Merging multiple HTML files into one HTML file

[Bookeee]

I'm reviving this old thread, because I have the same need to merge/join many HTML files of a non-DRM protected e-Book into one readable format, such as RTF.

I first downloaded the prog "Merger", but it too crashed on me each time I ran it (as I read it had happened in another thread on MobileRead). Neither Txtcollector nor BookDesigner, which incidentally has a very unuser-friendly interface, helped me out.

Finally, I decided to follow the detailed instructions left by Calibre's creator, Kovidgoyal.

Not being very computer-savvy, it took me a while to figure out his no-doubt simple instructions. I even made a TOC, without needing to, as I have an html start page which presumably acts as one. It points to the other pages.

I uploaded the "start_here" unto the GUI and saved the zip file with the OPF unto my desktop. I used Mobipockets to open the OPF, but it just doesn't do anything. Nothing loads.

I'm stumped. Can anyone help me out? Thanks so much for any help.

P.S.: I have since downloaded iterati's VHtmlMerger, and though it was the easiest of all the progs, I still don't have a good end result. The output file has no format, so I tried naming it "One.html", also .txt, .rtf, etc. It simply has code, not the e-Book contents.

Please note that I also have the files to be joined in PDF, as well as HTML, in case that sparks any ideas.

--

WinXP S3
Calibre 0.6 45
MobiPocket Creator Publisher 4.2 B41

EDIT: Solution BELOW.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...2&postcount=38

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Bookeee

I'm reviving this old thread, because I have the same need to merge/join many HTML files of a non-DRM protected e-Book into one readable format, such as RTF.

I first downloaded the prog "Merger", but it too crashed on me each time I ran it (as I read it had happened in another thread on MobileRead). Neither Txtcollector nor BookDesigner, which incidentally has a very unuser-friendly interface, helped me out.

Finally, I decided to follow the detailed instructions left by Calibre's creator, Kovidgoyal.

Not being very computer-savvy, it took me a while to figure out his no-doubt simple instructions. I even made a TOC, without needing to, as I have a "Start_here" html page which presumably acts as one. It points to the other pages.

I uploaded the "start_here" unto the GUI and saved the zip file with the OPF unto my desktop. I used Mobipockets to open the OPF, but it just doesn't do anything. Nothing loads.

I'm stumped. Can anyone help me out? Thanks so much for any help.

P.S.: I have since downloaded iterati's VHtmlMerger, and though it was the easiest of all the progs, I still don't have a good end result. The output file has no format, so I tried naming it "One.html", also .txt, .rtf, etc. It simply has code, not the e-Book contents.

Please note that I also have the files to be joined in PDF, as well as HTML, in case that sparks any ideas.

--

WinXP S3
Calibre 0.6 45
MobiPocket Creator Publisher 4.2 B41

The best bet is to put all the files in a zip file and then import the zip file to Calibre and let it do its thing. For an output format you might choose mobi or ePUB and then use that file with an appropriate program. mobipocket reader cannot read a zip file. It expects a .mobi file or .prc with mobi specific content.

Dale

[Bookeee]

Thanks for the attempted cure, Dale. That was one of the first things I tried to do, before posting -- I replicated it just now, but no luck.

WARNING: Could not convert some books: Could not convert 1 of 1 books, because no suitable source format was found.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Bookeee

Thanks for the attempted cure, Dale. That was one of the first things I tried to do, before posting -- I replicated it just now, but no luck.

WARNING: Could not convert some books: Could not convert 1 of 1 books, because no suitable source format was found.

Were the source files in html format?

[Bookeee]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Were the source files in html format?

Indeed. As I mentioned above, I have both PDF/HTML files available for conversion. Neither worked using the suggested 'zip/Calibre' method.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Bookeee

Indeed. As I mentioned above, I have both PDF/HTML files available for conversion. Neither worked using the suggested 'zip/Calibre' method.

I would not expect PDF encapsulated in zip to work but I have used html in zip just fine. Perhaps you should take this discussion to the Calibre group for some expert help.

Dale

[Bookeee]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I would not expect PDF encapsulated in zip to work but I have used html in zip just fine. Perhaps you should take this discussion to the Calibre group for some expert help.

Dale

That's no doubt good advice, and I thank you for it, Dale. But the thing is that I don't necessarily wish to be tied to Calibre. Plus, I suspect I know is going on -- the HTMLs which are TIED to the PDFs, cannot be read independently by Calibre (thus that wonderful prog is of no use to me).

It created a 37MB file in zip format, as suggested, but when converted to any other format, only the frontispiece (in writing) showed up. The subsequent pages didn't load.

So I'm holding out on someone giving me info/a fix using something other than Calibre. TIA.

[Bookeee]

SUCCESS!

I leave instructions here, for the use of others.

1- Use Adobe Acrobat Pro (mine is 9.3.1).

2- Go to "File"

3- Scroll to "Create PDF"

4- Tab to "Merge Files into a Single PDF"

5- My default settings on that pop-up have "Single PDF" bubbled on top, and medium-sized output (bottom right)

6- Click on "+AddFiles". Again below that

7- Click around until you see folder with the PDF files you want merged

8- NB: If you have HTML files, you will have to order them up/down numerically, as they have that unfortunate tendency to go by all 1s/2s/3s. Those with iPods will understand. For best results, use other PDFs

9- Click on (bottom right) "Combine Files" when ready

10- Acrobat will check security settings, then combine/merge the PDFs into one

11- Default name is "Binder1", but can be renamed

12- Perfect PDF copy of (non-DRMed) ebook results -- even Next and Previous Pages are gone!

(I then used Mobipocket Creator Publisher Edition for a PRC/Kindle formatted ebook. Flawless)

Good luck, and thanks again to Dale for the help.

[sinan]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

2) If your collection does not have such a file, it takes two minutes to create one. It will have the form:

Copy the folder's full address and paste it to firefox address bar. It should give you a list of all the files with their links.

[phenomshel]

I'm resurrecting this again - and if this is a really stupid question, then forgive me. Is there a way to do something similar with XHTML files?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

I'm resurrecting this again - and if this is a really stupid question, then forgive me. Is there a way to do something similar with XHTML files?

All the methods described earlier for HTML work equally well and perhaps better for XHTML. See our wiki for XHTML to see what the differences are.

Dale

[Noughty]

Originally Posted by Katelyn

Here is part of a walk-through I posted at a fanfic site I use all the time. I've gotten many responses that it was easy to follow and better yet, it works! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

--------------------------------
In order to convert a collection of HTML files in a specific order, you have to create a table of contents file. That is, an HTML file that contains links to all the other files in the desired order. Such a file looks like:

<html>
<body>
<h3>Table of Contents</h3>
<p style="text-indent:0pt">
<a href="./samplepage1.html">Part One</a><br/>
<a href="./samplepage2.html">Part Two</a><br/>
<a href="./samplepage3.html">Part Three</a><br/>
<a href="./samplepage4.html">Part Four</a><br/>
<a href="./samplepage5.html">Part Five</a><br/>
</p>
</body>
</html>

2. Copy the text above and paste it into Notepad. Save this file as book.txt in the same folder as the downloaded HTML files. Keep this file open for now.

3. Open the folder where the HTML files were saved and locate the files. Copy the first file name, (e.g.,newbook1.html). Go back to the Notpad file file you just created and replace the first line of HTML.

EXAMPLE:
You are changing this <a href="./samplepage1.html">Part One</a><br/>
To (for example) <a href="./newbook1.html">Part One</a><br/>

As you can see, only part of the file name needs to change since the rest of the code remains the same. It saves a lot of typing if you just change the file name up to the page number, e.g., copy newbook and paste it before the pages number on each line - samplepage1.html, samplepage2.html, etc.. Obviously, you have to be sure the naming convention is consistent for each page.

In case this confuses you, here is what I would use to create a single book from As You Wish (10 HTML pages long)

<html>
<body>
<h1>Table of Contents</h1>
<p style="text-indent:0pt">
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish1.html">Part 1</a><br>
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish2.html">Part 2</a><br>
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish3.html">Part 3</a><br>
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish4.html">Part 4</a><br>
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish5.html">Part 5</a><br>
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish6.html">Part 6</a><br>
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish7.html">Part 7</a><br>
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish8.html">Part 8</a><br>
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish9.html">Part 9</a><br>
<a href="./kimpritekel_asyouwish10.html">Part 10</a><br>
</p>
</body>
</html>

3. Once these changes are completed, save the Notepad file with the name of the story into the SAME FOLDER as the downloaded files. Locate this saved file and change the .TXT extension to .HTML. You will get a pop-up warning that changing the extension may make the file unusable. Answer YES you want to change it.

Now, you’ll want to check the file to confirm the formatting is correct. (If you followed the steps above, it should work!)

4. Double click the newly created HTML file and it will open in a Web page. You should see something line this -

Table of Contents
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
etc.

Only “Table of Contents” should be plain text and Part 1, Part 2, etc. will be hyperlinks. If the hyperlinks don't work, check and edit your formatting. Just change the .HTML back to .TXT and open the file again. Check the specific line of code that looks suspect for any errors. It can be as simple as the first HTML page was named 01 and you forgot to add the 0 (samplepage01.html VS samplepage1.html)

Once you think the file is ready, remember to have it in HTML format before moving it to Calibre.

5. Open Calibre and connect your reading device to your PC via a USB cable. It will be recognized by Calibre and will become visible in the Library window.

6. Add the HTML file (drag or use the Add button). When the file is added to Calibre, it is converted into a zipped file.

You can now convert the file to the format of your choice.

Thank you for such detail instructions as even I managed to fix html files in correct order

[MrWarper]

I've just run into the same problem and I've coded a simple command line HTML concatenator, so you simply issue

HTMLCat book.htm part1.htm part2.htm part3.htm ...

at a command prompt and it merges part1, part2, part3, etc. in the specified order into book.htm.
Alternatively, if all your filenames are in alphabetical order you can simplify and do things like

HTMLCat book.htm cover.htm chapter*.htm

The thing is still a bit crude (it simply keeps the HTML <head> of the first file and concatenates all of the <body> contents of every file after that, so all files must use the same encoding, no ID attributes are checked for duplicity, etc.) but otherwise fully functional.

Anyone interested? It's writen in REXX, so it can be run on Windows, Linux and pretty much everything else right away with Regina REXX

[slm]

Another great tool for just merging html files (windows only) is vHtmlMerger.
Small, simple, self-explanatory, free. I've used it on appropriate occasion for years.


http://iterati.org/ebookTools/vHtmlMerger/Default.aspx

[Sandman81]

I was searching for how to merge html files and found some very useful info on this forum. I thought I would share my experiences on making this all work.

I have a kindle, so it is annoying to transfer multiple html chapters as the filing system is cumbersome.

First things first - DownThemAll is very handy to download all chapters on a website using firefox.

I first tried using the vhtmlmerger software to merge. This worked, but had encoding problems - I think it saves the merged file with different encoding, so the apostrophes etc. come out as symbols, which is irritating when reading.

I then used TXTCollector - this did not have the encoding issues. However, it introduces some bugs into the code, which prevented either Calibre or the Kindle document service from converting to .mobi or .azw (respectively).
So I copied and pasted the merged htm file into Word and then deleted the buggy bits. I then re-saved as htm. I was then able to convert to .mobi fine using Calibre.

Took me a while to get it right, but I now have a very simple process:
1) DownThemAll
2) TXTCollector
3) Delete buggy bits in word and re-save
4) Calibre