table of contents code for converted oreilly chm

[luckycharms]

Hi Folks,

Not sure if this is the right sub-forum. I'm looking around for a way to properly detect multi-level tables of contents for an o'reilly chm that i'm converting to epub. Calibre is detecting the TOC, but just not in a multi-level fashion. Here's the XHTML (i think) for a chapter heading:

<TITLE>C.7. Chapter 7</TITLE>

and for a sub-section:

<TITLE>7.11. What About ORDER BY?</TITLE>

Perhaps I could somehow detect the "C." in the full chapter and the lack of it in a sub-section? I'd like to get these subsections indented, and ideally would like to find or help make a "recipe" (perhaps I'm mis-using that term) for processing these chm's.

thanks! any help greatly appreciated...

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by luckycharms

Not sure if this is the right sub-forum.

Moderator Notice
This is a conversion question. I moved it for you.

[jackie_w]

The <title>...</title> tags are not used by Calibre when defining chapters/TOC levels.

There are (at least) 2 ways to get the correct TOC nesting.

1. The first is to find out exactly how the source document has defined each nest level in the XHTML files. It could be as simple as <h1> for level 1, <h2> for level 2 and <h3> for level 3... however you may not get that lucky! You can try opening the CHM in the Calibre Viewer then using the right-click Inspect feature. Once you have figured out exactly how the chapter headings have been defined you can use the info to construct the correct entries for the box Convert - StructureDetection - Detect chapters at and also for the 3 TOC level boxes on the Convert - TOC page. This method requires you to have a working knowledge of html.
   
2. The second approach requires less technical ability. If you have done your CHM to EPUB conversion and you have a correct, but flat, TOC you could try this EpubFixer utility to massage your TOC to the appropriate nested structure. It's all done using drag-and-drop actions. The utility does more than just TOC editing but I personally don't use it for anything else.

If your CHM uses more than 3 nested levels I don't think you could use option 1. On the face of it option 2 seems to work but I don't know whether the various ereaders support nesting levels of 4 or more.

[luckycharms]

thanks jackie. i know html, so i'll look into your option 1. I had been looking at the debug files from the conversion, but it made so many different html files, i'm not sure i was looking in the right place for the chapter tags.

So, how do i "inspect" the chm? I've already converted it to an epub once. When I open it in calibre, it opens as an epub. Right clicking on it's entry in the calibre library, i don't see any "inspect" menu option...

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by luckycharms

So, how do i "inspect" the chm? I've already converted it to an epub once. When I open it in calibre, it opens as an epub. Right clicking on it's entry in the calibre library, i don't see any "inspect" menu option...

As Jackie said, you open the chm file with the Calibre viewer. The inspect feature is in the Calibre viewer. Opening with the viewer causes the chm to be temporarily converted to XHTML. Try clicking on the chm file to open it. If your system doesn't use the Calibre viewer, then close it, and go into preferences and tell Calibre to use its own viewer to open chm files. That setting is in Preferences on the right side of the Behavior page.