Underlined Words at the Beginning of a Chapter

[Bermudagirl]

I have noticed that at the beginning of each chapter of the book I am reading at the moment a number of the words are underlined. This can effect just a few lines in some cases and virtually the whole of the first page in other cases. I have viewed the book in both Calibre and Sigil, and in both cases the relevant words are not underlined.
I can't tell if there is some coding that is affecting this, but I thought the underlining would also have shown up in Sigil and Calibre.
Has anyone come across this before, and if so, would they have a solution to the problem?

[GeoffR]

Is the book a kepub synced direct from Kobo, or a sideloaded book?

Some books synced direct from Kobo have a 'Beyond The Book' feature, where there are extra links to things like photos of places in the book, author biographical information, etc.

If this is the cause, then you can turn it off by unticking the 'Underline key terms" box in the Reading Settings menu.

[Bermudagirl]

Thanks for your reply Geoff. The book was sideloaded. I have already tried to see if this was some sort of link, but it doesn't seem to be.

[Witty Username]

I saw the same thing not long ago in a library book I was reading on my Kobo. It was because the start of the chapter was a 'flashback' to the character's childhood and was in italics in the original book.

I can't remember which book it was, it may have been one of Peter May's Lewis trilogy.

[Bermudagirl]

Originally Posted by Witty Username

I saw the same thing not long ago in a library book I was reading on my Kobo. It was because the start of the chapter was a 'flashback' to the character's childhood and was in italics in the original book.

I can't remember which book it was, it may have been one of Peter May's Lewis trilogy.

No, none of the chapters start with "flashbacks".
I've just checked the book on Amazon "Look Inside" and the first lines of the first chapter are definitely not underlined.

I don't know if this is any use but what I have posted underneath is the first sentence of a chapter and on my Kobo Touch it is underlined.
I have just noticed that when I select this sentence I am automatically moved to the next page. Don't know if that helps.

<p class="calibre4"><a id="SEVEN"><span>The next morning Angela was already dressed and was just brushing her hair in front of the glass when there was a knock at her door.</span></a></p>

[PeterT]

What IS the book please...

[Bermudagirl]

It's "The Incident at Fives Castle" by Clara Benson.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Bermudagirl

<p class="calibre4"><a id="SEVEN"><span>The next morning Angela was already dressed and was just brushing her hair in front of the glass when there was a knock at her door.</span></a></p>

Apparently the reader is displaying <a> underlined, even if it has no href. Other readers have different (better) default stylesheets, that's why you don't see it elsewhere.

[Bermudagirl]

Thanks Jellby, although I'm not quite sure what you mean...

[Ripplinger]

The <a> normally denotes that the line contains a link. Where you're seeing the lines is simply from bad code in the book. It's saying the line is a link, yet it gives no actual working link. But I've seen <a id=xxx> in books and don't believe I've seen that problem on my Kobo at all. I'll have to try and dig up a book with it in and see how the Glo handles it.

[Bermudagirl]

Thanks Ripplinger!

I've edited out all those <a> and <a id=xxx> and everything looks fine now.
Many thanks everyone for your help!

[PeterT]

I just downloaded the preview of "The Incident at Fives Castle" by Clara Benson and used OBOK to make an ePub. Opening it with ADE 1.7, Chapter ONE does not exhibit this, but Chapter TWO does.

The markup is a real dogs breakfast; sure some of that has come from the conversion to kEpub by Kobo, but, even the original formatting was messy. Sure enough, TWO does have the <a ...> markup present.

<p class="Normalfirstparagraph">
  <a id="TWO">
    <span>
      <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="koboSpan" id="kobo.3.1">
        The Countess of Strathmerrick regarded herself mournfully in the glass on the wall and assessed the lines on her face. 
      </span>
      <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="koboSpan" id="kobo.3.2">
         She was sure that several more had appeared since yesterday. 
      </span>

For what it's worth, the publisher is flagged as Lulu.com and it looks like it was created by "Aspose Words for .NET".

[Bermudagirl]

Thanks for the info Peter.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I just downloaded the preview of "The Incident at Fives Castle" by Clara Benson and used OBOK to make an ePub. Opening it with ADE 1.7, Chapter ONE does not exhibit this, but Chapter TWO does.

The markup is a real dogs breakfast; sure some of that has come from the conversion to kEpub by Kobo, but, even the original formatting was messy. Sure enough, TWO does have the <a ...> markup present.

<p class="Normalfirstparagraph">
  <a id="TWO">
    <span>
      <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="koboSpan" id="kobo.3.1">
        The Countess of Strathmerrick regarded herself mournfully in the glass on the wall and assessed the lines on her face. 
      </span>
      <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="koboSpan" id="kobo.3.2">
         She was sure that several more had appeared since yesterday. 
      </span>

For what it's worth, the publisher is flagged as Lulu.com and it looks like it was created by "Aspose Words for .NET".

Use Modify ePub to get rid of the kepub code and make it back to a standard ePub. Then look at the code and try it again.

[PeterT]

Why bother? All the Modify does is to remove the excessive span's; it has ZERO effect on the issue; the <a id=....> .... </a> wrapping the entire first paragraph.