TOC.NCXfromAHyperlinkedTableOfContents?

Knuckles McGinty · 10-22-2010, 07:59 PM

I used MobiPocket to convert my manuscript to an HTML file. I added the "start" and "toc" HTML hooks to the HTML file. The manuscript includes a hyperlinked table of contents. The table of contents works in Kindle for PC and in Kindle Previewer. Now, how do I make a TOC.NCX file?

What if I set the table of content hierarchies in Calibre to "Chapter" (TOC level 1) and "Scene" (TOC level 2). Will Calibre see my hyperlinked table of contents and build me a toc.ncx file? If Calibre builds the file, where do I find it once the build is complete? May I then copy the toc.ncx file to the MobiPocket "My Publications" folder and then build a second prc file? My goal is a manuscript acceptable to the Kindle people at Amazon. Thanks.

ldolse · 10-29-2010, 11:40 PM

Convert to epub if you want a toc.ncx file. The toc.ncx will be embedded inside the epub, whic you can extract using any zip utility. I'm not really sure if this will actually do anything remotely like you want though, not really familiar with Amazon's requirements. There is another sub-forum for the mobi format where you might get more help.

Knuckles McGinty · 10-30-2010, 09:41 AM

My way of retrieving the toc.ncx file is to add the 'de-bug' option to the convert process as I move from an EPUB to a MOBI formatted manuscript. The toc.ncx file shows up in an obscure folder. When I open it up in notepad it looks just fine.

Now. How do I get MobiPocket Creator to recognize the toc.ncx file and to add the toc.ncx file to the PRC file during the build the PRC file process?

I want to import my final PRC file into Amazon Kindle Previewer and see a table of contents and a toc.ncx file.

jackie_w · 10-30-2010, 10:07 AM

I may have misunderstood the situation, but if you convert an epub containing a TOC to a MOBI using Calibre won't the resulting MOBI automatically contain the TOC?

Knuckles McGinty · 10-30-2010, 10:28 AM

Dear Jackie-

The issue is that my manuscripts are beautiful as PRC's and EPUB's and format corrupted and ugly as MOBI's. My goal is to retrieve the toc.ncx file from the rubble of the MOBI build. And then insert the toc.ncx file into the PRC file as I build the PRC file with MobiPocket Creator. Then, I have a file that will gain automatic acceptance by Amazon.

In other words, what steps do I take to get Mobipocket to add the toc.ncx file to the PRC file build?

jackie_w · 10-30-2010, 10:50 AM

I'm sorry I can't help, Knuckles. I don't have a Kindle and only ever convert the other way, i.e. MOBI to EPUB or sometimes MOBI to HTML to EPUB using Calibre. I know the MOBI format isn't as flexible as EPUB but I wasn't aware that the format got trashed when going from EPUB to MOBI in Calibre.

If you have the HTML and you have experience editing it in a text editor, you can manually edit the chapter headings to have <h1>, <h2> etc tags. Then you can recreate the TOC using Calibre Convert - Structure Detection/Table of Contents settings during a HTML (zipped) to MOBI conversion.

What do your Chapter headings currently look like in the HTML file you created?

kovidgoyal · 10-30-2010, 10:56 AM

The format most definitely doesn't get "trashed".

jackie_w · 10-30-2010, 11:10 AM

@Kovid, I hope I didn't cause offence.

I meant to imply exactly what you said. I'm sorry if I worded it badly.

Knuckles McGinty · 10-30-2010, 11:12 AM

Dear Jackie W and kovidgoyal- I know enough about HTML (very little) to be able to add the "Start" and "toc" hooks into the HTML file and then acknowledge them by adding 'Guides" in MobiPocket Creator. Printed out, my toc.ncx goes to 6 full 8 1/2 by 11 inch pages. So I'm looking for a remedy I can apply to the MOBI toc.ncx file rather than the hyperlinked table of contents entries in my HTML. Are there 'hooks' I need to add to the toc.ncx file in the MOBI build to get the toc.ncx file working in a PRC file?

kovidgoyal · 10-30-2010, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

@Kovid, I hope I didn't cause offence.

I meant to imply exactly what you said. I'm sorry if I worded it badly.

No offence, I just didn't want to let the statement stand.
You can use the toc filter functionality in calibre to filter out entries from the generated toc.ncx I have no idea how to do that with AMazon's tools.

Knuckles McGinty · 10-30-2010, 11:30 AM

Dear Jackie_W and kovidgoyal- EPUB files are beautiful in Calibre. Calibre is a much better reader than Kindle for PC. We all know that. Now back to the subject at hand. I could send the both of you copies of the toc.ncx file if you would care to give me an e-mail. Alternatively, e-mail me at: DRABKE_DYNAMIC at msn.com There is nothing wrong with Calibre. The question is, how do I get the MOBI generated toc.ncx into the PRC file bulit by MobiPocket so that Amazon will sell my book?

jackie_w · 10-30-2010, 11:31 AM

I don't use MobiPocket Creator. Perhaps you need to take Idolse's advice from above and ask in a Mobi forum.

If you decide to change tack and try to get an EPUB or HTML to MOBI working using Calibre then I'd be happy to try and help. If so, send me a PM with an email address and we could pursue the problem privately in more detail.

kovidgoyal · 10-30-2010, 11:34 AM

You can send a calibre generated MOBI to Amazon to sell.

Knuckles McGinty · 10-30-2010, 11:36 AM

Jackie_w and kovidgoyal- It has to be, it must be a PRC file as the final output. I must be able to sell my book on Amazon. There is no other option. Anyway, thanks for the comments and suggestions. If it's a tough problem for you two, it's a tough problem. I'll keep struggling with 'brute force' solutions. Nice swapping packets with the two of you!

Knuckles McGinty · 10-30-2010, 11:40 AM

kovidgoyal- The EPUB I put in to Calibre shows beautiful formatting with bold Tahoma fonts in color as chapter headings. The MOBI file I make from the EPUB defaults to Times New Roman with a loss of the bold feature and the selected color. Worse, text that is centered in the EPUB file becomes left justified in the MOBI output. How do I remedy these issues?

10-22-2010, 07:59 PM	#1
Knuckles McGinty Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	TOC.NCXfromAHyperlinkedTableOfContents? I used MobiPocket to convert my manuscript to an HTML file. I added the "start" and "toc" HTML hooks to the HTML file. The manuscript includes a hyperlinked table of contents. The table of contents works in Kindle for PC and in Kindle Previewer. Now, how do I make a TOC.NCX file? What if I set the table of content hierarchies in Calibre to "Chapter" (TOC level 1) and "Scene" (TOC level 2). Will Calibre see my hyperlinked table of contents and build me a toc.ncx file? If Calibre builds the file, where do I find it once the build is complete? May I then copy the toc.ncx file to the MobiPocket "My Publications" folder and then build a second prc file? My goal is a manuscript acceptable to the Kindle people at Amazon. Thanks.

10-30-2010, 09:41 AM	#3
Knuckles McGinty Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	TOC.NCX file, Almost There? My way of retrieving the toc.ncx file is to add the 'de-bug' option to the convert process as I move from an EPUB to a MOBI formatted manuscript. The toc.ncx file shows up in an obscure folder. When I open it up in notepad it looks just fine. Now. How do I get MobiPocket Creator to recognize the toc.ncx file and to add the toc.ncx file to the PRC file during the build the PRC file process? I want to import my final PRC file into Amazon Kindle Previewer and see a table of contents and a toc.ncx file.

10-30-2010, 10:28 AM	#5
Knuckles McGinty Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	TOC.NCX file, Almost There? Dear Jackie- The issue is that my manuscripts are beautiful as PRC's and EPUB's and format corrupted and ugly as MOBI's. My goal is to retrieve the toc.ncx file from the rubble of the MOBI build. And then insert the toc.ncx file into the PRC file as I build the PRC file with MobiPocket Creator. Then, I have a file that will gain automatic acceptance by Amazon. In other words, what steps do I take to get Mobipocket to add the toc.ncx file to the PRC file build?

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10-29-2010, 11:40 PM	#2
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	Convert to epub if you want a toc.ncx file. The toc.ncx will be embedded inside the epub, whic you can extract using any zip utility. I'm not really sure if this will actually do anything remotely like you want though, not really familiar with Amazon's requirements. There is another sub-forum for the mobi format where you might get more help.

10-30-2010, 10:07 AM	#4
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,212 Karma: 16534894 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo: KA1, ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E. PocketBook: TouchHD3	I may have misunderstood the situation, but if you convert an epub containing a TOC to a MOBI using Calibre won't the resulting MOBI automatically contain the TOC?

10-30-2010, 10:50 AM	#6
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,212 Karma: 16534894 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo: KA1, ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E. PocketBook: TouchHD3	I'm sorry I can't help, Knuckles. I don't have a Kindle and only ever convert the other way, i.e. MOBI to EPUB or sometimes MOBI to HTML to EPUB using Calibre. I know the MOBI format isn't as flexible as EPUB but I wasn't aware that the format got trashed when going from EPUB to MOBI in Calibre. If you have the HTML and you have experience editing it in a text editor, you can manually edit the chapter headings to have <h1>, <h2> etc tags. Then you can recreate the TOC using Calibre Convert - Structure Detection/Table of Contents settings during a HTML (zipped) to MOBI conversion. What do your Chapter headings currently look like in the HTML file you created?

10-30-2010, 10:56 AM	#7
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	The format most definitely doesn't get "trashed".

10-30-2010, 11:10 AM	#8
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,212 Karma: 16534894 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo: KA1, ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E. PocketBook: TouchHD3	@Kovid, I hope I didn't cause offence. I meant to imply exactly what you said. I'm sorry if I worded it badly.

10-30-2010, 11:12 AM	#9
Knuckles McGinty Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	Dear Jackie W and kovidgoyal- I know enough about HTML (very little) to be able to add the "Start" and "toc" hooks into the HTML file and then acknowledge them by adding 'Guides" in MobiPocket Creator. Printed out, my toc.ncx goes to 6 full 8 1/2 by 11 inch pages. So I'm looking for a remedy I can apply to the MOBI toc.ncx file rather than the hyperlinked table of contents entries in my HTML. Are there 'hooks' I need to add to the toc.ncx file in the MOBI build to get the toc.ncx file working in a PRC file?

10-30-2010, 11:30 AM	#11
Knuckles McGinty Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	Dear Jackie_W and kovidgoyal- EPUB files are beautiful in Calibre. Calibre is a much better reader than Kindle for PC. We all know that. Now back to the subject at hand. I could send the both of you copies of the toc.ncx file if you would care to give me an e-mail. Alternatively, e-mail me at: DRABKE_DYNAMIC at msn.com There is nothing wrong with Calibre. The question is, how do I get the MOBI generated toc.ncx into the PRC file bulit by MobiPocket so that Amazon will sell my book?

10-30-2010, 11:31 AM	#12
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,212 Karma: 16534894 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo: KA1, ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E. PocketBook: TouchHD3	I don't use MobiPocket Creator. Perhaps you need to take Idolse's advice from above and ask in a Mobi forum. If you decide to change tack and try to get an EPUB or HTML to MOBI working using Calibre then I'd be happy to try and help. If so, send me a PM with an email address and we could pursue the problem privately in more detail.

10-30-2010, 11:34 AM	#13
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You can send a calibre generated MOBI to Amazon to sell.

10-30-2010, 11:36 AM	#14
Knuckles McGinty Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	Jackie_w and kovidgoyal- It has to be, it must be a PRC file as the final output. I must be able to sell my book on Amazon. There is no other option. Anyway, thanks for the comments and suggestions. If it's a tough problem for you two, it's a tough problem. I'll keep struggling with 'brute force' solutions. Nice swapping packets with the two of you!

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10-30-2010, 11:40 AM	#15
Knuckles McGinty Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	kovidgoyal- The EPUB I put in to Calibre shows beautiful formatting with bold Tahoma fonts in color as chapter headings. The MOBI file I make from the EPUB defaults to Times New Roman with a loss of the bold feature and the selected color. Worse, text that is centered in the EPUB file becomes left justified in the MOBI output. How do I remedy these issues?