Split Chapters & Anchors/Hyperlink Question

[Trane]

Hello. I am new to Sigil (using the newest 0.9.7) and ebooks. I have a 100+ page How-To book that will have several hyperlinks (e.g. to Appendix references, and to other parts of the book).

Q #1. If I insert anchors/hyperlinks PRIOR to splitting the book into chapter files (it will create 64 separate files), when I do the splitting, will the achors/hyperlinks update to reflect the new files?

Q #2. If it WILL update, then what happens when I rename each of those 64 files to be meaningful (want to rename ea per the chapter heading).

IOW, what is the best order to do this so that I don't have to re-do the anchors/hyperlinks over again?

I realize it's probably best to split the book, rename the chapters, THEN insert the hyperlinks, but that's MUCH more work than inserting the links when the file is still one large file I can scan through. So was hoping it will be fine doing it that way?

Thanks for any guidance. I did Google this yesterday but read several conflicting answers.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Trane

Q #1. If I insert anchors/hyperlinks PRIOR to splitting the book into chapter files (it will create 64 separate files), when I do the splitting, will the achors/hyperlinks update to reflect the new files?

Yes. However ... in versions of Sigil earlier than 0.9.7 it would be possible for urls that contained non-existent url-fragment ids to become quite butchered when splitting/merging. Starting with Sigil v0.9.7, Sigil will warn you if such situations are present and allow you to cancel the split/merge before any damage can be done.

It's a good idea to run the Reports Tool before doing such a split. It will be able to tell you if there are urls present that don't have existing targets.

Fragment identifiers (../Text/myfile.xhtml#mytarget) are the only real issue, here. Standard urls with non-existent files in the url will be left alone (../Text/this_file_is_not_in_my_epub.xhtml) when splitting/merging/renaming

Originally Posted by Trane

Q #2. If it WILL update, then what happens when I rename each of those 64 files to be meaningful (want to rename ea per the chapter heading).

All hyperlinks will be properly adjusted when renaming files (so long as you're using the rename feature that's part of Sigil).

As always ... make sure you have good backups before performing any drastic/large-scale operations and double-check the results before moving forward.

[Trane]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yes. However ... in versions of Sigil earlier than 0.9.7 it would be possible for urls that contained non-existent url-fragment ids to become quite butchered when splitting/merging. Starting with Sigil v0.9.7, Sigil will warn you if such situations are present and allow you to cancel the split/merge before any damage can be done.

It's a good idea to run the Reports Tool before doing such a split. It will be able to tell you if there are urls present that don't have existing targets.

Fragment identifiers (../Text/myfile.xhtml#mytarget) are the only real issue, here. Standard urls with non-existent files in the url will be left alone (../Text/this_file_is_not_in_my_epub.xhtml) when splitting/merging/renaming


All hyperlinks will be properly adjusted when renaming files (so long as you're using the rename feature that's part of Sigil).

As always ... make sure you have good backups before performing any drastic/large-scale operations and double-check the results before moving forward.

Really good info, and thanks very much! As far as renaming the separate files "using the rename feature in Sigil" ... I typically right-click within Sigil the file, then choose Rename... is this what you mean? (Versus, say, renaming outside Sigil, which I would not do.) Thanks again! Much appreciated!

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Trane

As far as renaming the separate files "using the rename feature in Sigil" ... I typically right-click within Sigil the file, then choose Rename... is this what you mean? (Versus, say, renaming outside Sigil, which I would not do.) Thanks again! Much appreciated!

That is indeed what I meant. I figured that's what you used, I just wanted to be certain.

[Trane]

... and rightly so! Thanks again, friend.

[exaltedwombat]

Don't forget you can auto-rename your chapters all in one go - Select them all, press Rename and type in something like 'Chapter_001'.