lost all my edits...

[S3ZAi]

Hello,

so, I am writing a text of my own, it's supposed to become a book at some point in the future. Anyway, I wanted to just read it, you know, without making any changes, just read it from begin to end.

The text is one docx file on my google drive. So I downloaded it as an epub file from google docs. The plan was to put it on my kobo reader and go for a walk in nature and sit and read it somewhere as if I'm reading someone else's work. It's just something I need to do right now, because I can't oversee my text anymore (it's philosophical).

This epub file did not make reading it very easy, as the chapters didn't work for on my kobo reader for some reason. Google docs did create chapters, but when I did click on any chapter further in the text, it always opened at the start.

So I went to editing the book option in calibre, which I have used many times in the past, so I knew what I wanted and what I was doing. I chopped the 1 file into pieces and made every chapter and sub-section a single file. So in the end when I created a toc according to files, it was perfect.

So, next thing I did was create a new cover for this niew version. But then I thought, perhaps I need to polish the book to integrate this new cover and distinguish it easier from the previous version.

Then I got a warning, something along the lines of: there is an original.epub version, are you sure you want to do this?

Well, it was of course all my fault, after almost 6 hours of editing, I was too tired to understand what this message was asking. I thought, yes I want a new version, so I clicked yes. And now all my work has disappeared

It doesn't matter wheather I click on the epub or original-epub, I get the unedited file.

So, long story short, my question is: is there any way to find an older version in the history of my edits, or do I have to accept that all was for nothing.

I hope I was clear enough, I tried to describe everything as precisely as possible. It's not a real disaster, I still have the original docx file, but I was looking so much forward to go for a walk today and read my book somewhere under a tree. Please help if you have any idea what I'm talking about!

[Quoth]

Download as docx export.

You do not have a docx in Google Docs. That's an export option!

Fix & edit in local LO Writer (if you don't have MS Word 2007 or later) as Google Docs is its own format and all exports are a bit broken. Save & edit only as odt. Make sure you use styles and no direct formatting. Choose a small page size like A5. No headers, footers or page numbers.

Finally do an EXTRA "Save As" in docx for Calibre to convert to epub. Edit the odt and repeat EXTRA "Save As" in docx for Calibre to convert to epub.

No edits are needed in Calibre at all, unless you have images (then CSS might need edited for % width or height on large ones). All styles & headings should convert perfectly so epub looks like LO Writer.


Google Docs is a sharing/collaboration tool. It's rubbish compared to a local copy of MS Word or LO Writer. All its styles are a bit broken. All its export options are needing edited afterwards. It doesn't natively do docx at all.

Only edit odt on LO Writer after first docx import (with extra Save As in docx), or in docx on MS Word 2007 and later.

[Quoth]

I only edit imported epubs and converted ebooks in Calibre. I'd never edit docx conversions to epub as epubs (except to fix some image CSS).

[theducks]

And watch out for ANY files that calibre is expected to use if
Google DRIVE is in the picture. GD does revisioning that is incompatible with Calibre Library methodology.

LO (and the price is great for those of us that use it infrequently).

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by theducks

LO (and the price is great for those of us that use it infrequently).

I have at least 4 versions of MS Word but using Libre Office full time since about 2014 (Windows, then Linux 100% since Jan 2017). Works fine on Windows, Mac, Linux and others. Don't bother with Android, it's only suitable for a text editor like Jota.

[S3ZAi]

Hey everybody, thanks for all your answers. So, if I understand correctly:

- there is no way to get back my edited file (as no one suggested anything along these lines). I'm guessing I overwrote it in some way and it's definitely gone.

- and: the path I followed was not a very sound one in the first place.

Well, I am under a great deal of stress and it's mostly stress from myself. So every now and then I just think that I have to have to do something and that will be the solution for everything. Well, no luck so far. So sorry for my panicky post.

What I have decided is to just give up what I was trying to do for now. I am sorry if I wasted your time. But, one point got through though:

I have downloaded and installed LibreOffice on my laptop. I was using google docs assuming there is no alternative. I have tried Open Office like 20 years ago or something and didn't like it much. In the meantime I was using an online license from my work for MSOffice365. But a year ago or something like that I had a big argument at my work and decided never to use that license again. So I ended up with googledocs. I have to say, for just editing a text it works ok-ish. At least it doesn't get in the way with many reminders from work and stuff like that. I was very happy to have separated work and private stuff. But this LibreOffice looks really like what I was needing all those years. So anyways, thanks for that!!

By the way, not sure if this would ever be possible, but this is something I have needed more often: I'm very very obsessed with details and this is something I also do with many epubs I buy: re-do the chapters and especially re-create the TOC.

The reason is that in my Kobo reader there is this line on top of my screen, where it says how many pages I have read of the chapter I'm reading at the moment. Then there is another line at the bottom where it says how many pages I have read of the whole book. As I have very limited time I am obsessed with checking every page how fare advanced I am. The chapter info at the top does not work very well if the chapters are not divided by html file.

When I re-create the TOC, I mostly use the option: create TOC from files, which makes a chapter of each file. (This works best for the info in my Kobo reader, not sure if this is the same with all readers.)

Anyway, I wish there was a reverse option: create a html file for each chapter in current TOC. So, what I could do then is first create a TOC from major headings and rework this the way I exactly want it. Then reverse the proces and tell calibre to make a html file for each chapter. After that I could again create a new TOC, now based on the option to create a TOC from each file.

Or maybe someone can give me a shortcut, if possible, what would be the easiest way to chop up one html file into several files? What I do now is very time consuming: I export the "maintext.html" file and then delete everything except chapter one. I rename this file to "chapter1.html". Then I import the maintext file and delete everything but chapter 2 and rename this file "chapter2.html" and do this for like 10-15 chapters. Does anyone know some easier way to do this? I know there are for example online-tools to chop up pdf files. But is this doable with html files?

Anyway, I'm just driving myself crazy, again thanks for all your help! Also thanks for calibre, it's the best ever!!!

[Quoth]

Anyway, I wish there was a reverse option: create a html file for each chapter in current TOC.

Convert the ebook (even epub to epub) with the detection of chapters and you get a copy with a new TOC and a file per chapter.

I once only ever in all the years (since XP Calibre) got a file per paragraph because the epub had a <p class="chapter"> tag at the start of every paragraph! Easily fixed either by editing Structure Detection command and re-converting original or global <p class="chapter" to <p class="p-body" in the editor.

Do be sure to use styles in LO Writer and never* direct formatting. I have the Outline browser and Style Browser open either floating (6.x) or docked (7.x)


I proof epub version first and only when polished save an extra copy with a new name for PDF with header, footer, page numbers and different page styles for Front matter, Start of Chapter, Left Page, Right Page and End Matter in exact size required for paper.

Content changes only on the version for epub and I use a 420 pt wide 560 pt high page style.
Epub:
Use "pt" and all epub renderers should render 12pt = 1em

PDF:
Use mm or inches.

Change the default substitution as you type rules.

Add real name or pen name in Tools Options so location last used is position when you open, using odt format only.

Only edit/save in odt. Do extra Save As for docx and don't edit it.

PDF export is perfect.

Don't use same file for epub and PDF.

[* You can apply character Styles if really wanted for Em and Strong, but direct format of italics, bold (avoid, have as style in headings), superscript and subscript will map to HTML. Styles of all kinds (except page) map to CSS exactly. Page styles have no meaning for epub creation, but best to have all pages the same "default" style with no headings, footers or page numbers.]

[Quoth]

The ¬?
A personal thing. I preface notes to me with ¬ (means not and only used in specialist texts / programming)

[retiredbiker]

Originally Posted by S3ZAi

Anyway, I wish there was a reverse option: create a html file for each chapter in current TOC.

Another very simple way to split into chapter files is in the Editor. If you have a large html file with many chapters, and each chapter has the same header coding, it is only a couple of clicks.

1. Right-click in the file, and choose "split at multiple locations".
2. Use the wizard. For example, if each chapter in the file starts with <h1 class="chapter">, in the wizard put in tag name=h1, attribute=class, and value=chapter. Click OK and then OK again.
3. You should now have a file for each chapter, so you can use the build TOC from files tool.

(Sometimes I find two or three different classes may make up the chapter headings, heaven knows why...unless there are sub-headings...it's often easiest to edit them to be the same first off. Sometimes it may be an artifact of some earlier conversion, where you might see <h1 class="calibre3"> and <h1 class="calibre4"> or something like that.)