Sidebars on Kindle?

TravellingTwo · 04-10-2011, 08:23 AM

We are trying (and failing) to produce sidebars on Kindle. We can get them to show in the ePub no problem but as soon as we use Calibre to convert from .epub to .mobi our nice light grey background and frames just disappear.

Any ideas what's going wrong?

FF2 · 04-10-2011, 10:58 AM

You probably will get better responses if you post this to the Calibre subforum a few forums down on the main forum page (but a moderator probably will move it)

DiapDealer · 04-10-2011, 11:38 AM

You can't change the background color on a mobi (not even varying shades of grey), and while frames are supported by the mobipocket format... they're not supported on the Kindle that I know of.

TravellingTwo · 04-10-2011, 12:38 PM

Thanks for the replies. I'll try the other forums.

It IS possible to change the background colour on a Kindle somehow, because I have a sample of a book with background shaded boxes (I have a Kindle 3). Unfortunately, we're stumped as to how they've done it though.

mr ploppy · 04-10-2011, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TravellingTwo

Thanks for the replies. I'll try the other forums.

It IS possible to change the background colour on a Kindle somehow, because I have a sample of a book with background shaded boxes (I have a Kindle 3). Unfortunately, we're stumped as to how they've done it though.

Use mobiunpack and look in the html to see how it is done.

DiapDealer · 04-10-2011, 01:15 PM

Quote:

It IS possible to change the background colour on a Kindle somehow, because I have a sample of a book with background shaded boxes (I have a Kindle 3).

My guess is that it's an image--the background color AND the text that appears in a "box"--that is.

Or it's some kind of magic with tables.

TravellingTwo · 04-11-2011, 02:09 PM

Thanks for that tip about mobiunpack. It's a table but we still can't see the CSS so we're not sure how they did the background color.

susan_cassidy · 04-11-2011, 03:36 PM

.mobi does not really support CSS. The tags should be inline.

DiapDealer · 04-11-2011, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Thanks for that tip about mobiunpack. It's a table but we still can't see the CSS so we're not sure how they did the background color.

There is no css in a mobi file. It's all done with HTML 3.2, so the secret has to be in the html.

Histerius · 04-11-2011, 05:40 PM

Will something like this give background color to table cell?
<td style="background-color:#bbbbbb">

TravellingTwo · 04-15-2011, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Histerius

Will something like this give background color to table cell?
<td style="background-color:#bbbbbb">

We can try... will let you know! We tried something similar before and it was stripped out but you never know.

04-10-2011, 08:23 AM	#1
TravellingTwo Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: Kindle 3	Sidebars on Kindle? We are trying (and failing) to produce sidebars on Kindle. We can get them to show in the ePub no problem but as soon as we use Calibre to convert from .epub to .mobi our nice light grey background and frames just disappear. Any ideas what's going wrong?

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04-10-2011, 10:58 AM	#2
FF2 Wizard Posts: 1,105 Karma: 1025784 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: WiFi Kindle3	You probably will get better responses if you post this to the Calibre subforum a few forums down on the main forum page (but a moderator probably will move it)

04-10-2011, 11:38 AM	#3
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,548 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	You can't change the background color on a mobi (not even varying shades of grey), and while frames are supported by the mobipocket format... they're not supported on the Kindle that I know of.

04-10-2011, 12:38 PM	#4
TravellingTwo Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: Kindle 3	Thanks for the replies. I'll try the other forums. It IS possible to change the background colour on a Kindle somehow, because I have a sample of a book with background shaded boxes (I have a Kindle 3). Unfortunately, we're stumped as to how they've done it though.

04-11-2011, 02:09 PM	#7
TravellingTwo Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: Kindle 3	Thanks for that tip about mobiunpack. It's a table but we still can't see the CSS so we're not sure how they did the background color.

04-11-2011, 03:36 PM	#8
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	.mobi does not really support CSS. The tags should be inline.

04-11-2011, 05:40 PM	#10
Histerius Zealot Posts: 126 Karma: 7922 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Zagreb, Croatia Device: Kindle 3 - Galaxy Tab 10.1	Will something like this give background color to table cell? <td style="background-color:#bbbbbb">