Split File at Cursor?

[Jaws]

I'm probably overlooking something obvious...

I have a bad mobi source converted to ePub. I want to manually place my cursor at locations in the (7.5mb!) index.html file and split at that point. Because it's a conversion from mobi, I cannot use an xpath expression -- the option offered when placing the cursor where I want to split and then right-clicking -- to tell it where to convert (you really don't want to see some of the goofy code). Neither the Tools nor the Edit menus offer anything other than Split at Multiple Locations.

So what am I missing?

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Jaws

So what am I missing?

Nothing that I am aware of. That feature is not available.

There have been many times when a single split option would definitely have come in handy for me.

You just have to manually create a new xhtml file then cut and paste.

[Jaws]

I was afraid of that.

The only other option I can see is to manually drop fake-code markers like

<p class="splitbabyhere"></p>

into the index.xhtml file at the desired split points -- but then I still can't be sure that an xpath statement would work correctly. Since I don't use xpath for anything else, I'd almost certainly screw it up even if that's the right approach, especially working on a new machine with an oversensitive touchpad.

[gbm]

Look under the file preview of teh editor.







bernie

Originally Posted by Jaws

I'm probably overlooking something obvious...

I have a bad mobi source converted to ePub. I want to manually place my cursor at locations in the (7.5mb!) index.html file and split at that point. Because it's a conversion from mobi, I cannot use an xpath expression -- the option offered when placing the cursor where I want to split and then right-clicking -- to tell it where to convert (you really don't want to see some of the goofy code). Neither the Tools nor the Edit menus offer anything other than Split at Multiple Locations.

So what am I missing?

[BetterRed]

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔ - what he said

Could you use the Preview panel Split tool, viz:



BR

[Jaws]

I apparently wasn't clear enough. I don't want to split appearance in the editor; I want to actually split the files, so that I don't have an epub consisting of a "cover" and a 7.5mb "index.xhtml."

I went ahead and did the fake-code kludge, which sort of worked. This is what I get for dealing with very-first-generation mobi files made from government documents. Now I only have seventeen other types of artifacts that make the file darned near impossible to actually read to clean up.

Being able to point-and-split-the-file-not-just-the-view would be a useful feature, though. On the other hand, the fake-code kludge sure beats the excessive file-splitting that results when converting heavily-illustrated/filled-with-tables Kindle books to epubs.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by gbm

Look under the file preview of teh editor.
bernie

Oh, damn. I never noticed that!!
Thanks.

[BetterRed]

The Preview Split feature creates a new file at each spit, viz:



Splitting HTML files

BR

[enuddleyarbl]

Eee gods! I never noticed that split feature in the Editor's Preview window either. And, thanks from me, too!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Eee gods! I never noticed that split feature in the Editor's Preview window either. And, thanks from me, too!

Don't feel bad. I had to ask where it was shortly after it came out.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Jaws

I was afraid of that.

The only other option I can see is to manually drop fake-code markers like

<p class="splitbabyhere"></p>

into the index.xhtml file at the desired split points -- but then I still can't be sure that an xpath statement would work correctly. Since I don't use xpath for anything else, I'd almost certainly screw it up even if that's the right approach, especially working on a new machine with an oversensitive touchpad.

Hey I use <div class="splithere"> </div>

It works just fine
Just do whatever to place the split point markers.

The Right-click in the code:split at multiple locations:

//h:div[re:test(@class, "split_here", "i")]

After the split, you will need to bulk remove the 'marker'

[Jaws]

After the split, you will need to bulk remove the 'marker'

Not so much. You have no idea just how screwed up the source file is; any bulk removal is likely to run into Problems (I tried to bulk-correct a misspelling and, 45 minutes later, Calibre exited).

I respectfully suggest that whoever designed that icon for the split-via-preview feature is both insane and has far better vision than I do. That is not an intuitive icon... and doing the split from the preview window risks incorrectly splitting other code (like the ends of tables; I did try... after someone pointed this out... and it left a hanging </table> at the top of the file because the source file doesn't have consistent vertical spacing and linebreaks).

So if it's possible to do in the preview editor, I'd like to do it in the code window, too. But I suspect that's not a high priority.

[BetterRed]

If I don't like the result of a Preview split, I go to the Edit menu and choose the first item which will be something like "Revert to "Before: Split index_split_001.html"

If I don't know what an icon button does (given I'm a card-carrying iconoclast, that is 90% of the time) I hover the mouse and read the tooltip, calibre's tooltips are considerably better than most applications.

I also recommend spending time viewing the Editor video, it covers many of non-obvious features - like checkpoint/reversion of significant events - such as preview splits. And its one of the few "how to" videos I can bear to watch.

BR