[Old Thread] RTF and Table of Contents

[ShellShock]

Hi

I've been happilly converting RTF to LRF using the fantastic Calibre.

One thing puzzles me - if it is possible to generate a table of contents?

Initially I didn't have any headings in the text, so in the LRF file one chapter led straight into the next.

So in Word I then marked all the chapter headings using the Word Heading 1 style. After Calibre had converted the RTF to LRF, I now had page breaks before each chapter. This seems to suggest that Calibre was able to detect the chapter headings correctly.

But I cannot get the "Add chapters to table of contents" option to work.

Is this supposed to create a TOC even if one does not exist already in the RTF?

I have also tried using Word to insert a TOC into the RTF - in Word 2003: Insert -> Reference -> Index and Tables -> Table of Contents -> Untick "Show Page Numbers". I then converted the RTF using Calibre; this has a couple of problems:

All the links in ToC in the LRF file jump to the first page of the document (The links work OK in Word).
There is two blank lines between each row in the ToC.

I will continue to play around with this but any help would be appreciated.

I realise that Word puts A LOT of "helpful" tags around headings that probably are not necessary. I imagine this makes Calibre's job very difficult - trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Thanks

[kovidgoyal]

I'd sugest converting to epub instead, it has more powerful options for the autogeneration of the TOC (change your output format to epub in the config dialog).

EDIT: Or the following options should work with lrf conversion

--chapter-attr h1,none, --add-chapters-to-toc

[ShellShock]

OK, I tried that but the conversion job is not completing - The hour glass is spinning and it has been going for 10 mins already. Conversion to LRF only takes a minute for the same RTF file.

Any thoughts?

[kovidgoyal]

epub conversion can be slow sometimes because it has to split the file into smaller chunks (a limitation of adobe's reader software on the 505). You can click the hourglass and then double click the job entry to see what its doing.

[ShellShock]

I wasn't giving it long enough to convert the file - it took about 20 mins in the end, at least 10 of which was on "Saving stylesheets".

I still didn't get a TOC though...

[kovidgoyal]

try the options i talked about above for lrf conversion.

[ShellShock]

OK I tried those options...I think. I ticked "Add chapters to table of contents" and set "Detect chapter at tag" to "h1,none,", but still no joy.

By the way the RTF has both "Heading 1" and "Heading 2" chapter headings. In the LRF these both have page breaks before them, so Calibre seems to be detecting them OK, but it is not creating a TOC.

[kovidgoyal]

That's odd. Open a ticket and send me this rtf.

[ShellShock]

OK I have raised this as #1220.

Many thanks

[dmitcalf]

I have also tried the auto chapter detection with a number of different formats inc RTF and HTML. I created several test documents so I can control the chapter tag and attribute + value. Nothing works. The only reliable way to get a TOC is to go via Mobipocket Creator which detects the chapter tag ok. The full procedure I used is:

- Edit the doc in Word and save in RTF. Create a word style - I called it ChapterHeading - based on Heading 1. Give all the chapter headings this style. There must be a hard page break before the chapter heading with no other page or section breaks in the doc. Whilst you are at it you can get rid of split lines and multiple blank lines also. Save as RTF.

- Switch to Mobipocket Creator and create a new publication by importing a Word doc. Import the RTF and add a TOC. In the TOC panel set 'h' as the tag, 'class' as the attribute and 'ChapterHeading' as the value. Build the publication to get the .prc file.

- Switch to Calibre and convert to LRF.

- Bingo you have a perfect eBook with TOC.

- repeat for the other 15000 ebooks in your collection.

[ShellShock]

This turned out not to be a bug in Calibre at all but my misunderstading

Calibre does not embed a TOC in the ebook itself. However, if you press the Menu button on the Reader and go to the main menu for the book, there is a "Table of Contents" option which will take you to the TOC created by Calibre. This is easier to use than an embedded TOC as it is easier to get to.

[alexxx]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

This turned out not to be a bug in Calibre at all but my misunderstading

Calibre does not embed a TOC in the ebook itself. However, if you press the Menu button on the Reader and go to the main menu for the book, there is a "Table of Contents" option which will take you to the TOC created by Calibre. This is easier to use than an embedded TOC as it is easier to get to.

don't worry, I made the same mistake some months ago, keeping Kovid awake at night to hunt for the bug, while the TOC was patiently waiting there in the menu...


alessandro

[yarr]

{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\adeflang1045
{\fonttbl {\f0\fsserif\fcharset238 Verdana;}}

\titlepage\line\line\line\line\line
{\pard
{\field{\*\fldinst HYPERLINK \\l "toc"} {\fldrslt\f0\fs80\b\scaps\qc\ul0 Title Page\line go to Table of Contents}}
\par}

\page{\*\bkmkstart page2}{\*\bkmkend page2}\line\line\line\line\line{\pard\f0\fs80\b\scaps\qc\sa10000{\field{\*\fldinst HYPERLINK \\l "toc"} {\fldrslt Page}} \chpgn\par}
\page{\*\bkmkstart page3}{\*\bkmkend page3}\line\line\line\line\line{\pard\f0\fs80\b\scaps\qc\sa10000{\field{\*\fldinst HYPERLINK \\l "toc"} {\fldrslt Page}} \chpgn\par}
\page{\*\bkmkstart page4}{\*\bkmkend page4}\line\line\line\line\line{\pard\f0\fs80\b\scaps\qc\sa10000{\field{\*\fldinst HYPERLINK \\l "toc"} {\fldrslt Page}} \chpgn\par}
\page{\*\bkmkstart page5}{\*\bkmkend page5}\line\line\line\line\line{\pard\f0\fs80\b\scaps\qc\sa10000{\field{\*\fldinst HYPERLINK \\l "toc"} {\fldrslt Page}} \chpgn\par}

\page{\*\bkmkstart toc}{\*\bkmkend toc}{\pard\sa1000\f0\fs50\b\qc{\field{\*\fldinst TOC}{\fldrslt Table of Contents}}\par}
{\pard\f0\fs28\fi0\trowd\cellx8000\cellx8600
\pard\intbl\ql {\field{\*\fldinst HYPERLINK \\l "page2"} {\fldrslt\ul0 Link to anchor #page2}}\cell\pard\intbl\qr {\field{\*\fldinst PAGEREF page2}}\cell\row
\pard\intbl\ql {\field{\*\fldinst HYPERLINK \\l "page3"} {\fldrslt\ul0 Link to anchor #page3}}\cell\pard\intbl\qr {\field{\*\fldinst PAGEREF page3}}\cell\row
\pard\intbl\ql {\field{\*\fldinst HYPERLINK \\l "page4"} {\fldrslt\ul0 Link to anchor #page4}}\cell\pard\intbl\qr {\field{\*\fldinst PAGEREF page4}}\cell\row
\pard\intbl\ql {\field{\*\fldinst HYPERLINK \\l "page5"} {\fldrslt\ul0 Link to anchor #page5}}\cell\pard\intbl\qr {\field{\*\fldinst PAGEREF page5}}\cell\row
\par}
}

[DoctorOhh]

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