[Old Thread] Tweak ePub - new feature (0.7.20)

[GRiker]

Calibre now makes it possible to make small edits — tweaks — to ePubs in your library. You can use this feature to correct typos and formatting problems, or to edit CSS rules. This feature requires some knowledge of the ePub format — I would describe it as an intermediate user feature. If you need to learn more about the structure of ePubs, take a look at Liza Daly's Build a Digital Book with ePub or Liz Castro's EPUB Straight to the Point.

Begin by selecting a book in your library including an ePub format. Right-click to display the context menu, then select Tweak ePub. (You can also press the shortcut key 'T'). If you do not see the 'Tweak ePub' option, see If you have problems below. If the book does not currently include an ePub format, see Usage tips below.

The Tweak ePub dialog is displayed overlaying the top left corner of the calibre interface:

Click Explode ePub to open a file browser window showing the contents of the ePub. In the file browser window, right-click the file to be edited, then 'Open with...' your editor of choice. (The feature has been tested with BBEdit and Dreamweaver under OSX, and EditPad Pro under Windows.)

When your tweaks are complete, close the file browser window. Click Rebuild ePub. The tweaked ePub is rebuilt, and the rebuilt ePub replaces the original ePub in your calibre library.

Clicking Cancel discards all changes. The original ePub remains untweaked in your library.

Usage tips:

• If you want to experiment with tweaking an ePub, use calibre's Save to disk to save a backup copy of your original ePub before you begin.
• When editing HTML files, it may not be immediately apparent which file has the typo you're looking for. By default, HTML files normally open with a web browser, making it easier to figure out which file corresponds to which chapter. Double-click the file or use 'Open' from the context menu to view the files in your default browser.
• If you need to make structural changes to your ePub, use Sigil or an ePub editor of your choosing. The 'Tweak ePub' feature is designed for light-weight touchups to ePub content.
• When editing with an HTML design tool like Dreamweaver, changes made to the CSS can be previewed within the editor.
• If the book you want to edit is not in ePub format:
  • Convert the book from its original format to ePub using Convert books
  • Explode, edit and rebuild the ePub as described above.
  • Convert the ePub back to your original format.

Under the hood:

• Other than your edits, Tweak ePub does not modify the content of your ePub in any way.
• Tweak ePub is a GUI-only feature. It is not available in the command line tools.

If you have problems:

• I don't see the 'Tweak ePub' option when I right-click a book.
  • Open Preferences|Interface|Customize the toolbar
  • Select The context menu for books in the calibre library
  • In Available actions, select Tweak ePub
  • Click the right-pointing arrow, adding the Tweak ePub action to Current actions

Please post comments, questions, suggestions in this thread.

G

[edbro]

The best just keeps getting better! Thank you to Kovid and all the developers.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by GRiker

If you want to experiment with tweaking an ePub, use calibre's Save to disk to save a backup copy of your original ePub before you begin.

You may also prefer to duplicate the record inside Calibre and work on that record. Use Add Book to add an empty book record, select that record first, then select the book you want duplicated and press ALT-M to do a safe merge (merge-keep others) of the second book into the empty record. The order of selection is important. Note that merging does not duplicate ISBN, and the date field is updated to the date the new empty record was added, so it's not an exact copy of the first record. When you're done, you can delete the EPUB you don't like (from either the new record or the old one) and merge the two records to end up with a single record and your preferred EPUB.

Great feature GRiker!

[Agama]

Many thanks! Just what I needed and avoids resorting to Sigil for minor ePub edits.

Originally Posted by GRiker

The feature has been tested with BBEdit and Dreamweaver under OSX, and EditPad Pro under Windows.

And it works with Notepad++ for Windows.

[omk3]

What a fantastic feature! I always avoided making changes to epubs unless absolutely necessary, because I was bored of the repackaging process. Thank you!

[theducks]

OOOH!
Spell check possible
Image substitution (keeping same name) possible.

Notepad++ is my friend

[Rand Brittain]

This is an extremely useful feature. Thanks!

[Zyzomys]

This is great! Thank you.

[Top Tomato]

Fantastic! Just like Agama said, works great in Notepad++!

Thank you, thank you!

[DoctorOhh]

Thanks a bunch. I was using the tweak-epub by AWP but I was growing bored having to drill my way through the directory structure to the file even when using the "Open with" option.

This makes things much more convenient.

[phenomshel]

OMG!!! I did it!! Exploded an ePub, fixed a problem, rebuilt it, and it's perfect!!

[Jonimeesermann]

Great feature!! Really saves my time cause I like to play around with epub.

Interesting choice of name too, "explode epub" rather than unePub (such as zip and unzip).

[pvdv]

Very happy with this new functionality.
I also used the AWP tweak-epub a lot, but since I switched to Linux (Mint) recently, I sorely missed being able to use it. (Wine made it an irritating experience...)

[kiermel]

Thanks a lot! Is a very useful feature

[jmolinuevo]

When I explode an EPUB nothing happens. Calibre returns the following terminal message:

error: no assocations found for  cannot open `/home/username/file:/tmp/calibre_0.7.24_tmp_r07ZTh/calibre_0.7.24_LPg7xk_exploded' (No such file or directory)

I am running an archlinux machine with openbox. ¿Maybe a bad file association in my system? ¿what is called by calibre when I click "explode EPUB"?

Thanks.