Chapter markers in text file?

[Strahan]

Hi. I have some large text files that I threw on my Kindle. I'd love to be able to edit the text file and insert some sort of code so the Kindle knows where chapter breaks are.

Is that possible? I was Googling and some page said to put "<mbpagebreak />" but that doesn't appear to have any effect.

Thanks!

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Strahan

Hi. I have some large text files that I threw on my Kindle. I'd love to be able to edit the text file and insert some sort of code so the Kindle knows where chapter breaks are.

Is that possible? I was Googling and some page said to put "<mbpagebreak />" but that doesn't appear to have any effect.

Thanks!

Text files are displayed as-is. You can't use advanced formatting -- you will have to convert to azw3 first. Then insert page-breaks by editing the book with calibre's Edit Book feature (shortcut key is "T") and "Split File" (see screenshot) to create chapter breaks. In ebooks, a new file = pagebreak, and it is the recommended way to format a new chapter.

While you're at it, you may want to take the opportunity to tweak the files for all kinds of fun stuff! Use the code <h1>Chapter Name</h1> to set headings saying "Chapter Name", (and create ToCs based on them), bold stuff, add paragraph indents, and more! There are many guides out there to writing html code.

[HarryT]

If you have recognisable chapter markers in the file (eg "Chapter XXX" at the start of each chapter), then a conversion with heuristic processing enabled should do a decent job of conversion for you, without needing to manually edit.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Strahan

Hi. I have some large text files that I threw on my Kindle. I'd love to be able to edit the text file and insert some sort of code so the Kindle knows where chapter breaks are.

Since Calibre supports Markdown input, you could use Markdown to mark chapters with # signs in your text files and do a TXT->MOBI conversion. For example:

### Chapter 1

will be converted to:

<h3>Chapter 1</h3>

if you change the input file Formatting style option to markdown in Calibre.
Unfortunately, Calibre doesn't seem to be able to automatically generate a Kindle TOC, even if the Generate TOC option is enabled.

If you're not afraid of command line utilities, also check out pandoc, which can convert Markdown text files to epubs, which you can then convert to Kindle books with Calibre.

[Strahan]

Thanks all, appreciate the help

PS, I'll def check out pandoc. I -far- prefer command line stuff to GUI; I'm a 39 year old systems engineer, so I grew up in the DOS days and I've never given up love of that type of environment hehe.