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Learn How to Open and Edit an EPUB File

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Epub eBooks are one of the most popular formats for reading today. There are occasionally reasons that you might want to open and make changes to an existing epub file. We will explain two options for editing your epub file here.

An epub is just a zip file containing XHTML text files, images, and other resources. You can edit the XHTML files directly if you are a coder or know how to edit HTML.  Even if you have no experience editing HTML you can still quickly make changes to your epub with a simple WYSIWYG editor called Sigil.

Opening an epub file is easy! Heres How:

An epub file is essentially just a compressed zip file with HTML and XML files inside. To open your epub file:

  1. Right-click on the file, select “Rename”, and change the extension from .epub to .zip. then hit “Enter” to save the name change.
  2. Now you have successfully converted your epub file into a .zip folder.
  3. Right-click the .zip folder name and click “Extract All.” Choose where you want to save the files and click “OK.”
  4. Now you have a folder that you can open to access your ebook content directly!
  5. You will need to use a text editor (Like NotePad or SublimeText) to make edits to your ebook HTML files.

For Mac users, the process is a bit more technical and requires some scripts. However, you can use THIS TOOL to unpackage your files easily!

There are also two free tools you can use to make edits to ebook files with no coding required!

Simple download Calibre or Sigil to make changes to your ebook with a visual editor. The screenshot below shows the Sigil editor. We also have a great tutorial for using this tool here.

What An Epub File Is, and How To Open, Edit, and Create Your Own!