Support for counter-increment/reset?

ghmerrill · 01-08-2021, 07:27 AM

I am about to publish both Kindle and print versions of a book. In Kindle Previewer I am getting W28002 warnings about the use of counter-increment and counter-reset to format section numbers in my chapters. However, the Previewer displays the section numbers perfectly, and I cannot find a Kindle device that fails to display the section numbers.

Can someone tell me of specific Kindle devices that do NOT support this feature?

Is this a spurious warning (possibly out of date at this point)?

I contacted Kindle support about this and got an incoherent response to what seemed to be a totally different question about accessing my account. I'm going to try them again, but don't have a lot of confidence I'll get a reliable answer, and so I thought I'd just try here to see what people's actual experience with this has been.

It's possible for me to eliminate the use of counter-increment and counter-reset, of course, but it would be pretty painful (across a 350-page book with about 70 section titles in it), and prefer to avoid it if there is really no need.

jhowell · 01-08-2021, 08:27 AM

According to the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines section 18.2 (CSS Support Table) both counter-reset and counter-increment are not supported.

As you found they do actually work in many cases. Some places where they won't work is on older Kindles that use the original MOBI format and on the Kindle Cloud Reader (read.amazon.com).

Also, this forum is for users of Kindle devices. There is a separate Kindle Formats forum for the discussion of producing Kindle books.

ghmerrill · 01-08-2021, 08:32 AM

Thanks. I tossed a coin on the appropriate forum and chose this one since I viewed it as a question about performance on specific devices.

I guess prudence dictates that I take out the counter code and just put in the section numbers explicitly since at this point, those aren't going to change anyway. It was a benefit while writing (and organizing/reorganizing the book), but no longer.

JSWolf · 01-08-2021, 09:07 AM

Just a quick note. Please don't make the code of your eBook rubbish. A lot of self-published authors have awful code.

Hand craft your eBook. Make the code as simple as you can and keep any media queries to a minimum. I did once see an eBook where the CSS was nothing but media queries.

ghmerrill · 01-08-2021, 09:36 AM

Yeah, pretty much got that covered. I've been designing and implementing software for close to 40 years, and and using "evolving" documentation applications for that long as well: Word, TeX/LaTex, Format (ancient IBM mainframe), Script (updated Format), Bookmaster (updated again), some old Bell Labs tag language I can't even remember, SAS documentation language, SGML, HTML, XHTML, CSS, FrameMaker, and probably others I've forgotten. Both the eBook and the PDF submitted to KDP are solid (and not complex) -- with only this one warning that I actually anticipated.

I'm not even certain that the cloud reader won't support what I've done -- since these things are sensitive not just to which features you've used, but how you've used them. If someone had said "No, don't worry about it. That warning is left over from older implementations and doesn't apply any longer," I would just leave things as they are. But I think at this point it's just not worth taking the chance when a half-hour or less of work can remove any risk.

01-08-2021, 07:27 AM	#1
ghmerrill Connoisseur Posts: 72 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Central NC Device: Various	Support for counter-increment/reset? I am about to publish both Kindle and print versions of a book. In Kindle Previewer I am getting W28002 warnings about the use of counter-increment and counter-reset to format section numbers in my chapters. However, the Previewer displays the section numbers perfectly, and I cannot find a Kindle device that fails to display the section numbers. Can someone tell me of specific Kindle devices that do NOT support this feature? Is this a spurious warning (possibly out of date at this point)? I contacted Kindle support about this and got an incoherent response to what seemed to be a totally different question about accessing my account. I'm going to try them again, but don't have a lot of confidence I'll get a reliable answer, and so I thought I'd just try here to see what people's actual experience with this has been. It's possible for me to eliminate the use of counter-increment and counter-reset, of course, but it would be pretty painful (across a 350-page book with about 70 section titles in it), and prefer to avoid it if there is really no need.

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01-08-2021, 08:27 AM	#2
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,072 Karma: 91577715 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Charlottesville, VA Device: Kindles	According to the Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines section 18.2 (CSS Support Table) both counter-reset and counter-increment are not supported. As you found they do actually work in many cases. Some places where they won't work is on older Kindles that use the original MOBI format and on the Kindle Cloud Reader (read.amazon.com). Also, this forum is for users of Kindle devices. There is a separate Kindle Formats forum for the discussion of producing Kindle books.

01-08-2021, 08:32 AM	#3
ghmerrill Connoisseur Posts: 72 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Central NC Device: Various	Thanks. I tossed a coin on the appropriate forum and chose this one since I viewed it as a question about performance on specific devices. I guess prudence dictates that I take out the counter code and just put in the section numbers explicitly since at this point, those aren't going to change anyway. It was a benefit while writing (and organizing/reorganizing the book), but no longer.

01-08-2021, 09:07 AM	#4
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,756 Karma: 145864619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Just a quick note. Please don't make the code of your eBook rubbish. A lot of self-published authors have awful code. Hand craft your eBook. Make the code as simple as you can and keep any media queries to a minimum. I did once see an eBook where the CSS was nothing but media queries.

01-08-2021, 09:36 AM	#5
ghmerrill Connoisseur Posts: 72 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Central NC Device: Various	Yeah, pretty much got that covered. I've been designing and implementing software for close to 40 years, and and using "evolving" documentation applications for that long as well: Word, TeX/LaTex, Format (ancient IBM mainframe), Script (updated Format), Bookmaster (updated again), some old Bell Labs tag language I can't even remember, SAS documentation language, SGML, HTML, XHTML, CSS, FrameMaker, and probably others I've forgotten. Both the eBook and the PDF submitted to KDP are solid (and not complex) -- with only this one warning that I actually anticipated. I'm not even certain that the cloud reader won't support what I've done -- since these things are sensitive not just to which features you've used, but how you've used them. If someone had said "No, don't worry about it. That warning is left over from older implementations and doesn't apply any longer," I would just leave things as they are. But I think at this point it's just not worth taking the chance when a half-hour or less of work can remove any risk.

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