How to add a page break before each chapter

[barryem]

I'm reading an epub that has each chapter starting right at the end of the previous chapter with no page break. Not a big thing. I can live with it if need be. But I wonder if there's some fairly easy way in Calibre to add page breaks at the start of a chapter.

In the editor I did try adding a <br> tag but that didn't seem to do anything. I don't know a lot about HTML and less about CSS. I do understand a few of the basics but even most of the basics aren't clear to me. I don't do enough editing of books to justify learning CSS. I'm 75 and learning new things doesn't come easy anymore.

Anyway, if anyone can tell me a simple way to do this I'd appreciate it. And if anyone tells me to learn CSS I won't get mad but I probably won't do it. I know when I was answering a question like this in a forum about programming in my younger days that would have been my answer.

Any help will be appreciated. Any suggestions that I learn CSS will be ignored gracefully.

Barry

[PeterT]

Split each chapter into a separate file.

[barryem]

I looked for a way to do that but I didn't see one. Where do I find that option?

Barry

[PeterT]

Ugh.. I don't have easy access to calibre right now (my PC is dead and I just sneak onto my wife's PC when I can).

See https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/edi...ing-html-files

[theducks]

Originally Posted by barryem

I looked for a way to do that but I didn't see one. Where do I find that option?

Barry

It is on the preview pane: the folded thing icon

But it may be simpler if all you want is a new page

page-break-before: always

In the CSS style for the chapter title (assumes it has its own class)

[barryem]

I just found where to do that with the scissor shaped icon at the bottom of the right panel. That seemed to be working okay until near the middle of the book I came to a chapter where the chapter number was at the end of the file and the chapter name was at the beginning of the next file. Normally the chapter name directly follows the chapter number, on the next line.

The text of the book is divided into (I think) two files. There are five files altogether but the text is in those two files. The 5 are HTML files and then there are CSS files in addition. I'm guessing this is just a badly formatted file and maybe I'll just leave it be. I don't think I know what I'm doing.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Barry

[barryem]

I'll look at adding that line to the style sheet.

Thanks,
Barry

[theducks]

Originally Posted by barryem

I just found where to do that with the scissor shaped icon at the bottom of the right panel. That seemed to be working okay until near the middle of the book I came to a chapter where the chapter number was at the end of the file and the chapter name was at the beginning of the next file. Normally the chapter name directly follows the chapter number, on the next line.

The text of the book is divided into (I think) two files. There are five files altogether but the text is in those two files. The 5 are HTML files and then there are CSS files in addition. I'm guessing this is just a badly formatted file and maybe I'll just leave it be. I don't think I know what I'm doing.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Barry

Split where it is needed, then merge the next section AFTER the orphan chapter head

[barryem]

Well, I tried that and nothing happened. I tried adding it to the class for the title and to the class of the line before each chapter which seems like it might define the start of the chapter. It begins with <P ...

Anyway it's probably not worth all this. I'm halfway through the book. I thought it might be an easy fix and I guess it's not.

Thanks for the help.

Barry

[theducks]

Originally Posted by barryem

Well, I tried that and nothing happened. I tried adding it to the class for the title and to the class of the line before each chapter which seems like it might define the start of the chapter. It begins with <P ...

Anyway it's probably not worth all this. I'm halfway through the book. I thought it might be an easy fix and I guess it's not.

Thanks for the help.

Barry

did you validate your CSS after you made the change? Those esky semi-colons

BTW The Calibre Viewer can not be in Scroll mode, it ignores that command

[barryem]

I didn't know to validate it and I didn't know I needed a semi-colon. I'm about to call it a night. I'll give that a try in the morning.

Thanks,
Barry

[theducks]

Originally Posted by barryem

I didn't know to validate it and I didn't know I needed a semi-colon. I'm about to call it a night. I'll give that a try in the morning.

Thanks,
Barry

Even Kovid make typos. When something does not work that should.... validate

A semicolon is needed unless it is the last attribute before the }
and it never hurts, even there

[barryem]

Well, thanks to a lot of help from you guys and the fact that I find it hard to give up, I finally did it!!

Frankly I didn't understand about half the answers I got so I started digging. I didn't learn much about CSS or HTML in the process but I learned a lot about the editor in Calibre. Well, maybe not a lot but more than I knew.

Most importantly I learned that it has a help file, which I didn't know before. I'm not sure that would have helped me but I used it to look up things described in the answers you guys gave me that I didn't know about, such as how to merge pages, etc, and I now have a repaired book.

Unfortunately I'm nearly done reading it but this was more about knowing how to fix that sort of thing than it really being a problem, so that's okay.

I had another book with a related problem and I learned enough in the process to fix that book as well.

At the moment I'm feeling pretty good. That'll last till the next thing I can't figure out. But that's just life.

Thanks again for your help. It worked.
Barry

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by barryem

Most importantly I learned that it has a help file, which I didn't know before.

@barryem - there are useful sticky posts at the top of the calibre subforums, and the main forum, such as the Editor Info Links thread. The videos are worthwhile (they are not of the unboxing cornflakes genre)

BR