Find, replace, split chapter?

[laelaps]

Hi all!
I'm very new to sigil, and even more so to regex.... so I'm really struggling to do something very simple.

I want to find and replace all instances of chapter titles ie. "<p>Chapter 1</p>" etc with the same text, but set to H3, rather than regular sized text.

Also, is it possible to use the find function to find the chapter titles and split it at that point into a new chapter? The file I have is a txt document, so it would be great to split it into chapters.

Apologies for the noob questioning

[cybmole]

with the tidy ( brush icon) active, this will work
find <p Chapter
replace with <h2 Chapter
( so long as the word chapter does not also start a sentence anywhere - tidy will fix the trailing tag
this is safer - find replace set to regex + match case, all files - in code view
find <p Chapter ([\d+])</p>
replace <h2 Chapter \1 </h2>

the \d+ finds any number with 1 or more digits and the \1 in the replace syntax re-uses the value found in the find process.

if find replace complains that there are no matches, check very carefully for superfluous

whoops I see you wanted h3, not h2 - just amend the above examples

it is a good idea to click replace ( once) a few times to check that it is working, before running replace all.

variations of that syntax will fix up other types of chapter headings, but if you need to use a period ( a full stop) in regex you must place a backslash in front of it \.

[laelaps]

cybmole!
Thank you so much for the info. I'll give that a shot now and see how I get on.
I had a look at a regex tutorial, but felt so overwhelmed by it. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it

Thanks again!

[Perkin]

Do a search for

<p>Chapter ([\d+])</p>

(as cybmole showed)

replace

<hr class="sigilChapterBreak" /><h3>Chapter \1</h3>

then after the replace, go back to top and remove the first
<hr class="sigilChapterBreak" />
if it's at the beginning of the whole text.
(i.e. there's no preface/prologue/contents etc.)

You can then use the Sigil feature 'Tools>Split on SGF chapter markers' (F6)
to split all those chapters into their own chapter files.

[Danger]

a bit easier way...
Find: <p>(Chapter \d)</p>
Replace <h3>\1</h3>

Once your chapters are all done, just search for all the <h3> tags, move the blank line above and hit Ch break.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Danger

a bit easier way...
Find: <p>(Chapter \d)</p>
Replace <h3>\1</h3>

Once your chapters are all done, just search for all the <h3> tags, move the blank line above and hit Ch break.

Make that a \d+ or you will only change the first 9 chapters.

Roman Numerals are really fun to S+R
Also note that Forward, Prelude,Epilogue will need attention.

[cybmole]

roman numbers are easy!
the basic search set is [IVX]+ add, L, M if you are approaching 50 or 100 but that is rare
I've done a few books, with no problems.
find <p>([IVX]</p> etc .
you may need other stuff e.g. there could be a class="bold" bit -so inspect in code view.
copy the 1st instance ( chapter I) and replace I with the search set

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by cybmole

roman numbers are easy!
the basic search set is [IVX]+ add, L, M if you are approaching 50 or 100 but that is rare

I'd add C and D earlier than M

[laelaps]

Guys, thanks so much for all the input!
I wasn't too sure if I'd even get a response for such a basic question, so I really do appreciate all the answers