TOC showing up at the end of MOBI

ebookn00b · 04-20-2012, 01:36 PM

I have my TOC at the beginning of my epub. Once I convert the epub to MOBI in Calibre the TOC that I customized shows up at the end of the book and there is now a different TOC at the begginng of the book with a title of "Contents" where as the TOC I created the title was "Table of Contents" and is now at the end? Is there anyway around this? I really do not need two TOC's and would like the one I customized at the beginning.

DiapDealer · 04-20-2012, 08:09 PM

If you have your own custom HTML ToC at the beginning of your epub, simply tell calibre not to create a ToC when converting to mobi. A checkbox in the "MOBI Output" section of the conversion dialog will control this behavior.

benclayborne · 06-08-2012, 02:28 AM

I've got the same situation; I've got an HTML ToC, and I don't want a duplicate one at the end. So I tell Calibre not to create a ToC, and it works fine. (This is for creating a MOBI file.)

The problem now is that the various Kindle reader apps (Android, a Kindle 3rd gen) no longer allow the "Go to Table of Contents" option, which is something I *do* want. Is there any way to tell Calibre to use my HTML ToC as the "real" ToC so that my Kindle knows how to find it?

I mean, this *must* be possible in some way; all the "professional" books I've downloaded on Kindle have this (a ToC that's near but not at the very beginning of the book, and the ability to jump to the ToC from the "Go to" menu). How do THEY do it?

Jeff L · 06-08-2012, 01:30 PM

Edit the OPF file in your source epub as follows:

In the <guide> section, add a reference to your html TOC page.

<guide>
<reference href="filename_of_toc.html" title="Table of Contents" type="toc"/>

.
.
.
</guide>

benclayborne · 06-08-2012, 11:10 PM

Okay, here's what I figured out. This page solved my issue for me.

Essentially, I have a single HTML document that contains my entire ebook that I want to construct. It has an HTML ToC that I coded by hand (well, I used a script to generate it, but shh). I use the perl tool html2mobi (mobiperl) to turn my HTML files into PRC files (which as I understand it are essentially MOBI files). html2mobi lets me attach metadata (author, title, etc.) using command-line options, but I didn't know how to make it recognize a ToC entry.

So I added more or less the same thing Jeff L posted (the guide/reference tags) into the HEAD tag of my HTML doc:

<guide>
<reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="#toc">
</reference>
</guide>

...and then added an A tag like so:

<a name="toc">Contents</a>

...around the word "Contents" at the top of my ToC. That was all I had todo; html2mobi recognized it and now the "Table of Contents" menu option works in both my Kindle 3 and Kindle for Android.

Here's hoping the next person to want to do this doesn't have the same problem. I wish Amazon's Kindle formatting documentation was less awful.

Iznogood · 06-09-2012, 05:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benclayborne

So I added more or less the same thing Jeff L posted (the guide/reference tags) into the HEAD tag of my HTML doc:

<guide>
<reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="#toc">
</reference>
</guide>

Shouldn't the guide be a part of the opf-file? I'm no expert in mobis, but I thought that mobi files had an opf file just like epubs?

JSWolf · 06-09-2012, 10:37 AM

It is bad form to have two ToCs in an ePub.

benclayborne · 06-09-2012, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by norway1456

Shouldn't the guide be a part of the opf-file? I'm no expert in mobis, but I thought that mobi files had an opf file just like epubs?

Essentially that's what I'm doing, except I didn't want to go to the trouble of figuring out how to make an OPF file. html2mobi doesn't require one; it allows you to use command-line options to specify much of the metadata that would be in the OPF file.

I probably will at some point make an actual OPF file for my ebook, I'm just not a big fan of separate metadata files. Gives me heartburn.

Quote:

It is bad form to have two ToCs in an ePub.

I'm not making an ePub, I'm making a MOBI file. And there aren't two TOCs. There's just the one HTML TOC, and a bit of metadata pointing at it so that Kindle apps know how to find it explicitly.

JSWolf · 06-09-2012, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benclayborne

I'm not making an ePub, I'm making a MOBI file. And there aren't two TOCs. There's just the one HTML TOC, and a bit of metadata pointing at it so that Kindle apps know how to find it explicitly.

You do have two ToCs. There is the ncx file and the internal list of links. There is an option in Calibre to tell it not to make a ToC from the ncx.

benclayborne · 06-10-2012, 01:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You do have two ToCs. There is the ncx file and the internal list of links. There is an option in Calibre to tell it not to make a ToC from the ncx.

I didn't use an ncx file or Calibre for what I described above. I used a single HTML file and the html2mobi perl script.

04-20-2012, 01:36 PM	#1
ebookn00b Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: Kindle Fire, iPad 2	TOC showing up at the end of MOBI I have my TOC at the beginning of my epub. Once I convert the epub to MOBI in Calibre the TOC that I customized shows up at the end of the book and there is now a different TOC at the begginng of the book with a title of "Contents" where as the TOC I created the title was "Table of Contents" and is now at the end? Is there anyway around this? I really do not need two TOC's and would like the one I customized at the beginning.

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04-20-2012, 08:09 PM	#2
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,549 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	If you have your own custom HTML ToC at the beginning of your epub, simply tell calibre not to create a ToC when converting to mobi. A checkbox in the "MOBI Output" section of the conversion dialog will control this behavior.

06-08-2012, 02:28 AM	#3
benclayborne Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: Kindle	I've got the same situation; I've got an HTML ToC, and I don't want a duplicate one at the end. So I tell Calibre not to create a ToC, and it works fine. (This is for creating a MOBI file.) The problem now is that the various Kindle reader apps (Android, a Kindle 3rd gen) no longer allow the "Go to Table of Contents" option, which is something I do want. Is there any way to tell Calibre to use my HTML ToC as the "real" ToC so that my Kindle knows how to find it? I mean, this must be possible in some way; all the "professional" books I've downloaded on Kindle have this (a ToC that's near but not at the very beginning of the book, and the ability to jump to the ToC from the "Go to" menu). How do THEY do it?

06-08-2012, 01:30 PM	#4
Jeff L Zealot Posts: 117 Karma: 584308 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: San Francisco Device: Kindle	Edit the OPF file in your source epub as follows: In the <guide> section, add a reference to your html TOC page. <guide> <reference href="filename_of_toc.html" title="Table of Contents" type="toc"/> . . . </guide>

06-08-2012, 11:10 PM	#5
benclayborne Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: Kindle	Okay, here's what I figured out. This page solved my issue for me. Essentially, I have a single HTML document that contains my entire ebook that I want to construct. It has an HTML ToC that I coded by hand (well, I used a script to generate it, but shh). I use the perl tool html2mobi (mobiperl) to turn my HTML files into PRC files (which as I understand it are essentially MOBI files). html2mobi lets me attach metadata (author, title, etc.) using command-line options, but I didn't know how to make it recognize a ToC entry. So I added more or less the same thing Jeff L posted (the guide/reference tags) into the HEAD tag of my HTML doc: <guide> <reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="#toc"> </reference> </guide> ...and then added an A tag like so: <a name="toc">Contents</a> ...around the word "Contents" at the top of my ToC. That was all I had todo; html2mobi recognized it and now the "Table of Contents" menu option works in both my Kindle 3 and Kindle for Android. Here's hoping the next person to want to do this doesn't have the same problem. I wish Amazon's Kindle formatting documentation was less awful.

06-09-2012, 10:37 AM	#7
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,968 Karma: 128903250 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	It is bad form to have two ToCs in an ePub.

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