Merging multiple input documents

[alford]

I’m coming back to Calibre after doing a couple of books for my own use 4-5 years ago. This time for a longer book I thought I’d try merging multiple input documents to make the final output. I managed to work out how to do html but the only way seemed to have the input documents processed into a zip file. I work very iteratively and I seemed to have to do this every time I wanted a new output so it doesn’t suit. I looked at MS Word Master Documents but that did things I didn’t like in changing documents and I didn’t seem to be able to process the master document into Calibre. So for now I’ve ended with using Libre Office Writer. There the Master document can take the separate documents in different formats, eg doc, docx, odt and others – even different formats feeding into the same master document. It’s then simple to export a single document that I can process in Calibre. Using the same name for the exported document means nothing changes in the Calibre setup. That’s just how I have previously done it with a single input document so this is my preferred way to go forward.

So is there anything I have missed re html or word documents or are there other suggestions.

[kovidgoyal]

All you have to do is drag and drop your html file onto the book details panel and calibre will re-create the zip for you automatically. Or alternately keep your source in EPUB and use the calibre edit book tool, in which you can ask it to open any individual htl file inside the epub in the tool of your choice and edit it iteratively as you like.

[alford]

That's useful bit in all my searching I never found it so hopefully anyone else with the same question will find this thread.

Do you mean drop the master html file or one or any of the individual ones?

Also so if were using say docx and I was editing it somewhere other than the ebooks folder then dropping an updated version on the document details would it then be put in the right place?

[kovidgoyal]

The master and yes you can dtop the docx file and it will be auto-updated.

[alford]

[Edit] Oops somehow I thought my initial reply got lost and didn't come through so rewrote it.

Thanks for that, I searched for ages and didn’t find it, maybe a bit more added to the help sometime would be useful.

So do you drop the index file or will it work if you dropped just one of the files referenced in the index files. If say you are creating the document in say word in a folder other than the ebooks tree will dropping the new file in document details also then update/replace the source one for Calibre?

I do kind of like the way Libre Office allows the Master file to take in files of different formats. Makes me think how useful it might be if the html file was also a way of inputting file in formats other than html or maybe even if Calibre could process the Libre Office odm (Office document master) file. Generating the merged file from the odm file is a couple of steps more than it could be IMHO.