Sigil and chapters.

[p3aul]

I use the epub format exclusively and I sometimes have to convert files from different formats to epub. There again, I use Calibre, exclusively, usually ebook-convert on the command line. When Calibre has finished converting I load the file into Sigil because Sometimes Calibre won't detect the chapter headings automatically. Now here comes the problem:
Calibre has split each chapter into a separate htm file, so it must know where the chapter breaks are. Anyway sometimes I can use Sigil to generate the chapters in the TOC like this: In the lower right corner of Sigil there is a button labled "Generate Table of Contents". If I press this button a dialog opens and a list of all the chapters is there and I can click ok and the toc will be filled with chapter titles that correspond to the htm files on the left.

This works sometimes and sometimes it don't. My question is, "How can I get it to work all the time, automatically? Why won't it work every time?
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Paul

[DiapDealer]

Sigil builds the TOC using heading tags (h1, h2, h3, etc ... ). If the chapters in the calibre-created epub don't use h tags for chapter headers, you won't be able to automatically build a ToC with Sigil.

So to answer your other question ... to "get it to work every time," make sure your epub uses proper heading tags for chapters before trying to build the ToC with Sigil.

[exaltedwombat]

This may be as simple as selecting the chapter title and applying h1, h2 etc. from the taskbar. If you don't like how this affects display, the Sigil manual tells you how to add an h1 tag not affecting any particular text item.

[p3aul]

I opened an epub in sigil that already had a TOC.
I've looked in the html for the chapters and i don't see a <h2> markup on any chapter. I have also looked in the stylesheet and there is nothing there to designate Chapter headings as <h2>. So where is it picking them up from ?

[DiapDealer]

If the ePub already has a ToC, Sigil isn't "picking them up" from anywhere. It's simply using the pre-existing NCX ToC. You only need h tags to automatically generate a ToC using Sigil.

[p3aul]

OK It seems when I convert a mobi for instance to an epub Caibre generates the h2 tags and if Calibre doesn't pick them up for a TOC Sigil will if I click "Generate Table of Contents".
Thanks everyone.