Calibre TOC at end

[Dante]

Hi there. I posted this on another thread but sometimes it's good to start a new one.

I converted a HTML file to mobi and used h1 for my title page and h2 for the chapters. This all works fine, but...I wanted calibre to generate a TOC only it puts it at the end of the file.
Obviously to look like a properly formatted book I would like it after the Title page.

How do I get Calibre to do this?
Please help!!!!!

[kovidgoyal]

calibre wont create a table of contents in the main content of your book. If you want one there, you have to create it by hand.

[Learic]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre wont create a table of contents in the main content of your book. If you want one there, you have to create it by hand.

I have the same concern with the TOC at the end of the file, which from what I read is by design, during a RTF --> Mobi conversion. Since Calibre can "inject" the book cover that is not originally in the main content and also a metadata page into the book at the beginning, would it be possible to have an option to inject the calibre "autogenerated" TOC after the book cover and the metadata if selected?

I originally used Word 2007 and thought I made the TOC correctly by using Word 2007 --> Reference --> Table of Contents but during the conversion from RTF to mobi, the links did not work in the mobi file. They looked like Blue hyperlinks but they didn't function. So I removed my manually created TOC from Word 2007 and processed it with calibre's autogenerate feature. The calibre's autogenerate did the TOC correctly but it placed it at the "end of the book, by design," so I have to scroll all the way to the last page to select a chapter I want to go to!

I guess I'm really asking if this can be a feature request to select the location of the autogenerated TOC.. Before the main content just after the book cover/metadata that can be injected by calibre, or the end of the book...

[kovidgoyal]

Feel free to open a feature request. But this one is not likely to get implemented any time soon.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by Learic

The calibre's autogenerate did the TOC correctly but it placed it at the "end of the book, by design," so I have to scroll all the way to the last page to select a chapter I want to go to

Every Mobi reader I've used has a way to directly "go to" the TOC from any location in the book -- no scrolling involved.

[Learic]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

Every Mobi reader I've used has a way to directly "go to" the TOC from any location in the book -- no scrolling involved.

I'm using MobiPocket for Windows Mobile. I use it in full screen mode and I don't see any options to directly go to the TOC. They may be there, but I don't see them. The only navigate options it has for me under Menu --> Navigate are "First Page," "Page Number," and "Cover Page."

Since it would be considered a "Low on the totem pole" request, I found a workaround. I convert the book from RTF to Mobi with debugging enabled, I grab the XHTML that is generated of the book and then I load it into MSWORD and add the TOC as HTML as opposed to trying it straight from RTF -> Mobi in Calibre. Once I add the TOC in the HTML, I convert it to Mobi in Calibre and the TOC is where I need it to be right after the cover page that shows the book image..

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by Learic

I'm using MobiPocket for Windows Mobile. I use it in full screen mode and I don't see any options to directly go to the TOC.

Well, that's one I haven't used. The function is available on the PalmOS, Windows, Cybook & Kindle Mobipocket readers.

Ah, well.

Originally Posted by Learic

Since it would be considered a "Low on the totem pole" request, I found a workaround. I convert the book from RTF to Mobi with debugging enabled, I grab the XHTML that is generated of the book and then I load it into MSWORD and add the TOC as HTML as opposed to trying it straight from RTF -> Mobi in Calibre. Once I add the TOC in the HTML, I convert it to Mobi in Calibre and the TOC is where I need it to be right after the cover page that shows the book image..

Glad you found a work-around.

[Learic]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

Well, that's one I haven't used. The function is available on the PalmOS, Windows, Cybook & Kindle Mobipocket readers.

Ah, well.



Glad you found a work-around.

Thanks for the suggestions though! I'll play with the Mobipocket app some more on my phone to see if I can get the jump to TOC feature. I found the setting under Toolbar options but for some reason I can't get the toolbar to display on my phone.

[JohnRausch]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Feel free to open a feature request. But this one is not likely to get implemented any time soon.

Aamzon's Kindle publishing guidelines says books with the TOC at the end will be rejected. We can use expressions to identify TOC entries and we should be able to specify an expression where we want the TOC placed. It might be low on your list, but it's at the top of mine. If I want to create my TOC manually, I may as well use Kindlegen/MobiPocket Creator. I understand Calibre is for far more than Kindle, but that's the only reason I use it and it does not produce Kindle books according to Amazon's guidelines. Once it does, I make a substantial donation.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by JohnRausch

Aamzon's Kindle publishing guidelines says books with the TOC at the end will be rejected. We can use expressions to identify TOC entries and we should be able to specify an expression where we want the TOC placed. It might be low on your list, but it's at the top of mine. If I want to create my TOC manually, I may as well use Kindlegen/MobiPocket Creator. I understand Calibre is for far more than Kindle, but that's the only reason I use it and it does not produce Kindle books according to Amazon's guidelines. Once it does, I make a substantial donation.

In that case Amazon doesn't follow its own publishing guidelines I've bought dozens of books from Amazon that have TOCs at the end.

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by JohnRausch

I understand Calibre is for far more than Kindle, but that's the only reason I use it and it does not produce Kindle books according to Amazon's guidelines. Once it does, I make a substantial donation.

You're sounding a wee bit like you're blackmailing there...

[switchman2210]

Why don’t you use Sigil to build a epub based book which you can then convert to Mobi. If you are starting from a different format, you could use calibre to generate the initial epub file which you could then edit in Sigil. I did this last week. I started with an old lit file I had, converted it to epub in caliber and then reformatted it in Sigil to clean up the conversion issues. In my case I left it as an epub file, but you could then convert it to mobi.

[JohnRausch]

Originally Posted by switchman2210

Why don’t you use Sigil to build a epub based book which you can then convert to Mobi. If you are starting from a different format, you could use calibre to generate the initial epub file which you could then edit in Sigil. I did this last week. I started with an old lit file I had, converted it to epub in caliber and then reformatted it in Sigil to clean up the conversion issues. In my case I left it as an epub file, but you could then convert it to mobi.

Yes i could do that, or I could easily create an HTML TOC with a good text editor, which I have, and then create the NCX file and use Kindlegen. But what I want and I think thousands of people want is an authoring tool that automates the repetitive, error-prone steps in building a MOBI file that puts the TOC where most humans expect to find it. Calibre comes so close to being just about perfect for this, but putting the TOC at the end of the book is just plain wrong.

[dpmedia]

Originally Posted by JohnRausch

...But what I want and I think thousands of people want is an authoring tool that automates the repetitive, error-prone steps in building a MOBI file that puts the TOC where most humans expect to find it. Calibre comes so close to being just about perfect for this, but putting the TOC at the end of the book is just plain wrong.

I totally agree. When I open a book, I expect to see the table of contents at the beginning of the book. Not buried on the last page. Sure, readers can hit the table of contents button and get there but why force them to? Sure, I can manually inject a table of contents into the content but that's extra work.

I don't understand why such a reasonable and common sense request would be "low on the totem pole".

[Manichean]

Uhm, it has already been mentioned in this thread that Calibre doesn't add any kind of TOC to the file content, only to the file metadata. So, your bitching about the TOC being at the end should be aimed at the books' original creators, not at Calibre.