KindleGen vs calibre

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by virtual_ink

Thanks JSWolf. I think that would work - however, I actually posted code from the wrong file! For the record, here's what I should have posted, and it works.

Original code:
<h2 id="toc_marker-6" class="sectiontitle"><span class="Bold"><a id="Contributors"/>Contributors</span></h2>

Edited code:
<a id="Contributors"/><h2 id="toc_marker-6" class="sectiontitle"><span class="Bold">Contributors</span></h2>

This validates, and works in Kindle (with no lost H tags!). Thanks all for your help.

The original code should work perfectly well. You don't actually need to change it. The problem is the that your ToC is jumping ot the wrong ID. You need to jump to toc_marker-6 instead of Contributors. If you fix sort of error this in the ToC links, then all will work fine. Putting the <a> first is just ugly code.

[JSWolf]

What sort of problem(s) would arise from submitting a Calibre generated Mobi file?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What sort of problem(s) would arise from submitting a Calibre generated Mobi file?

No idea. But why take the risk that there might be problems when there's a way to avoid the possibility completely that's really not hard?

You're constantly moaning about the continued use of the Mobipocket/Kindle format. Well here's a genuine cause for complaint — the compiled format is not documented, so any third-party implementation of the format might cause problems when used with official tools and renderers in the future.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

No idea. But why take the risk that there might be problems when there's a way to avoid the possibility completely that's really not hard?

You're constantly moaning about the continued use of the Mobipocket/Kindle format. Well here's a genuine cause for complaint — the compiled format is not documented, so any third-party implementation of the format might cause problems when used with official tools and renderers in the future.

Well, that would be rather interesting. Amazon tweaks the renderer and at least 1/2 their content then fails to render properly.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Well, that would be rather interesting. Amazon tweaks the renderer and at least 1/2 their content then fails to render properly.

Like Apple did with iBooks, you mean?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Like Apple did with iBooks, you mean?

That's a good example. I have seen some perfectly good ePub render no so good with iBooks.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That's a good example. I have seen some perfectly good ePub render no so good with iBooks.

At least with ePub there is a published specification, so that it's possible to tell whether the fault is with the content or the renderer.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But there is a solution. Generate using calibre. Then unpack using the mobiunpack script, and then re-compile using Kindlegen.

All the neat CSS interpretation by calibre, and a kindlegen generated file as well.

That's exactly the way I do it.
I even have a custom script to recreate the ncx from the inline html toc.

[virtual_ink]

Quote:
There is no navigational TOC

Not exactly sure what you mean, but the toc.ncx file will only be used to create chapter "jump points" that can be navigated using the Kindle's five-way controller. They'll be represented as dots on the progress bar. If there is no in-line (html with the "toc" semantic assigned) toc, kindlegen does not create one from the toc.ncx.

@ DiapDialer, I have a contents page, in its own html file. I also have a toc.ncx file in the epub. How can I make either of these in-line, so that Kindle recognises it?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by virtual_ink

@ DiapDialer, I have a contents page, in its own html file. I also have a toc.ncx file in the epub. How can I make either of these in-line, so that Kindle recognises it?

The html TOC in your epub needs to be identified as the ToC. In Sigil, you can do this by setting the ToC semantic (right click on the the html file-> semantics-> Table of Contents). If you build your epub by hand, you need to identify the ToC with a reference item in the guide section of your OPF file... like so:

<guide>
    <reference type="toc" title="Table Of Contents" href="Text/Toc.xhtml"/>
    <reference type="cover" title="Cover" href="Text/titlepage.xhtml"/>
    <reference type="text" title="Text" href="Text/EditorsPreface.xhtml"/>
</guide>

Your hrefs will be different obviously, depending on how your html files are named, but the "reference type='toc' " is the part you're probably missing.

Setting the semantic in Sigil simply creates the toc reference item in the OPF automatically.

[virtual_ink]

Got this working, thanks heaps DiapDealer!