Question: Calibre's book editor

haertig · 01-01-2019, 01:11 PM

I am considering using Calibre's editor to split an omnibus into individual books. Actually, several omnibuses (is that a word?) It appears, after a quick glance at Calibre's documentation (not a detailed read) that this is probably possible. However, I'm thinking it might entail a significant amount of work. Off the top of my head, I think I would need to split out each individual books text, probably copy CSS code into each individual book, copy/edit table of contents, fix page numbering (or ignore it), add new book cover artwork ... and probably a whole host of other things I haven't thought about yet.

My question is not "can I do this?" With enough work, anything is doable. My question is, "is it worth it?" Has anyone attempted such a project before? How long, drawn out, and painful was the endeavor? Was the final result acceptable? Would you do it again? Did you do it all manually, or did you develop/find some kind of script to move things along faster?

I currently have 28 omnibuses (there's that unknown word again!) that would be candidates for this endeavor. Their contents vary from 3 to 13 individual books inside each omnibus. Probably averaging 4 books each. I have never used Calibre's editor before, but have briefly (very briefly) skimmed the documentation. All of my omnibuses are in azw3 or epub format.

Thanks in advance for any comments, tips, suggestions, warnings, etc.

theducks · 01-01-2019, 01:23 PM

Why not use the EPUB-Split plugin?

But to answer you question. Think of starting with COPIES and deleting the bits that don't belong. Some books use more than 1 CSS.

haertig · 01-01-2019, 01:53 PM

I was definitely thinking copy-then-delete for editing. I was not aware of the EPUB-Split plugin. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll investigate...

[edit] Putting "split" in the search box of the plugins dialog yielded nothing. But I'll continue trying to find it (somewhere, but I don't know where yet). [/edit]

[edit+1] Found it. I must have been searching only installed plugins before. [/edit+1]

01-01-2019, 01:11 PM	#1
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,854 Karma: 31508442 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26	Question: Calibre's book editor I am considering using Calibre's editor to split an omnibus into individual books. Actually, several omnibuses (is that a word?) It appears, after a quick glance at Calibre's documentation (not a detailed read) that this is probably possible. However, I'm thinking it might entail a significant amount of work. Off the top of my head, I think I would need to split out each individual books text, probably copy CSS code into each individual book, copy/edit table of contents, fix page numbering (or ignore it), add new book cover artwork ... and probably a whole host of other things I haven't thought about yet. My question is not "can I do this?" With enough work, anything is doable. My question is, "is it worth it?" Has anyone attempted such a project before? How long, drawn out, and painful was the endeavor? Was the final result acceptable? Would you do it again? Did you do it all manually, or did you develop/find some kind of script to move things along faster? I currently have 28 omnibuses (there's that unknown word again!) that would be candidates for this endeavor. Their contents vary from 3 to 13 individual books inside each omnibus. Probably averaging 4 books each. I have never used Calibre's editor before, but have briefly (very briefly) skimmed the documentation. All of my omnibuses are in azw3 or epub format. Thanks in advance for any comments, tips, suggestions, warnings, etc.

01-01-2019, 01:53 PM	#3
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,854 Karma: 31508442 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26	I was definitely thinking copy-then-delete for editing. I was not aware of the EPUB-Split plugin. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll investigate... [edit] Putting "split" in the search box of the plugins dialog yielded nothing. But I'll continue trying to find it (somewhere, but I don't know where yet). [/edit] [edit+1] Found it. I must have been searching only installed plugins before. [/edit+1] Last edited by haertig; 01-01-2019 at 01:57 PM.

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01-01-2019, 01:23 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 30,707 Karma: 59472572 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Why not use the EPUB-Split plugin? But to answer you question. Think of starting with COPIES and deleting the bits that don't belong. Some books use more than 1 CSS.

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