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Amazon\Kindle Previewer 3\lib\fc\bin\kindlegen.exe or wherever you have installed it. Click Open.
Your Guiguts installation is now ready for use.
Optional: Install DP Sans Mono Font
Viewing your etexts in the DP Sans Mono font helps find typos. If you have already installed this font, nothing further is required to use it with Guiguts. You can change the font being used via Preferences --> Appearance --> Set Font...
For complete directions on installing the font and receiving notifications when it is updated see the DP Sans Mono wiki page.
Post-Processing Links
Clicking the Categories links at page bottom will display indexes of a number of Post-Processing Wiki pages.