How to edit a Mobi-ebook

[Len666]

Hello,

I sometimes get the neurotic urge to repair the ebook that I'm reading. Like when letters are mutilated in the scanning proces. My Epub files I can edit with Sigil. I am looking for a program that lets me edit Mobi files.

Is there such a program?

Thanks, Len.

[ATDrake]

Technically, no, you can't edit Mobi files directly.

But you can unpack a Mobi file to HTML + OPF/NCX (or convert it to ePub), make your edits, and then recompile your new and improved Mobi.

[Blossom]

There is a Calibre plugin called Mobi Unpack that will extract the mobi and you can edit the html file to your liking. I use this all the time.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Len666

Hello,

I sometimes get the neurotic urge to repair the ebook that I'm reading. Like when letters are mutilated in the scanning proces. My Epub files I can edit with Sigil. I am looking for a program that lets me edit Mobi files.

Is there such a program?

Thanks, Len.

Convert it to EPUB with Calibre then you can edit the Epub with Sigil and convert it back when you're done.

[Len666]

Ok, my thanks for your replies. I'll try the calibre-plugin.
Len.

[terencek]

There's also a quick and dirty way which even novices can use, though the results are variable:

* Use Calibre to convert the file to .RTF
* Edit the file in Microsoft Word just like any normal Word document. Find and replace are perfect and quick for fixing repeated errors (even changing straight to smart quotes, which is more pleasant to read)
* Save to .RTF again in Word, then convert back to .MOBI with Calibre. Voila!

[holgalee]

Thanks to the suggestions, I converted my mobi to epub, and used Sigil. Works great.

[neonbible]

Originally Posted by terencek

There's also a quick and dirty way which even novices can use, though the results are variable:

* Use Calibre to convert the file to .RTF
* Edit the file in Microsoft Word just like any normal Word document. Find and replace are perfect and quick for fixing repeated errors (even changing straight to smart quotes, which is more pleasant to read)
* Save to .RTF again in Word, then convert back to .MOBI with Calibre. Voila!

Haven't thought of doing this before but may give it a go. I've always converted to epub and edited with Sigil. However Sigil can sometimes really screw up the formatting! Sometimes the file I've saved does not look the same as if I reopen it

However, how do you create TOC with a RTF file?

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by terencek

There's also a quick and dirty way which even novices can use, though the results are variable:

* Use Calibre to convert the file to .RTF
* Edit the file in Microsoft Word just like any normal Word document. Find and replace are perfect and quick for fixing repeated errors (even changing straight to smart quotes, which is more pleasant to read)
* Save to .RTF again in Word, then convert back to .MOBI with Calibre. Voila!

It easier to just unpack the mobi using the Calibre plugin then open the HTML up in Word, edit and saved. This is what I do. There's no need to reconvert the file to RTF which Calibre does a poor job of and you can lose formatting.

Once you finish editing the html just drag into Calibre and convert back to mobi. This way you get as close to original formatting as possible.

You can easily change quotes with Calibre by checking the Smarten Punctuation box and skip that step in Word. It's not necessary. Just be sure to have Smart Tags turned off when editing in Word or it will change addressed to italics and other annoying issues.

I mainly use Word to mark chapters and fix broken sentences, formatting and OCR errors.

Before the plugin you could convert the mobi to htmlz which is just a zip file you open and find a html file for editing with. It will work but all code will be Calibre's coding with the mobi unpack plugin you are using the original code which makes it easier to edit and find the tags if needing to be edited.

Just make sure to leave the html file with the opf and ncx file so when you re import you get all the features and navigation of the original mobi unless you want Calibre to recreate them.

With the plugin once you unpack, you will get a folder called Mobi7 and inside will be the html, opf, ncx files and a image folder. Just edit the html file and then drag into the Calibre and it should take everything in the folder and put it in a zip file that you can convert back to mobi and you should be good to go. If you need to be rebuild the TOC be sure to check the Force use of auto-generated table of contents box in Calibre and put the appropriate Xpath expression in the boxes below it.

[ebonygold]

Generating a TOC in Word is simple - just make sure that all relevent headings (ie Chapter headings, Acknowledgements, Authors notes etc) are in a heading style (Heading 1 works the best and you can edit it so it is not blue)
When You have done that simply click where you want the TOC to go and go to:
References > Table of Contents > Automatic Table 1
and its done!
I have used this for all my editing and I have found it works well

As far as TOCs and eBooks go, just hope the eBook was formatted well. I'm not sure about printed books as we never see the files for those, but a LOT of eBooks I've peeked inside of look like they were formatted by idiots. I'm talking about professionally marketed eBooks (ePubs and mobis) marketed by big name publishing houses. You would think these publishers would hire competent technical staff that understand why it is best to format documents in a structured manner, but sadly they don't. If the formatters of the eBook consistently use accepted tags like H1...H6 for headings, then it is fairly easy to generate TOCs. If instead they are inconsistent with the tags, or they use non-tradition tags for headings, then generating the TOC can be problematic depending on which editor you use. I've seen headings made from DIV tags, P tags with various classes assigned, and other non-traditional formatting. Although this formatting might generate the desired formatting results as far as appearance, it typically confuses the editing software.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jswinden

As far as TOCs and eBooks go, just hope the eBook was formatted well. I'm not sure about printed books as we never see the files for those, but a LOT of eBooks I've peeked inside of look like they were formatted by idiots. I'm talking about professionally marketed eBooks (ePubs and mobis) marketed by big name publishing houses. You would think these publishers would hire competent technical staff that understand why it is best to format documents in a structured manner, but sadly they don't. If the formatters of the eBook consistently use accepted tags like H1...H6 for headings, then it is fairly easy to generate TOCs. If instead they are inconsistent with the tags, or they use non-tradition tags for headings, then generating the TOC can be problematic depending on which editor you use. I've seen headings made from DIV tags, P tags with various classes assigned, and other non-traditional formatting. Although this formatting might generate the desired formatting results as far as appearance, it typically confuses the editing software.

So true! Let's not forget the annoying font tags as well that keep you ereader from changing font sizes correctly.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by ebonygold

Generating a TOC in Word is simple - just make sure that all relevent headings (ie Chapter headings, Acknowledgements, Authors notes etc) are in a heading style (Heading 1 works the best and you can edit it so it is not blue)
When You have done that simply click where you want the TOC to go and go to:
References > Table of Contents > Automatic Table 1
and its done!
I have used this for all my editing and I have found it works well

That won't give you navigation on your Kindle so you can jump from chapter to chapter. It's easier to just let Calibre create the TOC and Navigation. The Xpath by default will catch h1 and h2 once they are marked in Word. I use h3 tags myself and use a more direct regex.

[miklosh]

I'm a newbie to this eBook stuff, so please bear with me on the long explanation...
I have a few picture books (with small snppiets of text) I want to publish for all Kindle platforms.

I asked a friend who is a programmer to do the coding for me, which he did, and now I want to use his original Mobi file, change the pictures and html where needed and repack everything so I don't have to bother him again for all the books.

I came across this thread and tried the Mobi unpack Plugin, and successfully unpacked the mobi file to me designated folder. I get 2 folders (mobi7 and mobi8) and since I want the latest version I looked into mobi8 folder and found the xhtml files and the pictures. So I'm changing these accordingly, and now I need to repack as Mobi, so my question is... HOW CAN I DO THAT???

Again apologies for the long post, but I wanted this to be clear...

Thanks in advance guys!!

Originally Posted by miklosh

I'm a newbie to this eBook stuff, so please bear with me on the long explanation...
I have a few picture books (with small snppiets of text) I want to publish for all Kindle platforms.

I asked a friend who is a programmer to do the coding for me, which he did, and now I want to use his original Mobi file, change the pictures and html where needed and repack everything so I don't have to bother him again for all the books.

I came across this thread and tried the Mobi unpack Plugin, and successfully unpacked the mobi file to me designated folder. I get 2 folders (mobi7 and mobi8) and since I want the latest version I looked into mobi8 folder and found the xhtml files and the pictures. So I'm changing these accordingly, and now I need to repack as Mobi, so my question is... HOW CAN I DO THAT???

Again apologies for the long post, but I wanted this to be clear...

Thanks in advance guys!!

Assuming there is an *.OPF file, you can open that file with Kindle Previewer and it will convert it back to a mobi7/KF8 file.

The *.OPF file is probably located in the OEBPS folder.

You can download the Kindle Previewer from here.