Total Novice Seeks Help w/ Adding Chapters to Manybooks.net ePub Files

KingSausage · 01-01-2010, 03:13 PM

I just purchased my first eBook reader (a nook...I grant you permission to laugh!) and downloaded Calibre yesterday. I know nothing about tweaking HTML, writing recipes, etc. I converted a RTF file to ePub and I thought that was pretty exciting, if that gives you an understanding of my lack of tech skills.

What I want to know is, what's the easiest way to get Calibre to add chapters (and TOC?) to files from manybooks.net? I have a bunch of PD classics that I downloaded in ePub format. While I can already read them on my nook, the damn machine has too many problems with forgetting last page read. I don't want to get 500+ pages into a book and then have the machine forget my place. With no chapters in the files and no option on the nook for "Go To Page ____" this would be a recipe for disaster, or at least for major headaches.

Can anyone offer me suggestions on how to add chapters? I've tried converting books in Calibre, but it doesn't seem to generate any chapters for me. I did a search for this topic but I didn't find anything that helped. I realize this question may have some of you clucking your tongues at the boneheadedness of a true Calibre novice, but please help!

user_none · 01-01-2010, 05:12 PM

To have calibre insert TOC entries you will need to convert the existing EPUB to EPUB again.

Go to "Table of Contents" in the conversion dialog and select "Force use of auto-generated Table of Contents". You will then need to create at least a level 1 toc. Click the button next to the text input to open the wizard to help you. Unfortunately This requires you to know how the book itself is structured. The best thing to do is rename the input EPUB to book.zip and extract the book. Look though the html files for the tags that represent the items you want added to the TOC. Use that with the wizard to help you write an XPath for the TOC.

Your other option which may be a easier is to use Sigil to open the EPUB, change the places you want to be TOC entires to h1, h2, or h3 tags and use the TOC generator it includes. Save the file and you're done.

01-01-2010, 03:13 PM	#1
KingSausage Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: nook	Total Novice Seeks Help w/ Adding Chapters to Manybooks.net ePub Files I just purchased my first eBook reader (a nook...I grant you permission to laugh!) and downloaded Calibre yesterday. I know nothing about tweaking HTML, writing recipes, etc. I converted a RTF file to ePub and I thought that was pretty exciting, if that gives you an understanding of my lack of tech skills. What I want to know is, what's the easiest way to get Calibre to add chapters (and TOC?) to files from manybooks.net? I have a bunch of PD classics that I downloaded in ePub format. While I can already read them on my nook, the damn machine has too many problems with forgetting last page read. I don't want to get 500+ pages into a book and then have the machine forget my place. With no chapters in the files and no option on the nook for "Go To Page ____" this would be a recipe for disaster, or at least for major headaches. Can anyone offer me suggestions on how to add chapters? I've tried converting books in Calibre, but it doesn't seem to generate any chapters for me. I did a search for this topic but I didn't find anything that helped. I realize this question may have some of you clucking your tongues at the boneheadedness of a true Calibre novice, but please help!

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01-01-2010, 05:12 PM	#2
user_none Sigil & calibre developer Posts: 2,488 Karma: 1063785 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Florida, USA Device: Nook STR	To have calibre insert TOC entries you will need to convert the existing EPUB to EPUB again. Go to "Table of Contents" in the conversion dialog and select "Force use of auto-generated Table of Contents". You will then need to create at least a level 1 toc. Click the button next to the text input to open the wizard to help you. Unfortunately This requires you to know how the book itself is structured. The best thing to do is rename the input EPUB to book.zip and extract the book. Look though the html files for the tags that represent the items you want added to the TOC. Use that with the wizard to help you write an XPath for the TOC. Your other option which may be a easier is to use Sigil to open the EPUB, change the places you want to be TOC entires to h1, h2, or h3 tags and use the TOC generator it includes. Save the file and you're done.

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