HTML Conversion

yoss15 · 07-26-2011, 09:18 AM

Hi everyone,

I have a lot of books online that I want to convert for my Kindle but I'm having trouble.

The issue is that for almost all of the books there is a TOC page with links to every section or chapter. Is there anyway for Calibre to handle this?

I would be willing to download each chapter for some of the books and then put them together if this is possible but ideally, because there are so many chapters for some of the books, Calibre would be able to automatically grab all the linked content.

Can anyone tell me if this is possible or what my beset option is?

Thanks

itimpi · 07-26-2011, 10:02 AM

If you add the ToC page (which links to the others) to Calibre, then Calibre will automatically pull in these other pages and store them all as a ZIP file in the Calibre library. It will also treat them as a unit when running any conversion.

yoss15 · 07-26-2011, 04:42 PM

Are there any special instructions on how to do this? I've downloaded the complete HTML of the page with all the links, then added it to my library and then converted it to MOBI and I just get the page with all the links.

Thanks for you help

ldolse · 07-26-2011, 09:47 PM

You actually need to download all the linked pages too (and put them in the correct relative location so you can access them from the index page) - Calibre only adds pages that are on the local machine, it won't crawl the web for you. There are a variety of browser plugins that will crawl a page/site for you and make a local copy. Once you have a local copy of the whole book then drag only the index page to Calibre - at that point it will combine all the files into a single zip during import.

DoctorOhh · 07-26-2011, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yoss15

Are there any special instructions on how to do this? I've downloaded the complete HTML of the page with all the links, then added it to my library and then converted it to MOBI and I just get the page with all the links.

You have to have all of the pages local before adding it to the library for the method you tried to work.

I think you can do what your trying via the command line tools. Check out the web2disk.exe I think it can grab all of the pages locally for you.

Starson17 · 07-27-2011, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Check out the web2disk.exe I think it can grab all of the pages locally for you.

Wget and httrack are also options. I've used both and they work well.

yoss15 · 07-27-2011, 06:07 PM

Thanks a lot for your help everyone.

So I used Download them All for Firefox and downloaded all of the links on the index page into a folder called "Book"

I then downloaded the index page with all of the links on it to the same folder.

So I drag the index file into my library and it adds it as a zip. I then convert it to MOBI and I get the same result as before.

What am I doing wrong here? Sorry if I am missing something simple, again I really appreciate the help.

Edit: I do understand what I'm doing wrong I think. I believe they all have to be in the right location in the folder? How exactly do I go about doing that or knowing what the folder should be named.

ldolse · 07-27-2011, 10:45 PM

When the index page is on your local hard drive the links in the index page need to also load the local hard disk links. If you didn't use Download Them All to download the index page itself then the links probably were hard-coded to go to the internet (this is typically what browsers do when you save a single page).

Basically before you import to Calibre you should load the locally saved index page in your browser and make sure all the links in that page load the locally saved content pages.

You should be able to configure Download Them All to save the index page too. If not, you'll need to figure out a way to save the index page while keeping the links relative. There are a lot of different ways to do this - one is just to use the 'view source' command and copy and past the text into a new file - you'd just need to place this file in the same relative location to the content pages as the original file. Some of the Save As options may do this automatically for you.

yoss15 · 07-28-2011, 08:49 AM

OK, I finally got it!

Now that I have the ebook, is there anyway to clean it up? For example when on my kindle, there are no clearly marked chapters. Like the table of contents works and has links to each chapter, but when I am reading the book the progress bar shows no chapters and hitting the dpad doesn't take you to the next chapter.

Also it has weird margins, there is more space in the left margin than the right.

DoctorOhh · 07-28-2011, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yoss15

Also it has weird margins, there is more space in the left margin than the right.

Check the ignore margins box in the Mobi Output, then reconvert.

yoss15 · 07-28-2011, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Check the ignore margins box in the Mobi Output, then reconvert.

Thanks, that worked perfectly.

Any advice on fixing the chapter bookmarks? I tried another online book and while there is a table of contents with links to the chapters, it doesn't show up on the progress bar. Not a huge deal but something I'd like to fix none the less.

ldolse · 07-28-2011, 12:52 PM

Did you read the Chapter Detection tutorial and manual?:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=129364

yoss15 · 07-28-2011, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ldolse

Did you read the Chapter Detection tutorial and manual?:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=129364

That looks like exactly what I need. Thanks for the link and writing the whole post on TOC format =).

07-26-2011, 09:18 AM	#1
yoss15 Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Kindle	HTML Conversion Hi everyone, I have a lot of books online that I want to convert for my Kindle but I'm having trouble. The issue is that for almost all of the books there is a TOC page with links to every section or chapter. Is there anyway for Calibre to handle this? I would be willing to download each chapter for some of the books and then put them together if this is possible but ideally, because there are so many chapters for some of the books, Calibre would be able to automatically grab all the linked content. Can anyone tell me if this is possible or what my beset option is? Thanks

07-27-2011, 06:07 PM	#7
yoss15 Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Kindle	Thanks a lot for your help everyone. So I used Download them All for Firefox and downloaded all of the links on the index page into a folder called "Book" I then downloaded the index page with all of the links on it to the same folder. So I drag the index file into my library and it adds it as a zip. I then convert it to MOBI and I get the same result as before. What am I doing wrong here? Sorry if I am missing something simple, again I really appreciate the help. Edit: I do understand what I'm doing wrong I think. I believe they all have to be in the right location in the folder? How exactly do I go about doing that or knowing what the folder should be named. Last edited by yoss15; 07-27-2011 at 06:10 PM.

07-27-2011, 10:45 PM	#8
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	When the index page is on your local hard drive the links in the index page need to also load the local hard disk links. If you didn't use Download Them All to download the index page itself then the links probably were hard-coded to go to the internet (this is typically what browsers do when you save a single page). Basically before you import to Calibre you should load the locally saved index page in your browser and make sure all the links in that page load the locally saved content pages. You should be able to configure Download Them All to save the index page too. If not, you'll need to figure out a way to save the index page while keeping the links relative. There are a lot of different ways to do this - one is just to use the 'view source' command and copy and past the text into a new file - you'd just need to place this file in the same relative location to the content pages as the original file. Some of the Save As options may do this automatically for you. Last edited by ldolse; 07-27-2011 at 10:49 PM.

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07-26-2011, 10:02 AM	#2
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	If you add the ToC page (which links to the others) to Calibre, then Calibre will automatically pull in these other pages and store them all as a ZIP file in the Calibre library. It will also treat them as a unit when running any conversion.

07-26-2011, 04:42 PM	#3
yoss15 Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Kindle	Are there any special instructions on how to do this? I've downloaded the complete HTML of the page with all the links, then added it to my library and then converted it to MOBI and I just get the page with all the links. Thanks for you help

07-26-2011, 09:47 PM	#4
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	You actually need to download all the linked pages too (and put them in the correct relative location so you can access them from the index page) - Calibre only adds pages that are on the local machine, it won't crawl the web for you. There are a variety of browser plugins that will crawl a page/site for you and make a local copy. Once you have a local copy of the whole book then drag only the index page to Calibre - at that point it will combine all the files into a single zip during import.

07-28-2011, 08:49 AM	#9
yoss15 Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Kindle	OK, I finally got it! Now that I have the ebook, is there anyway to clean it up? For example when on my kindle, there are no clearly marked chapters. Like the table of contents works and has links to each chapter, but when I am reading the book the progress bar shows no chapters and hitting the dpad doesn't take you to the next chapter. Also it has weird margins, there is more space in the left margin than the right.

07-28-2011, 12:52 PM	#12
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	Did you read the Chapter Detection tutorial and manual?: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=129364

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