Mobipocket conversion: div bgcolor and border

[kentmatt]

I'm trying to get a mobi file with 'sidebars' (not really on the side) - simply blocks of text that are identified with a grey background and a border:

I know that fancy css will not work, so I went with this:

<div border="1" bgcolor="#EEEEEE">

which renders fine as HTML, but when I run the conversion to Mobi in Calibre, neither the border nor the grey background are visible, either in the Caliber viewer or in the Mobi Reader (under WINE).

(Note: I'm on Linux, so using the Mobipocket conversion software itself is not an option)

Is there something that will work?

[kentmatt]

OK, apparently what I posted was BS - I was following the instructions at http://www.mobipocket.com/dev/articl...guidelines.htm

Which states: "Boxes & Important information display
Use a <div> tag with e.g. a light red background color and a border="1" attribute to highlight a paragraph. "

Once I stripped out my CSS and used their suggestion, it doesn't work in either Firefox or Epiphany - and so of course it wouldn't work when converted to MOBI.

Any suggestions on how to get a border and background around a block of text in HTML that will convert to mobi (CSS doesn't stay, and using a table doesn't work if the text goes off the 'page').

[wallcraft]

There isn't an easy way to get a background color in MOBI.

One simple approach is to use horizontal rules to separate the text.

In Kindle Formatting: The Complete Guide Joshua Tallent suggests using tables for pull quotes, for example:

<div align="center">
 <table cellpadding="10" style="margin-left:0;">
 <tr><td><hr width="500" /></td></tr>
 <tr><td align="center" border="1" style="background-color:#C0C0C0">We must have a concrete idea of anything, even if it be an imaginary idea, before we can comprehend it.</td></tr>
 <tr><td><hr width="500" /></td></tr>
 </table>
 </div>

On the Kindle 2 (and 3?) this will have a background color.

[kentmatt]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

One simple approach is to use horizontal rules to separate the text.

In Kindle Formatting: The Complete Guide Joshua Tallent suggests using tables for pull quotes,

Yeah, I tried the table thing, but as I said, large chunks of text tend to run off the bottom of the 'page', with no way to see the remainder - both in the mobi reader, and on my kindle3 (it says to move the 5way controller to see the rest of the table, but it doesn't work).

I think the <hr> is the best thing - perhaps changing the font as well.

Or maybe I should just chuck mobi altogether, and install FBReader on my Kindle