Automated Glosary Footnotes

[Elvys]

I'm new to the forum, so hello everyone!
I'm been looking for a way to automatically create links to a glossary, but couldn't find any…
I'm a big fan of fantasy books, which often come with a glossary of terms at the end. I find them very helpful because I'm terrible at remembering names.
With eInk readers it's kind of a pain to go back and forth to check a word out, so I was trying to implement links on every word present on the glossary. I did it manually on Mistborn, but it was a lot of work.
I was wondering if there is some plugin or software that can automate the process, finding every word in the glossary and creating links.
I hope I explained myself…

Thank you!!

[KevinH]

Use Sigil's Index creation tool. Create a separate text list of the words you want in the glossary and the Index tool can be used to create the links.

Check out the Sigil User Guide for the details.

[Elvys]

I took a look at the index tool but if I'm not mistaking it does de oposite of what I'm trying to do. For example, if I index the name of a town, the index can show me all the pages where the town is mentioned.

What I want to accomplish is to get a link on the name of the town I can click while I'm reading to access that term on the glossary.

[KevinH]

So the equivalent of a inserting a footnote?
If so, if you have a list of terms you should be able to create a saved search group (one replaceall search and replace for each term in the list) to do what you want. You can create it in csv and import the saved search group to Sigil and run it.

[Elvys]

That's a good idea, it might work. It looks like CSV files are not an option for saved searches though, only INI files. I'll try to make one using find/replace.
Thanks for the tip!

[KevinH]

Actually with the latest versions of Sigil, Saved Searches will import and export csv.

[Elvys]

You're totally right. Even better!

[KevinH]

Note the new Controls part of saved searches so you can set case sensitive or not, regular expression or not, dot all, and etc. Even set the set of file types to work on. They are just two-character long codes that represents each setting. The user guide shows all ofthe new saved search controls.

In addition I recommend making a Checkpoint of uour epub before running your saved search group in case of mistakes so that a simple restore will allow you to try again.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Elvys

I'm new to the forum, so hello everyone!

Hey. Welcome.

Originally Posted by Elvys

I'm been looking for a way to automatically create links to a glossary, but couldn't find any…

I'm a big fan of fantasy books, which often come with a glossary of terms at the end. I find them very helpful because I'm terrible at remembering names.

With eInk readers it's kind of a pain to go back and forth to check a word out, so I was trying to implement links on every word present on the glossary.

You'd probably be able to use Regex to accomplish most of this.

1. Ctrl+F. This will open the Find panel.

2. Make sure you are on "Mode: Regex".

3. In the Find box, type this:

\b(Alabama|Bengals|Cataclysms|Drinks|Eggnog)\b

and in the Replace box, type this:

<a href="../Text/Glossary.xhtml#\1">\1</a>

* * *

Side Note: You can add a big list of terms in the search, as long as you keep using the | between terms/names.

In plain English, what this Regex says is:

"Look for the word "Alabama" OR "Bengals" OR "Cataclysms" OR [...]"

and Replace says:

"Replace the word above + give it a link to the Glossary file."

* * *

This should take a sentence like this:

<p>I went to Alabama to drink some Eggnog.</p>

and change it into:

<p>I went to <a href="../Text/Glossary.xhtml#Alabama">Alabama</a> to drink some <a href="../Text/Glossary.xhtml#Eggnog">Eggnog</a>.</p>

4. Go into your Glossary file, and make sure each of those words has an id.

So if your glossary had this:

<p>Alabama: A state in the United States</p>
<p>Bengals: A type of animal.</p>

You'd want to ultimately change it to:

<p id="Alabama">Alabama: A state in the United States</p>
<p id="Bengals">Bengals: A type of animal.</p>

To accomplish this, do a similar Search/Replace:

Search: <p>([^:]+)
Replace: <p id="\1">\1

That would take whatever's before the colon, and duplicate it into the paragraph's id.

(This all depends on your book's code though, hopefully each paragraph has a class="glossary" or something easier to make it stand out.)

* * *

Usage Note: DO NOT do this in an ebook for sale in the major retailers. ONLY do this on personal ebook copies.

For more details on the problems/why, read these previous "glossary" topics:

2019: "Backlinks arrrrrrgh!"
2017: "cross links randomly become footnotes"

Especially mine+Hitch's posts. We've discussed this "many-to-one" linking problem many times over the years.

Originally Posted by KevinH

In addition I recommend making a Checkpoint of uour epub before running your saved search group in case of mistakes so that a simple restore will allow you to try again.

Oh yeah, definitely. Very easy to make major mistakes with huge changes like this.

[Elvys]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

You'd probably be able to use Regex to accomplish most of this.

I'm not very versed in Regex syntax, but your guide is very, very helpful.
I'll sure give it a try.

Thank you very much!!

[Elvys]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Note the new Controls part of saved searches so you can set case sensitive or not, regular expression or not, dot all, and etc. Even set the set of file types to work on. They are just two-character long codes that represents each setting. The user guide shows all ofthe new saved search controls.

In addition I recommend making a Checkpoint of uour epub before running your saved search group in case of mistakes so that a simple restore will allow you to try again.

Didn't know about neither of those features. Both great additions.
Thank you very much for your help!!

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by Elvys

fantasy books, which often come with a glossary of terms at the end.

One easy thing to do is move the glossary at the front of the book.

Then in Kindle, if I highlight a word, then click the Search icon, the glossary entry is the first result, I can go to that, then use the back icon to return. No links need to be coded.

[Elvys]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

Then in Kindle, if I highlight a word, then click the Search icon, the glossary entry is the first result, I can go to that, then use the back icon to return. No links need to be coded.

That sounds like a great solution for a Kindle. I own a Kobo and the process is not that seamless, requiring several taps, and it's particularly annoying going back to the page you were reading.