Ebook Creation: Table of Contents

[maurices5000]

Since i was here last, I decided on a Kindle which i love so far.

Most of the PDFs I've sent to Amazon to be converted into eBooks turned out just fine. But some PDFs don't turn out so well. I've even gotten some Kindle formatted ebooks from Archive.org that weren't much better.

I found Nuance's PDF Converter Professional 7 and it works perfectly when converting PDFs to MS Word. There are some spelling issues from time to time, but the format and everythign looks exactly like the PDF!!! Its fantastic!

I want to know what is the best/fastest way to create a functional table of contents.

This book already has a TOC, so all i have ot do is search for the chapter headings and tag them as necessary. However, i'd like to be able to create a TOC when there isn't already a TOC present.

I looked at MobiPocket, but i was lost even though I think this was supposed to be easy. I'm really tired of the run around. I want something straightforward, easy and not too time consuming.

Thanks!

[DMSmillie]

If you're converting the PDFs to Word, then you could try using Word's semi-automated "Table of Contents" feature. You'd have to apply heading styles to the headings you want in the TOC, then, at the point you want the TOC, use the Insert - Table of Contents command. You want to set it to use the heading styles, to not include page numbers (unless you have reason to want those included), and to use hyperlinks. That'll generate a Table of Contents from the heading styles you applied.

[Solitaire1]

OpenOffice.org/StarOffice has a function similar to the above-mentioned MS Word function. You create a table of contents (TOC) by selecting the document styles and then inserting the TOC into the document. As far as I know, any style within the document can be used for the table of contents and you can have multiple levels within the TOC.

I use StarOffice to make PDF ebooks for my Sony Reader (it's the format that works best for me) and it does an excellent job of making a TOC for my ebooks. If I make changes to my ebook (such as changing the size of the text, or the spacing between the paragraphs), all I need to do is update the TOC when I finish and it will reflect the new page numbers.

[elizilla]

There's a site called Distributed Proofreaders (http://www.pgdp.net/c/) where volunteers clean up books that are in the public domain, and make nice electronic versions. They use something called Guiguts (http://home.comcast.net/~thundergnat/guiguts.html) for this processing, and it works pretty well. It has widgets that make nice TOCs, among other things, in the html versions. The html seems to convert very happily to epub, once you get it built.

Guiguts is available for free download.

[caleb72]

I would try to use Sigil for what you're trying and convert to ePub. Then I would use Calibre to convert to mobi format for your Kindle.

However, Mobipocket Creator would also be good for this.

If you're having trouble with one, you'll possibly have a problem with the other. I tend to use search and replace based on regular expressions to add styles directly in HTML so that I can then use the automated functions to build table of contents and split chapters into separate files etc...

If this is exactly the kind of thing you're not comfortable with, then maybe my advice isn't worth much.

However, thanks for the recommendation on Nuance's PDF Converter Professional 7. If I could find a professional version of something I could absolutely rely on to convert from PDF to another format I'd probably give it a go.

Regards
Caleb

[maurices5000]

Thanks guys. I've been meaning to get back to this thread for some time now. MS Word works perfect and now that i actually have a Kindle, all i have to do is send my formatted Word Doc to my Free Kindle email address and it converts my doc perfectly well. The TOC works perfectly.

I don't think i've tried Calibre. But i must tell you in MobiPocket I WAS COMPLETELY LOST! I'm glad that i can send my docs to amazon and get it over with. I do need to find some software for my friends who don't have a Kindle. They have many doc they want to put into an ebook format.

PDF Converter is fantastic. The only problem i have is that at the end of each page it places a return character. That character is a pain to remove if it is not at the end of a sentence or true paragraph. I wonder if there is some software that can identify these misplacements. If you have a book of 100+ pages you don't want to have to go to the end of each page removing return chacters.

The other problem with PDF covnerter is that it sometimes places your text in the header. This doesn't happen often but it does happen. I'm going to find out if these can be avoided.

For normal headers, i found it easy once i made sure there was no normal text mistakenly placed in the header, to open my doc in WordPad adn save it. Then open it back up in Word. WordPad removes ALL THE HEADER INFO!!! So you don't have to remove it mannually.

If i can find a way to get rid of the paragraph marks converting from PDF to Word then to AZW for the Kindle would be perfect. Of course i don't need to convert to Word unless there is a problem converting directly from PDF to AZW with Kindle's email converter.

Thanks!

[subhash4d1]

We are converting mobi from uPub using MOBIGEN v 4.8.8.7. In K2 and K3 there is a feature to see page numbers.
Pls. let me know that how we can add page numbering feature in ePub2Mobi conversion. Or there is any other way for embedding this feature?

[susan_cassidy]

For Kindle, the page numbers are not embedded in the book file, but are in a separate file. I haven't seen anything yet on the format of the file, if anyone has gotten around to dumping one yet.

Edited to add: I don't think Mobipocket format supports page numbers directly.

[DMSmillie]

There is currently no direct way of including Amazon's "page numbers" feature in MOBI/Kindle ebooks. See this thread in the Calibre forum for details of the file structure used to provide page number info.

For those using Calibre to convert ebooks to MOBI format for their own use, who would like to have page numbers but don't need them to be actual page numbers from a printed version of the book, it looks like (from that thread) the next Calibre update will include a feature for adding "pseudo" page numbers (based on blocks on 1024 bytes).

[joecap]

I tried to create a TOC using an NCX file, and found that is WAAY to complicated for me, and I never got it to work. Then I discovered that all I had to do was use anchors in the HTML file, convert it to MOBI in Calibre, and it worked great! No hassle at all. When I put the MOBI on my Kindle, the tick marks appear in the progress bar, and I can easily use the 'joystick' to move around to different chapters!

[subhash4d1]

Susan,

Can you pls. know me about format of supporting file gets page number information used in Kindle K2/K3/Wi-Fi?

Or how to create this file?

Subhash

[DMSmillie]

Subhash

I already pointed you towards a thread in the Calibre forum here which has details of the format of the file that contains the page number information:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=120497

[subhash4d1]

Thanks Dona,

As i seen apnx is a binary file that contains page no. information for K2/K3/Wi-Fi.

Is any tool available to create apnx file using mobi?

[DMSmillie]

At the moment, no there isn't, I'm afraid.

[subhash4d1]

Thankx Donna.

But is there any option in calibre 0.7.45 for ePub 2 mobi conversion fro creating apnx and other page numbering related files?