Adding existing files problem

[congngo]

When adding existing files to book browse text section, it tends to add at the bottom of the list. For example if I have these chapters under text:


chapter1.xhtml
chapter10.xhtml

If I want to add chapter2.xhtml under chapter1.xhtml, it does not do that but it will add to the bottom like bellow.

chapter1.xhtml
chapter10.xhtml
chapter2.xhtml

Furthermore, if I want to add chapter2-5. Chapter 5 will go to the top like this



chapter1.xhtml
chapter10.xhtml
chapter5.xhtml <------- This should go to the bottom.
chapter2.xhtml
chapter3.xhtml
chapter4.xhtml


This will be a problem if you have more than 100 of xhtml files.

[theducks]

All you have to do is drag it to the correct position.
This has been made easy to determine by you foresight in naming the pieces.
I have worked with over 100 files. It is a PITA, but drag to almost the bottom of th window and it will start scrolling. Drop at the correct place. Do not drop if you overshoot. it must drop inside Text section

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by theducks

All you have to do is drag it to the correct position.
This has been made easy to determine by you foresight in naming the pieces.
I have worked with over 100 files. It is a PITA, but drag to almost the bottom of th window and it will start scrolling. Drop at the correct place. Do not drop if you overshoot. it must drop inside Text section

Ducky, darling:

Yes, of course s/he can, but it's not an invalid point that the mis-ordering is a bit of a pain in the cheroots, dear boy. And it IS a giant pain if you have to drag 100+ files around (trust me, I know this first-hand).

Hitch

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Ducky, darling:

Yes, of course s/he can, but it's not an invalid point that the mis-ordering is a bit of a pain in the cheroots, dear boy. And it IS a giant pain if you have to drag 100+ files around (trust me, I know this first-hand).

Hitch

True! But why were the out of order? No NCX?

If you are adding without a NCX, doing so in smaller chunks (and tune as you go). Unfortunately Windows 8.3 (the underlying, DOS filename) does not always follow the Sort file order , resulting in out of order Long Filenames.

[congngo]

it is a he. Yes I can drop it in place. But it should be dropped in the correct place.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by congngo

it is a he. Yes I can drop it in place. But it should be dropped in the correct place.

How does it Know for multiple drops? (see my long filename discussion).
Or are you assuming dropping a single file is always is placed last? (that I agree with)

Sigil does NOT sort filenames. Ever.

[congngo]

I think the file or files should place where they are designated not last. If the files are already in a numerical order should they go in as that order?

[Ahmad Samir]

FWIW, when adding multiple files, in the file dialogue window, the order with which you select the files - e.g. the mouse pointer while holding Ctrl down - matters e.g. if you select chapter5.html then chapter1.html then chapter3.html they'll be added in that order in the book browser (look in the Name box in the open file dialogue, the files are added in the same order as they appear there).

IIUC, file names don't matter, it's how the files are ordered in the epub spine in the opf that matters.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by congngo

I think the file or files should place where they are designated not last. If the files are already in a numerical order should they go in as that order?

The file name in then Limited to 4 characters and a 3 char Extension for that to work.

This is a Windows file system issue, Not Sigil
\
Attached is how the filesystem shows the names in native 8.3 mode and in windows

[Toxaris]

Actually, I don't think it is a Windows issue. The real issue is, how would Sigil know how to order the files? Perhaps I would use a,b,c,d as numbering. Or put the number in the middle of the filename. Or perhaps no numbering at all.

Fact of the matter is, that numbering makes life easier but is no requirement for having it. How should Sigil react in all those matters?

Dragging is not always handy, especially with a long list, but it works.

[opitzs]

I prefer to edit the opf file in such a case. I copy the interesting part to vim, let it work its magic (in cases like this a simple :sort can work magic), copy them back over the old text, save, close, open and voilà all is good.

[meme]

It seems possible to have Sigil help here, although its not completely straightforward.

Adding a new blank section should probably stay as being added to the bottom and not be placed in what Sigil thinks is the correct sorted order - it might be too confusing and not what you want, not to mention tricky to implement. Easy enough to go to the end and rename/move.

There might be an argument for adding it after the item you selected for right click instead of to the end of the list. Its probably possible to implement this - but is there much of a desire for (or against) this change?

As to sorting the items, it should also be possible to have Sigil re-sort the html list on request. In fact I just implemented a test of that in a few minutes by adding a right-click option to re-sort by filename and update the book. The problem is of course, how to sort them.

The default sort is Case-Sensitive Alphabetic. But if you sort this way it ends up apparently being exactly the same as the imported files, so nothing gained.

What seems to be requested is a way to sort them in an alphanumeric approach (case-sensitive/in-sensitive, numbers first/last?). This requires re-implementing the sorting method as the standard model only sorts by alphabetic, and possibly having to deal with or ignore non simple characters.

I'm thinking something like a1 a10 a2 A3 7B 70b 8b sorting to 7B 8b 70b a1 a2 A3 a10.

Is this something worth looking into? How would you want them sorted?

[WS64]

Sigil always adds files in alphabetical order, not the order you click the files when you select them.
IMHO it is best to use a tool like Rename1-4 and rename all the files from
chapter1.xhtml
chapter2.xhtml
chapter10.xhtml

to something like

chapter001.xhtml
chapter002.xhtml
chapter010.xhtml

This is a bit tricky (but not really that much), but it can be done in a few steps (no matter how many files you need to rename)
If you add them then the result will be as expected.

[theducks]

Yikes!
Alpha-Sorting the Book Browser list would make a hash out of most of my books.
FM comes before CH, EP comes before BM ..., jacket, TP...
Not all sections are 'chapters'

Sort selected (only) would be useful if using Alpha-Numeric sort compatible naming as WS64 showed

[Ahmad Samir]

Originally Posted by WS64

Sigil always adds files in alphabetical order, not the order you click the files when you select them.

That's not how it works here; e.g. if the file names in the Name box in the open file dialogue are:
"oeb_c07_r1.html" "oeb_c06_r1.html" "oeb_c01_r1.html" "oeb_c02_r1.html" "oeb_c03_r1.html"
as I selected them in the that order, then they'll be added to the Text directory tree in that same order in Sigil.

This is on Linux (KDE4, Qt-4.8.0).