Inserting htm chapter markers in Word

ipa reader · 01-14-2012, 04:13 PM

I've read the tutorials and manual on chapters, but I'm not quite finding the advice I need (aside from doing what seems like a lot more reading).

This is the process I'm trying, please suggest a better one if you've got it.

The materials I'm looking to eventually use on my Kindle Touch begin as text on a website, which I cut and paste into a Word file on my Mac, and save as Web Page (htm), or I can download them as htm files and open them up to edit in Word.

For those files without a TOC that get's recognized, I'd like to know the easiest way to insert chapter markers in the htm files within Word (ideally using an appropriate text heading), before adding to Calibre and converting to Mobi and sending to my Kindle.

So if there is some code I can cut and paste, with an indication of where I can insert a text heading for chapters that would appear in the TOC Calibre would recognize and build during the converstion, that is what I would like (or to be disabused of this whole scheme)...

jackie_w · 01-15-2012, 06:57 PM

If you mark your Chapters with Word built-in style 'Heading 2', then when you save-as html (preferably webpage-filtered format) the chapter html markup will automatically be <h2>...</h2>.

Style 'Heading 1' produces <h1>...</h1>
Style 'Heading 3' produces <h3>...</h3> etc... etc

You can then use these tags in the Calibre Convert - StructureDetection and TOC pages.

ipa reader · 01-16-2012, 02:52 PM

That is even easier...fantastic.

I'll try it this evening.

Any warnings on using Word as a WYSIWYG html editor for this or similar purposes? [I understand Word tends to insert extra code that can cause some problems for web pages, but I'm not sure what the implications are for what I'm up to...

jackie_w · 01-16-2012, 08:06 PM

I'm not sure I understand the question. The 'Heading 2' styles are inserted using Word as a wordprocesser. Once you've saved the rtf/doc/docx as html, if you want to edit the HTML in a text editor, personally I'd use my favourite text editor and that wouldn't be Word. This is not to say that Word can't be used, it's just that I have more faith in Notepad++ as a text editor. However, since I'm a Windows user not Mac I don't have a Mac suggestion.

Word can produce truly horrible html if you let it. Saving as 'webpage-filtered' reduces some of the MS garbage. I seem to recall someone saying that 'webpage-filtered' is called something else in the Mac version of Word.

Another way to keep the html cleaner is to create/use named Word styles and apply them to your paragraphs when you're trying to change font-size, margins, indents
e.g. if you apply style 'Normal Web' to a paragraph, the html output will be a nice clean
<p>your paragraph text</p>

If you highlight paragraphs and then start changing margins, indents, size etc you get something more like
<p style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-size:12pt; text-indent:18pt; margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:6pt">your paragraph text</p>
and that styling code will be repeated on every paragraph you changed.

I believe Calibre is good enough to sort out the MS mess during conversion but if you're going to use the HTML file to clean up any typos/errors you find later, a clean HTML file is much easier to see what you're doing.

01-14-2012, 04:13 PM	#1
ipa reader Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Kindle Touch	Inserting htm chapter markers in Word I've read the tutorials and manual on chapters, but I'm not quite finding the advice I need (aside from doing what seems like a lot more reading). This is the process I'm trying, please suggest a better one if you've got it. The materials I'm looking to eventually use on my Kindle Touch begin as text on a website, which I cut and paste into a Word file on my Mac, and save as Web Page (htm), or I can download them as htm files and open them up to edit in Word. For those files without a TOC that get's recognized, I'd like to know the easiest way to insert chapter markers in the htm files within Word (ideally using an appropriate text heading), before adding to Calibre and converting to Mobi and sending to my Kindle. So if there is some code I can cut and paste, with an indication of where I can insert a text heading for chapters that would appear in the TOC Calibre would recognize and build during the converstion, that is what I would like (or to be disabused of this whole scheme)...

01-16-2012, 02:52 PM	#3
ipa reader Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Kindle Touch	That is even easier...fantastic. I'll try it this evening. Any warnings on using Word as a WYSIWYG html editor for this or similar purposes? [I understand Word tends to insert extra code that can cause some problems for web pages, but I'm not sure what the implications are for what I'm up to... Last edited by ipa reader; 01-16-2012 at 06:04 PM.

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01-15-2012, 06:57 PM	#2
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,246 Karma: 16539642 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E, LibraCol, PBTouchHD3	If you mark your Chapters with Word built-in style 'Heading 2', then when you save-as html (preferably webpage-filtered format) the chapter html markup will automatically be <h2>...</h2>. Style 'Heading 1' produces <h1>...</h1> Style 'Heading 3' produces <h3>...</h3> etc... etc You can then use these tags in the Calibre Convert - StructureDetection and TOC pages.

01-16-2012, 08:06 PM	#4
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,246 Karma: 16539642 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E, LibraCol, PBTouchHD3	I'm not sure I understand the question. The 'Heading 2' styles are inserted using Word as a wordprocesser. Once you've saved the rtf/doc/docx as html, if you want to edit the HTML in a text editor, personally I'd use my favourite text editor and that wouldn't be Word. This is not to say that Word can't be used, it's just that I have more faith in Notepad++ as a text editor. However, since I'm a Windows user not Mac I don't have a Mac suggestion. Word can produce truly horrible html if you let it. Saving as 'webpage-filtered' reduces some of the MS garbage. I seem to recall someone saying that 'webpage-filtered' is called something else in the Mac version of Word. Another way to keep the html cleaner is to create/use named Word styles and apply them to your paragraphs when you're trying to change font-size, margins, indents e.g. if you apply style 'Normal Web' to a paragraph, the html output will be a nice clean <p>your paragraph text</p> If you highlight paragraphs and then start changing margins, indents, size etc you get something more like <p style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-size:12pt; text-indent:18pt; margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:6pt">your paragraph text</p> and that styling code will be repeated on every paragraph you changed. I believe Calibre is good enough to sort out the MS mess during conversion but if you're going to use the HTML file to clean up any typos/errors you find later, a clean HTML file is much easier to see what you're doing.

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