Chapter Markers in Kindle

Chopman · 01-08-2012, 10:53 AM

I’m finding Calibre really helpful for putting ebooks onto my Kindle 4, but (and I know I’m not the first) I can’t get the chapter markers at the bottom of the screen to work when I make my own ebooks. They are fine when I convert most ePubs downloaded from elsewhere.

I’m using Microsoft Word to create my ebook, using “Heading 1” style for my chapter numbers.

I save this as “Web Page, Filtered” to make a suitable file to read into Sigil.

When I open this with Sigil all the chapters are shown in the table of contents at the right of the screen. I then laboriously go through the document putting chapter breaks at the end of each chapter. Maybe there is a quick way to do this, but I haven’t found it yet. This divides the text into a number of .xhtml sections, all shown in the book browser at the left of the Sigil screen.

I update the metadata to show the author and title, and add a cover image.

In the book browser, toc.ncx is shown and I can open this and see a navPoint for each chapter. When I save the file as an ePub only the ePub file is generate, not an ncx file. I don’t know whether this resides within the ePub file, or whether this is a clue to the problem.

If I add the ePub into calibre and open it with the e-book viewer, when I click the “Table of Contents” button I see the list of chapters. However, when I send it to my Kindle I don’t get chapter markers at the bottom of the screen.

I have looked at the html code and a chapter starts as follows:
<body xml:lang="EN-GB" xmlns:xml="http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace">
<div class="WordSection1">
<h1 id="heading_id_6"><span class="sgc-14">Chapter</span> <span class="sgc-15">4</span></h1>

This doesn’t seem to be massively different to the example in the Chapter Detection Tutorial on this forum.

Could anyone give me an idea of what I need to do to make the chapter markers appear? Thanks in advance.

Chopman · 01-14-2012, 09:27 AM

Thanks to anyone who viewed this post.

I'm not sure what has changed, but I do get chapter markers now. Maybe it was the latest upate of Calibre that did it.

Anyway, the approach I outlined to generate an eBook with chapter markers does seem to work. It also seems fairly easy in Sigil to edit an eBook to add in the chapter headings so if a download doesn't have chapters they can be added quite easily.

Thanks to the writers of Sigil and Calibre for two great programs!

pdxNat · 01-19-2012, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chopman

I’m using Microsoft Word to create my ebook, using “Heading 1” style for my chapter numbers.

I see you've "solved" the problem but just in case I thought I'd throw this out there for comparison. I put together a simple tutorial for this type of conversion, Doc to ebook using Heading 1 for chapters (http://pdxnat.wordpress.com/2011/10/...pub-mobi-file/) but I'm not using Sigil (no reason, just haven't come across it yet.)

Maybe you'll see something there that helps?

Chopman · 01-20-2012, 03:42 PM

Thanks pdxNat,

Nice tutorial! I just wish I'd seen it sooner!

pdxNat · 01-22-2012, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chopman

Thanks pdxNat,

Nice tutorial! I just wish I'd seen it sooner!

Glad to help

hollowayhouse · 04-26-2012, 04:52 PM

Not sure this is the place, but thought I'd try, rather than starting new thread...

I have a client who wants to put a Map in the book. Not a problem, of course, but she wants it to appear in the TOC, so people can readily reference it when reading. I cannot figure out how to do that. I put "The Map" on the same page in Word, and gave it the Heading one designation, but when it converts, "The Map" is on one page, and the art of the map is on the next. I've tried setting the picture format to "In front of" and a few other things, but none of it translates when converted.

Any ideas?
THANKS.

01-08-2012, 10:53 AM	#1
Chopman Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Kindle 4	Chapter Markers in Kindle I’m finding Calibre really helpful for putting ebooks onto my Kindle 4, but (and I know I’m not the first) I can’t get the chapter markers at the bottom of the screen to work when I make my own ebooks. They are fine when I convert most ePubs downloaded from elsewhere. I’m using Microsoft Word to create my ebook, using “Heading 1” style for my chapter numbers. I save this as “Web Page, Filtered” to make a suitable file to read into Sigil. When I open this with Sigil all the chapters are shown in the table of contents at the right of the screen. I then laboriously go through the document putting chapter breaks at the end of each chapter. Maybe there is a quick way to do this, but I haven’t found it yet. This divides the text into a number of .xhtml sections, all shown in the book browser at the left of the Sigil screen. I update the metadata to show the author and title, and add a cover image. In the book browser, toc.ncx is shown and I can open this and see a navPoint for each chapter. When I save the file as an ePub only the ePub file is generate, not an ncx file. I don’t know whether this resides within the ePub file, or whether this is a clue to the problem. If I add the ePub into calibre and open it with the e-book viewer, when I click the “Table of Contents” button I see the list of chapters. However, when I send it to my Kindle I don’t get chapter markers at the bottom of the screen. I have looked at the html code and a chapter starts as follows: <body xml:lang="EN-GB" xmlns:xml="http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace"> <div class="WordSection1"> <h1 id="heading_id_6"><span class="sgc-14">Chapter</span> <span class="sgc-15">4</span></h1> This doesn’t seem to be massively different to the example in the Chapter Detection Tutorial on this forum. Could anyone give me an idea of what I need to do to make the chapter markers appear? Thanks in advance.

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01-14-2012, 09:27 AM	#2
Chopman Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Kindle 4	Thanks to anyone who viewed this post. I'm not sure what has changed, but I do get chapter markers now. Maybe it was the latest upate of Calibre that did it. Anyway, the approach I outlined to generate an eBook with chapter markers does seem to work. It also seems fairly easy in Sigil to edit an eBook to add in the chapter headings so if a download doesn't have chapters they can be added quite easily. Thanks to the writers of Sigil and Calibre for two great programs!

01-20-2012, 03:42 PM	#4
Chopman Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Kindle 4	Thanks pdxNat, Nice tutorial! I just wish I'd seen it sooner!

04-26-2012, 04:52 PM	#6
hollowayhouse Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: Kindle	Not sure this is the place, but thought I'd try, rather than starting new thread... I have a client who wants to put a Map in the book. Not a problem, of course, but she wants it to appear in the TOC, so people can readily reference it when reading. I cannot figure out how to do that. I put "The Map" on the same page in Word, and gave it the Heading one designation, but when it converts, "The Map" is on one page, and the art of the map is on the next. I've tried setting the picture format to "In front of" and a few other things, but none of it translates when converted. Any ideas? THANKS.

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