Can you move multiple TOC entries at once?

[icearch]

I've editing some garbage auto generate epubs, they tend to have single layer of TOC which is hard to navigate. So I change them.

But here is the thing, it seems that you can't select multiple entries in Editing TOC window, making it hard to edit.

So am I doing it wrong or Sigil just can't do that? Currently I'm directly editing nav or ncx, which is annoying and tend to need several tries to make it correct.

[philja]

I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve. But certainly, if you're using the Tools > Table of Contents > Edit Table of Contents procedure, you cannot select multiple entries at once.

But, even so, that is the most reliable way of editing a ToC because Sigil will then make the needed changes to the ncx or nav files. Thus avoiding the errors which (as you seem to have found) direct editing of those files can so easily cause.

[icearch]

Originally Posted by philja

I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve. But certainly, if you're using the Tools > Table of Contents > Edit Table of Contents procedure, you cannot select multiple entries at once.

But, even so, that is the most reliable way of editing a ToC because Sigil will then make the needed changes to the ncx or nav files. Thus avoiding the errors which (as you seem to have found) direct editing of those files can so easily cause.

Yes, what I mean is, these crap epub will have like 100 h1 nav entries, without any layer structure as they suppose to. It's super annoying to navigate while reading so I'm editing them.

But since you can not select multiple entries in edit TOC window, you need to click
each one to make them the right way, which is super tedious.

What I'm doing now is manually twick nav.xhtml or toc.ncx to make them all
h2 or so, and thus I can manually make the bigger title h1 in edit TOC window.

It's sad to know you just can't move entries in bunch, I think it's a very useful feature.

[philja]

You might find it simpler to use Tools > Table of Content > Generate Table of Contents.

It will open a dialog box where you can specifiy how many levels of headings should be included - selecting or rejecting levels 1,2,3 or all.

Again, Sigil will make all corresponding changes to the nv or ncx files.

[philja]

Sorry, our replies crossed. I hadn't realised you were talking about poorly formatted ebooks where all headings were h1 only.

I'd prefer to edit the main body of the book to change heading styles to h2, h3 etc but you'd have to make sure that the styles sheet included corresponding format entries.

[icearch]

Originally Posted by philja

Sorry, our replies crossed. I hadn't realised you were talking about poorly formatted ebooks where all headings were h1 only.

I'd prefer to edit the main body of the book to change heading styles to h2, h3 etc but you'd have to make sure that the styles sheet included corresponding format entries.

It's just doesn't worth the effort to do that kind of detailed editing, so I just tweak the TOC only.

These carps are often auto generated from docx or txt, which the original file tend to not have any heading level what so ever.

[DiapDealer]

I'd just use regex to get the headings in order and then auto-generate the ncx/nav form the corrected info.

Seems like moving multiple entries in the toc editor as been mentioned before, but I can't remember if there were hurdles that would make such a feature unfeasible. It sounds like a great idea on paper, but that doesn't mean it might not involve a huge overhaul of settled code to accomplish it.

[icearch]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'd just use regex to get the headings in order and then auto-generate the ncx/nav form the corrected info.

Seems like moving multiple entries in the toc editor as been mentioned before, but I can't remember if there were hurdles that would make such a feature unfeasible. It sounds like a great idea on paper, but that doesn't mean it might not involve a huge overhaul of settled code to accomplish it.

I personally think it's worth investigation, if not feasible, I can just use my old tech.

As to regex the correct title, some of them does not have useable patterns, like no chapter-xxx, just lines of words.

Also regex can be a bit hard for inexperienced ones, so a built-in feature is more friendly.

[Turtle91]

I use the plugin to work on chapter headers. It inserts chapter numbers/words or whatever.

If most of your chapters should be level 2, then just change the 'h1>' to 'h2>' (or '<h1' to '<h2' if you have classes, but you'll need a 2nd run for '</h1' to '</h2') with find/replace (no regex required). Then you have much fewer entries to manually change in the body to <h1> or <h3>.

BTW, you can use ctrl-1 to change both tags to h1, ctrl-3 for h3…etc. just place the cursor inside the <h> tag.

[icearch]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

If most of your chapters should be level 2, then just change the 'h1>' to 'h2>' (or '<h1' to '<h2' if you have classes, but you'll need a 2nd run for '</h1' to '</h2') with find/replace (no regex required). Then you have much fewer entries to manually change in the body to <h1> or <h3>.

That's a great idea, I will try them.

[icearch]

wooo... great, the second epub I open does not have heading for navigation, what a wonderful world we live in...

It use the first p to locate and jump in, how great, nice job, ramdom formatter.

Edit TOC window can still identify and operate it as normal, so I still think it's worth looking into.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I use the plugin to work on chapter headers. It inserts chapter numbers/words or whatever.

If most of your chapters should be level 2, then just change the 'h1>' to 'h2>' (or '<h1' to '<h2' if you have classes, but you'll need a 2nd run for '</h1' to '</h2') with find/replace (no regex required). Then you have much fewer entries to manually change in the body to <h1> or <h3>.

BTW, you can use ctrl-1 to change both tags to h1, ctrl-3 for h3…etc. just place the cursor inside the <h> tag.

Reformat: Mend all HTML will do the second part

[KevinH]

Just to make sure I understand. You want a way to multiple select any combination in the TOC records and demote them all one level but not actually change the h1 to h2 in the code itself?

But the whole point of the h* tags is to semantically mark document structure which is especially important for Accessibility. So the correct solution in this case is to change h* tags in the actual source (or create them if the source format is horrible) as part making your epub Accessible.

The easiest way to do that is via find and replace/regex. Changing just the TOC without changing the underlying xhtml itself, is not the right solution in most cases.

Once you have corrected the source by adding or changing h* tags, you can then rebuild the TOC from the code without having later to modify it.

So moving multiple items at once in the TOC should never be necessary.

[icearch]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Just to make sure I understand. You want a way to multiple select any combination in the TOC records and demote them all one level but not actually change the h1 to h2 in the code itself?

NONONO, absolutly not. If they have good h* structure I wouldn't be so bothered, just regen TOC right?

The fact is lots of auto converted and pooly made epubs can have hunderds of TOC entries at the same level, and often on level 1 (which is h1 usually take), like say they bundled 12 books, 10 chapters each, they just leave 120 level 1 TOC entries there, it's super annoying right?

it's just not worth the effort to do detailed editing, whether they use 120 h1 or even 120 p to work as anchor. Since they have a TOC that can be identified and edited by Sigil Edit TOC, I just edit the nav.xhtml or toc.ncx, and leave the actual anchors in each chapter alone. Because I just want to read books, not to correct every mistake on the Internet right?

So if one can select multiple entries in Edit TOC window, you can just select all, move them to level 2, and manually pick the book title move them to level 1, making it super easy to fix. And it's so much improvement with so much less effort.

The ultimate goal here is to have a structured navgation to easy read, making multiple (or all) entries down to level 2 and bring only book titles back to level 1 is just a easy way to save some elbow grease.

Right now you can just manually tweak code in nav.xhtml or toc.ncx, make them level 2, and pick the book title move them to level 1. Which can cause incovnience and error. It is so much safer and novice friendly to let Edit TOC function do all the background job.

And regex is not always a solution, since the chapter title may not actually have useable pattern.

And if devs want to do this, it's better to design it be good in one go, so I think it should achieve: you can pick any number of entries, do not have to be continuous, move them down or up. This gives user more freedom to do what they want to achieve easily. Or maybe you guys can come up with better solutions!

English is not my native language, so sorry for my bad wording, I just hope for the best to everyone. Thanks.

[Turtle91]

Just to clarify: the plugin I linked to above can automatically add header tags to all the files in a pattern you choose. For example, I’ll automatically add an incrementing chapter number wrapped in an <h> tag to all the selected files in the book browser. From there I use regex to set the <h> level, title, chapter name, etc as needed. It only takes a minute for a whole book. However, without using regex, you can multi-select all the appropriate files in the book browser and run the plugin to add an <h2> header. Then multi-select the files to add the <h3> tag and so on.