Clara BW KEPUB chapter titles include links: can't tap to turn page

[broom]

Hi,

I started reading a library book from Overdrive on my Clara BW but hit an odd issue. Once I got beyond all the front matter and into the book proper I stopped being able to turn the page as normal. Every time I tapped the screen I'd jump back to the table of contents. I found that I was able to turn the page by swiping, but it was very irritating each time I forgot to swipe and ended up back at the TOC.

I was able to download the ADE version of the EPUB from Overdrive via Libby, DeDRM it and sideload it as KEPUB via Calibre. It showed the same problem. Looking at the source of the EPUB I noticed that all the affected chapters included a link back to the TOC, like this:

<p class="CT" id="ch01_ch_001"><a href="ch04.xhtml#tocch01_ch_001"><span class="ChapLabel">1</span> Slightly Depressed</a></p>

I modified a copy of the EPUB to remove the links, e.g. changing the above to:

<p class="CT" id="ch01_ch_001"><span class="ChapLabel">1</span> Slightly Depressed</p>

and found that I then had no trouble using my normal tap to turn the pages.

Does anyone know if this is expected behaviour? It seems very odd to me that a link would steal the focus of a tap in this way, and especially so after I've turned several pages so that the link is no longer on the screen. Does this happen for all links, or is there likely some other aspect of this particular KEPUB that causes it? Should EPUBs just not have links? Is it an issue with the title that I should report to Overdrive/Libby somehow?

Or is there a setting that I'm missing that could mitigate this oddness? Or any other ideas? Though I've been able to workaround the problem for this book, it's only by bypassing the DRM... is that something I'm likely to have to do again?

Thanks in advance.

(I searched this forum for similar reports and only turned up this thread from 2014: Chapter problem on Kobo kepub book. It seems to describe a similar issue and identifies links as the likely problem, but doesn't get any further.)

[Daniel Jackson]

Chapter titles being links back to the TOC is pretty common, a lot of books have it and it should normally not be a problem.
But in your case it seems to behave as if the <a href> tag is extended to the entire chapter text.
When you're editing the book in Calibre and you put the cursor inside the <a href> tag, is the correct closing </a> tag properly highlighted?

[Aleron Ives]

Books can be malformed in all sorts of ways. If the entire chapter is treated as a link to the TOC, then yes, you won't be able to tap anywhere. Editing the book as you've done is the only solution (other than swiping, since the Clara doesn't have page turn buttons).

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Daniel Jackson

Chapter titles being links back to the TOC is pretty common, a lot of books have it and it should normally not be a problem.
But in your case it seems to behave as if the <a href> tag is extended to the entire chapter text.
When you're editing the book in Calibre and you put the cursor inside the <a href> tag, is the correct closing </a> tag properly highlighted?

I personally hate it when publishers do this. It isn't necessary and hasn't been for a long time. The worst is when they either use honking big text for the chapter header, or still worse, an image, because then, tapping anywhere at the top of the book will likely activate the link and jank you over to the ToC unawares.

Usually it's not so bad that you can't turn the page from the bottom half of the book, but then again, if one reads at larger font sizes as I need to do, those linked chapter headings can become obnoxious pretty quickly.

[fogice]

The quick and dirty fix is to delete the TOC file, then Check Book. This will then remove all the links that point back to the TOC. Finally, generate a new TOC.

Make sure you have a copy of the file as a backup before you do this.

[broom]

Thanks all for your help.

Originally Posted by Daniel Jackson

When you're editing the book in Calibre and you put the cursor inside the <a href> tag, is the correct closing </a> tag properly highlighted?

Yes it is, and I don't see anything that's obviously malformed.

Maybe I can cut out contents from the book to make a minimal example of the problem... I might come back to this later.

Originally Posted by fogice

The quick and dirty fix is to delete the TOC file, then Check Book. This will then remove all the links that point back to the TOC. Finally, generate a new TOC.

I might try this out sometime, too. I had a quick play and found the Check Book option in the Calibre Editor and was able to use it to remove the links. I couldn't quite understand how to generate a new TOC though.

[JSWolf]

I delete all of those useless annoying chapter header links. I don't need them and I don't want them. I use Diap's Editing Toolbag in the calibre editor to do this. It's very easy and can be done on one go.