Nested Ordered Lists

[andyd273]

Or, can I have an ordered list with a nested list inside with alpha instead of numeric?

1.
2.

a.
b.

3.

Tried this, didn't work.

<ol>
<li></li>
<li></li>

<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;">
<li></li>
<li></li>
</ol>

<li></li>
</ol>

the lower alpha list shows up as numbers instead.
is there a better way to do this?

[DoctorOhh]

If you want help you might want to include little things like what format you are trying to do this with and what steps you are using.

[andyd273]

I'll be converting the HTML to both Mobi and EPub. I'll use KindleGen for the Mobi, and Calibre for the EPub.

Unless there is a better way to do it.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by andyd273

I'll be converting the HTML to both Mobi and EPub. I'll use KindleGen for the Mobi, and Calibre for the EPub.

That will help people with experience focus their help.

Originally Posted by andyd273

Unless there is a better way to do it.

I don't know if there are better ways. You might want to ask for help from the experts in the mobi and epub forums.

[DiapDealer]

Mobi (or at least Kindle Mobi) doesn't support anything but numbered ordered lists. And even ePub can be quite flaky (different results for different readers) with how nested ordered lists including both alpha and numeric combinations are handled.

The better solution is to forget about the <ol> and <li> tags and just hard-code your outline the way you want it to look.

[andyd273]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The better solution is to forget about the <ol> and <li> tags and just hard-code your outline the way you want it to look.

Ok, I can understand that. Whats the best method to get the proper indent?
I know they can be picky about things like tables...
I could do something like

<blockquote>
<p>1.</p>
<p>2.</p>
<p>3.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a.</p>
<p>b.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>4.</p>
</blockquote>

but I dunno if they can handle that level of complexity.
Can Mobi and EPub handle something like <p style='text-indent:10px;'> or padding-left:10px;?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by andyd273

Ok, I can understand that. Whats the best method to get the proper indent?
I know they can be picky about things like tables...
I could do something like

<blockquote>
<p>1.</p>
<p>2.</p>
<p>3.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a.</p>
<p>b.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>4.</p>
</blockquote>

but I dunno if they can handle that level of complexity.
Can Mobi and EPub handle something like <p style='text-indent:10px;'> or padding-left:10px;?

Nested Blockquotes seem to work for me.

[DiapDealer]

Can Mobi and EPub handle something like <p style='text-indent:10px;'> or padding-left:10px;?

ePub can handle that, but text-indent would only affect the first line of a paragraph (yes, each outline entry would probably only need one line, but you never know when the user increases the font size)... so it's probably better to use the margin-left style property (inline or CSS).

As for MOBI, whatever style (inline or CSS) you give a paragraph in your source (x)html needs to be translated/converted to an HTML 3.2 attribute in the finished product. MOBI is limited to a subset of HTML 3.2 and doesn't support CSS at all. So "text-indent" is translated to the "width" property:

<p width="1.0em">blah, blah, blah</p>

by calibre's or kindlegen's conversion process. The "margin-left" attribute is converted to a <blockquote> section (nested to achieve the required level of indentation).

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by andyd273

Can Mobi and EPub handle something like <p style='text-indent:10px;'> or padding-left:10px;?

If you use "padding-left:x" and "text-indent: -x", it would work as you want in ePub and mobi (at least in all the ereaders I have tried it).

[andyd273]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

If you use "padding-left:x" and "text-indent: -x", it would work as you want in ePub and mobi (at least in all the ereaders I have tried it).

Only really concerned with Kindle, Nook and iBooks at the moment. So good to hear.
Off to try this.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

So "text-indent" is translated to the "width" property:

<p width="1.0em">blah, blah, blah</p>

by calibre's or kindlegen's conversion process.

Useful information. And I always seem to forget about em measurements. That'll be useful for ebooks since the font is so likely to be re-sized.