How do I create chapters without a page-break between?

[bfollowell]

How do I have chapters run together on a single page, without a page-break. I'm recreating a book that doesn't page-break at new chapters. There's just a little bit of space and then a new chapter number and on you go. I've seen this done in ebooks before but really can't find a decent example right now to look at.

Even though there isn't a page-break, each chapter is setup as a separate html file. There are no page-before options set. I don't know if something isn't coded right in Sigil or if it's a Calibre issue when I do my final conversion to mobi. I don't see options set there that I think would be causing it either. Do I need to have all fifty some-odd chapters setup as one single html file with the chapter headers marked within the file? It doesn't seem like that would make a difference but maybe it does.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

- Byron

[theducks]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

How do I have chapters run together on a single page, without a page-break. I'm recreating a book that doesn't page-break at new chapters. There's just a little bit of space and then a new chapter number and on you go. I've seen this done in ebooks before but really can't find a decent example right now to look at.

Even though there isn't a page-break, each chapter is setup as a separate html file. There are no page-before options set. I don't know if something isn't coded right in Sigil or if it's a Calibre issue when I do my final conversion to mobi. I don't see options set there that I think would be causing it either. Do I need to have all fifty some-odd chapters setup as one single html file with the chapter headers marked within the file? It doesn't seem like that would make a difference but maybe it does.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

- Byron

50 Chapters is probably bigger than 260K (If Calibre splits the chapter part file, it probably is.), Many readers can't handle that in a single segment.

Look in the Style sheet for a "page-break-before:...", that may give you some control.
I suggest you read up on that before doing wild things with the setting:

[bfollowell]

Originally Posted by theducks

50 Chapters is probably bigger than 260K (If Calibre splits the chapter part file, it probably is.), Many readers can't handle that in a single segment.

Look in the Style sheet for a "page-break-before:...", that may give you some control.
I suggest you read up on that before doing wild things with the setting:

Nope, I don't think the size has anything to do with it. I have mine set larger than that anyway, larger than the entire size of the ebook. Also, it isn't breaking at odd places or anything. It's breaking at each and every chapter heading. I just don't see anything in Calibre that tells it to do that and I've checked my stylesheet in Sigil and the class I'm using for my chapter headers doesn't have page-break-before set at all.

I'll keep playing and looking for another response. Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it.

- Byron

[Danger]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

Even though there isn't a page-break, each chapter is setup as a separate html file..
- Byron

I just checked this. If the chapters are separate html files you will get page-breaks for the beginning of each chapter regardless of the fact you didn't specify a page-break in the css. If you don't want page-breaks you'll have to have all the chapters in one html file.

There might be something else you can do but I don't have more time to experiment. You could try playing around with any of the following:
page-break-inside: avoid;
page-break-after: avoid;
page-break-before: avoid;

[Ahmad Samir]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

Even though there isn't a page-break, each chapter is setup as a separate html file. There are no page-before options set. I don't know if something isn't coded right in Sigil or if it's a Calibre issue when I do my final conversion to mobi. I don't see options set there that I think would be causing it either. Do I need to have all fifty some-odd chapters setup as one single html file with the chapter headers marked within the file? It doesn't seem like that would make a difference but maybe it does.

Yes, it does. If each chapter is in a separate HTML file, you'll always get a page break before (in most readers).

See Valloric's post here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55960

[bfollowell]

Thanks guys for confiming what I was already starting to believe.

I may try combining the files into one file with the heading tags to differentiate between the chapters. The total text of the book is less than 500 or 600k so that should work.

It just may not be worth it though. I'll try it and see how it works and how it looks.

Thanks again everyone.

- Byron

[Ahmad Samir]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

Thanks guys for confiming what I was already starting to believe.

I may try combining the files into one file with the heading tags to differentiate between the chapters. The total text of the book is less than 500 or 600k so that should work.

It just may not be worth it though. I'll try it and see how it works and how it looks.

Thanks again everyone.

- Byron

I had the same query when I started using the ePub format; in the end I reached the conclusion that it has more pros to have them as separate files (e.g. Sigil is much faster dealing with the split xhtml files than with one big file when changing from Book View to Code View or vice versa).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Ahmad Samir

I had the same query when I started using the ePub format; in the end I reached the conclusion that it has more pros to have them as separate files (e.g. Sigil is much faster dealing with the split xhtml files than with one big file when changing from Book View to Code View or vice versa).

Portable readers load lots faster when chapter size files.

That includes those with small graphics.

[Danger]

Just an opinion but I really prefer my chapters to start on a fresh page rather than a continuous run. It also makes for much easier editing.

[bfollowell]

I agree with you guys. It's just that I'm trying to recreate a book as close to the original as the ebook medium will allow.

It's going well but I have definitely noticed a little speed decrease working with much larger files. It's not too bad though.

- Byron

[theducks]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

I agree with you guys. It's just that I'm trying to recreate a book as close to the original as the ebook medium will allow.

It's going well but I have definitely noticed a little speed decrease working with much larger files. It's not too bad though.

- Byron

I am the new page for a chapter type, also!
but a long book will probably have Parts,
Compromize
Start at a Part break.

[huebi]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

I agree with you guys. It's just that I'm trying to recreate a book as close to the original as the ebook medium will allow.

Thats not possible or does not really makes sense. We had that in the beginning of the WWW where everyone tried to be as close as possible to flyers or catalogs. The results where "best viewed with..." banner, "your browser does not support frames" and so one.

In epubs you dont have pagenumbers (well, readers sometimes show them, but they will vary from reader to reader and have nothing to with the real books page numbering), you dont have headers nor footers, footnotes are not at the end of a page but are clickable right in the text. For a good navigation the table of content should not be in the book itself as text but in the meta data, you do not have control over the font size and often not over the font itself.

So why insist in a continuous flow over chapters?

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

The total text of the book is less than 500 or 600k so that should work.

Please keep in mind, that some readers will not be able to read a book if the xhtml-files are larger than 300k. I believe that the sony readers have that issue, but I think more.

[bfollowell]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Please keep in mind, that some readers will not be able to read a book if the xhtml-files are larger than 300k. I believe that the sony readers have that issue, but I think more.

True, but my readers don't have a problem with that and this is one I'm creating for personal use, not public. Thanks for the reminder though.

- Byron

[huebi]

You should not insist in assumptions like that. "640k should be enough for everyone" is of the same kind. Better keep track for limitations, you dont know what your next reader is able to handle after your current one is not working any more.