Need 'two working items in the NCX" -- ??

[Dr. Drib]

Here's the full quote from Smashwords:

As per Section 20 of the Style Guide, please supply an EPUB with at least two working items in the NCX. Otherwise, some vendors will reject your book.

Can someone translate that into English, please.

(English is my native language.)


ADDED: My short story was written and finished in Scrivener. However, I started it in Word (I think), and then switched over from a PC computer to my wonderful 5-year old MacBook Pro.

In quickly looking over the 'details' for this error report from Smashwords, it appears to have something to do with Word. However, a FIND query using Firefox using 'NCX' turned up nothing, and yet that is what the report is concerned with.

[darryl]

The .ncx file is the table of contents for your book. Two working entries presumably means two entries where the links actually work (ie; chapter 1 with a link to chapter 1, chapter 2 with a link to chapter 2). Sorry, but I'm not familiar enough with the workings of Scrivener though I would think it would have an easy method of producing a valid toc.ncx with at least 2 entries.

[Dr. Drib]

Since it's a short story, I didn't want a Contents Page. (Scrivener creates one, but I unchecked that item when compiling the story.)

In checking with a few other short stories I downloaded from Smashwords they, too, appear not to have a Contents Page.

So I should specifically go back and compile it with a Contents Page showing, one which will then point to page one of the story?

I most certainly would have a Contents Page if I had more than one story (a story collection), or had an Introduction. As it stands, with only story, it doesn't seem to make much sense.

Am I missing something very basic in my understanding?


Thanks.

[darryl]

I think you may be confusing an html toc actually appearing in the text with a toc.ncx which, to my limited understanding, provides navigation information but does not. It might be useful for you to open one of the short stories you downloaded in Calibre Viewer, and see what appears in the left pane under table of contents, which apparently reflects the contents of the toc.ncx. Or choose to edit the epub in calibre and see if there is a toc.ncx in that story.

I only replied to give you an idea of what the error was until hopefully someone more familiar with Scrivener and Smashwords responded. Since Smashwords submits to many Vendors it is subject to the quirks of them all. The error message suggests that some Vendors actually require a working toc.ncx with at least two entries. Seems a bit unnecessary for a short story, but I suppose the TOC can be a very simple one. You can easily create or edit a toc.ncx in Calibre using the editor and then the Table of Contents option, I think under tools.

[eschwartz]

The navigation ToC (on the Kindle, the GoTo menu) is independent of the html ToC (an actual page in the book, containing hyperlinks). You can have one without the other.

Sigil and calibre editor both have a handy ToC editor, if you need to touch up your book.
Add a link to the titlepage to make them happy.


I wonder about that error, though. An EPUB doesn't require a specific number of ToC elements.


Edit: darryl, you got it in one.

[Dr. Drib]

I'll try to look through this later today and get back with a posting.

In the meantime, thank you for the comments, and if anyone else has additional thoughts please post.

[cromag]

My stories are very short, as well. The stories themselves don't need a table of contents so the NCX entries I've been gravitating to point to the title/copyright page, the start of the story, and my author information at the end of the story. This satisfies Smashword's requirements without becoming unwieldy.

But I submit .doc files and go through the Meatgrinder, so the steps involved aren't the same. In fact, if I don't do anything the Meatgrinder will make a two element NCX consisting of the "beginning" and "midpoint" -- which would be especially unhelpful.