How can I define the "first" page of an ebook?

[Toxaris]

In version 0.4 Sigil will not change the opf by default. Only if you recreate the TOC with the headings, the opf will change.

[mtrahan]

Originally Posted by bfollowell

Now that I know I can fix this by manually editing the opf, I have no problem, until I go back into Sigil and edit an epub for some reason. If I do that, Sigil removes my start page definition. I'm not really sure why but it does.

It does that because "start" isn't an accepted reference type for the Guide section of the OPF, according to ePub standards. It's not a Sigil problem.

See there for accepted values: http://idpf.org/epub/20/spec/OPF_2.0...htm#Section2.6

It's because of this situation that I started using the "preface" reference type in my ePubs to set the opening page. But it didn't work as planned for the Mobi conversion. I opened a thread when I faced this problem a while ago: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=130969 Didn't get the answers I wanted, but I noticed that now my Calibre-converted mobi always open on the "Title page" (semantics set in Sigil) on Kindle. No idea why it doesn't work for you. Only thing I see different from my current files (compared to the one I'm talking about in the thread) is that I never used again "page-break-before: always;" in CSS after that. Maybe it is related?

[st_albert]

FWIW, here's how I do it (for an epub intended for conversion to mobi):

In Sigil (0.3.4 if it matters) I mark the file containing the first chapter with the semantic "text". Just to be clear, right-click the file in the book browser, choose "add semantics" and click "text".

Make whatever other changes necessary for the mobi conversion, such as adding an inline TOC.xhtml, removing the cover page (but not the image) and so on. Save and exit.

Then, expand the epub and edit content.opf. Make whatever changes are necessary to the guide (e.g. regarding the cover), and change the title= field in the <reference type="text" guide entry to title="Start Reading" ...

Save, re-pack the epub, and use kindlegen to convert it to mobi.

The kindle will open the book to the page pointed to by the "text" guide entry. The kindle's menu | go to | beginning entry will also take you there.

Oh, and BTW if I'm not mistaken, during conversion Calibre does not pass on to mobi those <guide> elements that are non-standard or not supported by the mobi format. At least, that used to be the case several versions ago. I have not tried it lately. Bottom line is that the "text" guide element was ignored.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by st_albert

FWIW, here's how I do it (for an epub intended for conversion to mobi):

In Sigil (0.3.4 if it matters) I mark the file containing the first chapter with the semantic "text". Just to be clear, right-click the file in the book browser, choose "add semantics" and click "text".

Make whatever other changes necessary for the mobi conversion, such as adding an inline TOC.xhtml, removing the cover page (but not the image) and so on. Save and exit.

Then, expand the epub and edit content.opf. Make whatever changes are necessary to the guide (e.g. regarding the cover), and change the title= field in the <reference type="text" guide entry to title="Start Reading" ...

Save, re-pack the epub, and use kindlegen to convert it to mobi.

The kindle will open the book to the page pointed to by the "text" guide entry. The kindle's menu | go to | beginning entry will also take you there.

Oh, and BTW if I'm not mistaken, during conversion Calibre does not pass on to mobi those <guide> elements that are non-standard or not supported by the mobi format. At least, that used to be the case several versions ago. I have not tried it lately. Bottom line is that the "text" guide element was ignored.

St. Albert:

Actually, for any epub->mobi conversion, merely marking the "text" semantic works, as I posted originally. What has not worked for the OP is that s/he is using Calibre, which apparently is ignoring the "text" semantic that, I agree, works perfectly (actually, without all the fooferah) in a straight-up KindleGen convo.

I've never needed to edit the OPF and change the guide item; "text" works just fine for anything through MobiGen, KindleGen or Previewer. But, alas--it seems NOT to work via Calibre, but as I don't use Calibre as a production tool, I have no answer to this other than exploding the epub and adding the start location manually.

HTH,
Hitch

[st_albert]

Originally Posted by Hitch

St. Albert:

Actually, for any epub->mobi conversion, merely marking the "text" semantic works, as I posted originally. What has not worked for the OP is that s/he is using Calibre, which apparently is ignoring the "text" semantic that, I agree, works perfectly (actually, without all the fooferah) in a straight-up KindleGen convo.

I've never needed to edit the OPF and change the guide item; "text" works just fine for anything through MobiGen, KindleGen or Previewer. But, alas--it seems NOT to work via Calibre, but as I don't use Calibre as a production tool, I have no answer to this other than exploding the epub and adding the start location manually.

HTH,
Hitch

Hitch:

Yes, I agree. Changing the "text" title to "Start Reading" is only cosmetic. But as I am usually into the content.opf for other purposes, I do make the change if I think of it.

Actually, I think the Kindle devices (K3 anyway) just call it "beginning" anyway. (The "start reading" title does show up in Mobipocket Reader for PC though.)

[Evil Overlord]

For the record in the latest versions of Sigil and Calibre, setting the 'text' property to my title page worked perfectly in the eventual Kindle version. Of course only now do I realize that it also replaced the 'title page' property, but I can live with that. Does anything actually use that property?

[capidamonte]

Make a half-title page, apply text-property to that.

Keep your title page, apply title-page-property.