how to make section breaks in epubs

JBNY · 09-15-2010, 12:42 PM

I am converting some mobi files I created. In the mobi, whenever there is a section break in between paragraphs I have the following code.

 

This puts some nice spacing in mobi books before the new paragraph.

When doing a conversion in Calibre to epub, I lose the formating. How can I get the epub to put the same spacing for parts that have an id=break in them?

Thanks!
-Joe

kovidgoyal · 09-15-2010, 01:02 PM

Can you attach a sample mobi showing the problem.

JBNY · 09-15-2010, 01:38 PM

Sure,

I attached three examples.

ebook.txt is the html file I use to make the mobi book.
ebook.mobi is the finished mobi book
Book Title - Author_ Book.epub is the converted epub from Calibre.

You can see the id tag with "break" in it and the height section, but it does not show up in the conversion.

When I make my mobi files I usually use two ID's for paragraph section breaks id=break and id=secbreak.

Thanks for any help you can give.

-Joe

kovidgoyal · 09-15-2010, 02:03 PM

this is really the wrong way to approach creating EPUB+MOBI. Use a proper html file as your source and convert that directly to MOBI and EPUB.

But if you want to continue this way use something like

***

as a section break

JBNY · 09-15-2010, 02:23 PM

Why is that the wrong way? Normally I take a PDF file that I own (most are copywrite that is why I did not attach a real book), put it into book designer to clean it up, save it, run a script that makes everything exactly the way mobicreator needs it and create a mobi file. I get perfectly formated mobi files out of it, that look at work perfect on my Kindle.

But now I have a lot mobi files that I did not save the source of and would like to convert it to epub, to display on my iPad.

Really just looking to what you think I am doing wrong when creating files this way. I can do it differently going forward, but putting *** always instead of just putting some dead space at the beginning of a paragraph, sometimes changes the look of the book.

kovidgoyal · 09-15-2010, 02:25 PM

Because your master format (the HTML) should not have MOBI specific markup. Instead create standards compliant HTML and convert that directly to MOBI and EPUB. That way an intelligent converter will be able to gracefully degrade features in the html that dont work in the target output format.

JBNY · 09-15-2010, 02:34 PM

OK, that makes sense, I wasn't getting the part about the using a "height" attribute within the tag as being not standard. I'll see what I can do with straight complaint HTML going forward.

Thanks for you help.

DoctorOhh · 09-15-2010, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBNY

I have little experience but shouldn't that be:

Agama · 09-16-2010, 07:36 AM

Since the attribute values only contain letters and numbers, (hyphen and dot are also allowed), then the quotes are optional in html, although my preference is to simply quote all attribute values regardless of characters used.

DoctorOhh · 09-16-2010, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agama

Since the attribute values only contain letters and numbers, (hyphen and dot are also allowed), then the quotes are optional in html, although my preference is to simply quote all attribute values regardless of characters used.

Thanks, maybe you can help me understand further, it doesn't seem as if the height attribute is standard for tags in html 4.01. Was it ever a standard attribute for tags or is this unique to mobi?

It seems to me that top & bottom margins in the CSS for tags is the typical way of currently handling this situation.

Agama · 09-16-2010, 09:23 AM

Height is a standard CSS property for but I don't think it was ever a standard attribute. I use margin-top / margin-bottom properties to control paragraph spacing, but the padding properties could probably be used as well. The text-indent property can be used to indent only the first line of the paragraph.

All eBook styling is best acheived with CSS rather than with html attributes.

JBNY · 09-16-2010, 11:54 AM

Putting quotes did not make it work.

What I did was change my way of creating mobi books so I use a CSS file, and added spacing using css.

Works perfect in mobi, on my kindle and when I convert the file with Calibre all the epub formatting moves over perfectly on my iPad as well.

Thanks for your help!

Agama · 09-16-2010, 02:57 PM

Sorry JBNY, the info on quotes pulled us off topic a bit into a digression on html attributes. It has no bearing on your query.

To put white space above and below a paragraph use margin-top and margin-bottom in your stylesheet. For fixed spacing use a unit of measure such as "pt" and for spacing which sizes with the text use "em". For example:

P { margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em }

would apply 0.5em margins above and below every paragraph.

09-15-2010, 12:42 PM	#1
JBNY Member Posts: 21 Karma: 12 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindel, iPad	how to make section breaks in epubs I am converting some mobi files I created. In the mobi, whenever there is a section break in between paragraphs I have the following code. <P id=break height=30> </P> This puts some nice spacing in mobi books before the new paragraph. When doing a conversion in Calibre to epub, I lose the formating. How can I get the epub to put the same spacing for parts that have an id=break in them? Thanks! -Joe

09-15-2010, 02:03 PM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	this is really the wrong way to approach creating EPUB+MOBI. Use a proper html file as your source and convert that directly to MOBI and EPUB. But if you want to continue this way use something like <p align=center>***</p> as a section break

09-15-2010, 02:34 PM	#7
JBNY Member Posts: 21 Karma: 12 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindel, iPad	OK, that makes sense, I wasn't getting the part about the using a "height" attribute within the <P> tag as being not standard. I'll see what I can do with straight complaint HTML going forward. Thanks for you help.

09-16-2010, 09:23 AM	#11
Agama Guru Posts: 776 Karma: 2751519 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: UK Device: PW2, Nexus7	Height is a standard CSS property for <p> but I don't think it was ever a standard attribute. I use margin-top / margin-bottom properties to control paragraph spacing, but the padding properties could probably be used as well. The text-indent property can be used to indent only the first line of the paragraph. All eBook styling is best acheived with CSS rather than with html attributes. Last edited by Agama; 09-16-2010 at 09:32 AM. Reason: Correction

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09-15-2010, 01:02 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Can you attach a sample mobi showing the problem.

09-15-2010, 02:23 PM	#5
JBNY Member Posts: 21 Karma: 12 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindel, iPad	Why is that the wrong way? Normally I take a PDF file that I own (most are copywrite that is why I did not attach a real book), put it into book designer to clean it up, save it, run a script that makes everything exactly the way mobicreator needs it and create a mobi file. I get perfectly formated mobi files out of it, that look at work perfect on my Kindle. But now I have a lot mobi files that I did not save the source of and would like to convert it to epub, to display on my iPad. Really just looking to what you think I am doing wrong when creating files this way. I can do it differently going forward, but putting *** always instead of just putting some dead space at the beginning of a paragraph, sometimes changes the look of the book.

09-15-2010, 02:25 PM	#6
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Because your master format (the HTML) should not have MOBI specific markup. Instead create standards compliant HTML and convert that directly to MOBI and EPUB. That way an intelligent converter will be able to gracefully degrade features in the html that dont work in the target output format.

09-16-2010, 07:36 AM	#9
Agama Guru Posts: 776 Karma: 2751519 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: UK Device: PW2, Nexus7	Since the attribute values only contain letters and numbers, (hyphen and dot are also allowed), then the quotes are optional in html, although my preference is to simply quote all attribute values regardless of characters used.

09-16-2010, 11:54 AM	#12
JBNY Member Posts: 21 Karma: 12 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindel, iPad	Putting quotes did not make it work. What I did was change my way of creating mobi books so I use a CSS file, and added spacing using css. Works perfect in mobi, on my kindle and when I convert the file with Calibre all the epub formatting moves over perfectly on my iPad as well. Thanks for your help!

09-16-2010, 02:57 PM	#13
Agama Guru Posts: 776 Karma: 2751519 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: UK Device: PW2, Nexus7	Sorry JBNY, the info on quotes pulled us off topic a bit into a digression on html attributes. It has no bearing on your query. To put white space above and below a paragraph use margin-top and margin-bottom in your stylesheet. For fixed spacing use a unit of measure such as "pt" and for spacing which sizes with the text use "em". For example: P { margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em } would apply 0.5em margins above and below every paragraph.

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