Collapsible TOC?

[ksimpson1986]

Hi, i'm creating an eBook based off of a 1300 page daily devotional. that being said, it has a massive table of contents with each day of the year being a link. This TOC is developed from indesign so it's already linked and ready. the issue is, when viewing it in an eReader, the TOC is expanded by default, so it takes 5 minutes to swipe through all the of the table of contents to get to the next part of the eBook. i have created an extra entry of each month, and moved each of the 30/31 days of each month inside that monthly "folder". problem is, it's all still completely expanded by default. when i view the TOC in the viewer, and tell it to collapse, it looks perfect. just 12 options, and you can expand each month to see each day. after i save it, it expands again automatically...I hope this makes sense. Is there an HTML code that will cause the TOC to be collapsed by default? If not, is there other software that will? thank you!

[theducks]

No, the code just "Nests.' Indent.

Remember EPUB2, NCX is the 'real' TOC for devices,

since you want it to start 'collapsed':
Make the NCX entry point to a page (XHTML) that is the 'Contents for that sections Start. Those items (links) will never be in the NCX


Generate a overall HTML TOC page (from the nested monster NCX). Split it into 'Sections' and move those to the beginning (location in the file list) of their respective places. rename the files for clarity eg TOC02, TOC03... and Insert an top level Chapter (number) title at the beginning, that will be picked up by the TOC Generator tool in the next step
ie <h1>Section x Contents </h1>

now regenerate the NCX, but restrict (the pulldown is at the bottom) to only the top levels assigned to the Sections TOC : h1

Doing it in this order, lets Sigil do the tedious, "get the links correct" part and leaves it to you to push the big chunks around

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by ksimpson1986

that being said, it has a massive table of contents with each day of the year being a link. This TOC is developed from indesign so it's already linked and ready.

I have worked on a handful of books that were massive TOCs with 500+ entries in them (compilations of newspaper articles over years).

Just organize and display the TOCs in a meaningful way, and the user can figure it out from there (skipping to a given year/month/day).

This is what sample code for an HTML TOC might be:

Spoiler:

<p class="tocone"><a href="../Text/2010.xhtml">2010</a></p>

<p class="toctwo"><a href="../Text/2010.01.xhtml">January 2010</a></p>

<p class="tocthree"><a href="../Text/2010.01.01.xhtml">2010/01/01</a></p>

<p class="tocthree"><a href="../Text/2010.01.02.xhtml">2010/01/02</a></p>

<p class="toctwo"><a href="../Text/2010.02.xhtml">February 2010</a></p>

<p class="tocthree"><a href="../Text/2010.02.01.xhtml">2010/02/01</a></p>

<p class="tocthree"><a href="../Text/2010.02.02.xhtml">2010/02/02</a></p>

<p class="tocone"><a href="../Text/2011.xhtml">2011</a></p>

<p class="toctwo"><a href="../Text/2011.01.xhtml">January 2011</a></p>

<p class="tocthree"><a href="../Text/2011.01.01.xhtml">2011/01/01</a></p>

<p class="tocthree"><a href="../Text/2011.01.02.xhtml">2011/01/02</a></p>

[...]

and use CSS to tweak the look:

Spoiler:

.tocone {
	font-size: 2em;
	font-weight: bold;
	margin-top: 1em;
	margin-bottom: 1em;
	text-align: center;
}

.toctwo {
	font-size: 1.2em;
	margin-left: 2em;
	text-indent: -2em;
}

.tocthree {
	margin-top: 0;
	margin-bottom: 0;
	margin-left: 4em;
	text-indent: -2em;
}

I have attached a sample EPUB.



Side Note: If you are interested in both massive EPUBs, I wouldn't mind giving links if you wanted to see how those work on your devices. (One book is organized Year - Volume.Issue - ~650 articles, and the other is Year - ~970 articles.) I think the TOCs work perfectly.

Originally Posted by ksimpson1986

the issue is, when viewing it in an eReader, the TOC is expanded by default, [...] i have created an extra entry of each month, and moved each of the 30/31 days of each month inside that monthly "folder". problem is, it's all still completely expanded by default.

I am not 100% clear on what is "expanded" and "folders", but I believe you are talking about the TOC.NCX?

Is this what you are talking about in the sidebar of Sigil?

Originally Posted by ksimpson1986

when i view the TOC in the viewer, and tell it to collapse, it looks perfect. just 12 options, and you can expand each month to see each day. after i save it, it expands again automatically...

There is no way that you can control the display of the TOC.NCX on devices. It is up to each device on how they handle it (some might have the TOC fully collapsed by default, others might not).

If such a large TOC bothers you, maybe it might be best to just limit the TOC.NCX to Year/Month. (This can be done in Sigil using Tools - Table of Contents - Edit Table of Contents...).

Personally? I would just leave it how it is. Anyone who thinks the TOC.NCX is too cumbersome would be able to use the HTML TOC instead, where they might be able to navigate slightly easier depending on their device.

[ksimpson1986]

I'm having an odd issue with this though, if i can figure out how to attach an image with this i'll show you, but i have about 1000 TOC entries that are linked and work correctly. but when i go to "generate TOC", there's nothing there. just a blank window. i'm not sure why it's linked...but it's not linked? i have no clue. this is the one thing with Sigil that's blowing my mind. i feel so limited with this.

[theducks]

The tool does not work from the HTML TOC

It uses the Headings (h#) as section title and anchors
h1

h2

h3

to generate the nest

Warning: The Generate HTML TOC then uses the NCX This will REPLACE any declared Table of Content (semantic)

[ksimpson1986]

so if i'm understanding you correctly, although this would be a long process, could i attach an H1 command to all 12 months(causing them to collapse?), then H2 to each day of the month, then H3 to the title under each day of the month, and so on? that would help it understand? i'll do whatever i need to do to make sure it's right.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by ksimpson1986

but when i go to "generate TOC", there's nothing there. just a blank window. i'm not sure why it's linked...but it's not linked? i have no clue. this is the one thing with Sigil that's blowing my mind. i feel so limited with this.

As theducks mentioned, Sigil's "Tools - Table of Contents - Generate Table of Contents" is helpful + works when you have a document that is properly marked up using the <h1-h6> tags. Like this:

Spoiler:

<h1>January</h1>

<h2>January 1</h2>

<h3>Say Goodbye to the Past and Hello to the Future!</h3>

<h4>—Philippians 3:13</h4>

<p>Blah blah blah text.</p>

It won't be able to automatically generate a TOC for you if you have code using <p>s and <div>s like this (I ripped this out of one of the latest InDesign EPUBs I worked on):

Spoiler:

<div id="_idContainer000" class="Basic-Text-Frame">
	<p class="Chapter-number ParaOverride-1"><span class="CharOverride-1">chapter 1</span></p>
	<p class="Chapter-heading"><span class="CharOverride-2">Education in California</span></p>
</div>
[...]

Originally Posted by ksimpson1986

I'm having an odd issue with this though, if i can figure out how to attach an image with this i'll show you, but i have about 1000 TOC entries that are linked and work correctly.

Ok, from your images I can tell that this is some really rotten code that InDesign created (both for the HTML TOC + the TOC.NCX).

We might be able to salvage something meaningful and better using Regex + digging into the nitty gritty.

Mind sharing this EPUB on the board? Or if it is copyrighted, would you mind putting the EPUB on a filesharing site (Google Drive, etc. etc.) and sending me a link via PM?

Side Note: I also can't see much of a reason WHY this specific book would need a TOC nested four deep (Month -> Month Day# -> Title -> Bible).

Are there multiple sermons per day, or multiple Bibles under each day?

I think it would be better organized by condensing the Month Day# + Title... and maybe the Bible in there too.

Original:

- January
-- January 1
--- Say Goodbye to the Past and Hello to the Future!
---- —Philippians 3:13

Potential #1:

- January
-- January 1: Say Goodbye to the Past and Hello to the Future!
--- —Philippians 3:13

Potential #2:

- January
-- January 1: Say Goodbye to the Past and Hello to the Future! (Philippians 3:13)

[theducks]

You might be able to do a creative REGEX (or use the toolbag plugin) to replace all TAG instances of
<p class="foo">
with <h3> and you can tick the box to optionally keep the class assigned

also the TOC tool will use the value from title='short name here" if it is present, instead of using the header (visible) text

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by theducks

The tool does not work from the HTML TOC

It uses the Headings (h#) as section title and anchors
h1

h2

h3

to generate the nest

Warning: The Generate HTML TOC then uses the NCX This will REPLACE any declared Table of Content (semantic)

Not necessarily. The automated tool uses the heading tags, but it is not the only way. In fact, if you go to the 'edit TOC' option via the menu, you can add/remove/change all kinds of TOC entries. Not only from headers, but from all kinds of links, including p and div tags.