Thread: Hyperlinks in MOBI/KF8 fixed layout ebooks not working
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Old 11-05-2016, 02:37 AM   #2
Hitch
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RevonJulie View Post
Hello all !

(I'm new to the community so please excuse me in advance if I'm not posting in the right forum )

I need some help with the hyperlinks in my mobi/kf8 files generated via kindlegen from an ePub.

Here is the context :
I've got a PDF file that I converted into a HTML document using pdf2htmlEX. I've converted this HTML document into a fixed layout ePub 3 and now I would like to convert this ePub into mobi/kf8 ebooks. To do so I used the kindlegen app which usually works pretty well (at least for reflowable eBooks), the result is excellent except for the hyperlinks that don't work both in kindle previewer and in my Kindle Fire HD.

First, I thought kindlegen didn't handle properly the conversion and removed all the hyperlinks, but after unpacking the mobi package I remarked that the hyperlinks have been correctly created.

My HTML file is structured like this :


<SNIP code>

As you can see, the page is composed of one large image and hyperlinks superposed to this image and positioned with <div> elements.


When I put text instead of <div> element in the <a> element, the hyperlinks are visible in my Kindle Fire HD as well as in the Kindle Previewer.

What have I done wrong ? Can Kindles display hyperlinks when superposed on images ?


(sorry for the grammar, english isn't my first language )
Well, you have a couple of issues.
  1. You can build a FXL mobi, by using an ePUB and running it through Kindlegen--but, that will NOT work when you try to upload it to the KDP.
  2. The MOBI FXL format is proprietary, and requires the coding to be exactly what they've specified. That's your first issue.
  3. And, no, you cannot put a link in an image, period. Depending upon what TYPE of FXL book you've created (Kids', Comics, Textbook), the page may/may not be able to be zoomed.
  4. If it CAN be zoomed--well, you see the obvious issue. How can the device interpret the difference between a tap to enlarge/zoom, and a tap for a link?
  5. If you created a Comic or Kids' book, the answer is quite flatly NO, you cannot have links on top of a page that's being rendered as an image.

So, sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings. I didn't take a lot of time to glance at your code, but off the cuff, that doesn't look like MOBI fixed-layout coding. Anyone else see if it was?

(I swear, I'm going to write an article about this. I keep running into people--it's particularly common in INDD circles--who output an ePUB3 "fixed layout" ePUB, feed it to Kindlegen, and think it's going to work. It's frustrating to see it, over and over and over. I wish Amazon would put big black print on their PG, with something like "do it our way, or kiss off!" It would save people an awful lot of time and aggravation. )

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