Problems (?) with table of contents

[quixotic23]

The TOC links in the "table of contents" box (upper right corner) all work just fine. But when I go to the TOC in the "preview" box, nothing works. (Is it supposed to?)

Same thing when I haul it into Calibre. The links in the "table of contents" box (left side) all work. But there don't seem to be any working links in the output boxes.

Same thing in Kindle. When I pull up "contents" on the left hand side, all of the links work fine. But when the TOC shows up in the main box on the right hand side, there are no links that work. (I'm just using Kindle for PC, so I don't know what an actual Kindle device sees).

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by quixotic23

The TOC links in the "table of contents" box (upper right corner) all work just fine. But when I go to the TOC in the "preview" box, nothing works. (Is it supposed to?)

Same thing when I haul it into Calibre. The links in the "table of contents" box (left side) all work. But there don't seem to be any working links in the output boxes.

Same thing in Kindle. When I pull up "contents" on the left hand side, all of the links work fine. But when the TOC shows up in the main box on the right hand side, there are no links that work. (I'm just using Kindle for PC, so I don't know what an actual Kindle device sees).

Thanks in advance for any help.

As notjohn told you on the KDP forums, you're confusing the NCX with the Table of Contents, which has to be linked via the OPF. Go to Tools--> Table of Contents--> Create HTML Table of Contents and you'll make an HTML TOC which can then be styled in the corresponding Style sheet. If you're using K4PC as your proofing tool, you're being misled, because it's one of the few "devices" or readers that will display the NCX TOC (the logical TOC); most only use the inline TOC (the HTML TOC).

Do NOT use Calibre to make a file for upload to Amazon; there's no need if you have an ePUB. Just drop the completed ePUB, replete with the HTML TOC, onto Kindle Previewer or use the command-line KindleGen and make a mobi.

Let us know here (you'll get better technical assistance here than you EVER will at the KDP) if you get it done.

Hitch

[quixotic23]

Yup, the preview function at amazon definitely shows that it's not working.

Ironically, this is the first time that I've used the sigil tutorials to assemble the toc. And the first time that I've had each chapter as a separate html file.

Are the separate html files (circled in red) the way to go?

Should I ensure that the links in the preview window work?

Thanks again in advance.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by quixotic23

Yup, the preview function at amazon definitely shows that it's not working.

Ironically, this is the first time that I've used the sigil tutorials to assemble the toc. And the first time that I've had each chapter as a separate html file.

Are the separate html files (circled in red) the way to go?

Should I ensure that the links in the preview window work?

Thanks again in advance.

IMHO it is a clean way
It has nothing to do with TOC generation.

Sigil will use H# tags when you click the TOC button to generate the NCX
(there are tick boxes to hide items, and arrows to change levels BUT... care if you classes take the form h2.classname as the tag will no longer be a h2)

Caution: Save your work before clicking the 'Create HTML TOC' (only on the Tools Menu). This crashes frequently if the book has been modified during the session.

The Tools: TOC...: Create HTML converts the contents of existing NCX into a HTML page

[quixotic23]

I don't know if this is relevant, but when I try to pull down the menu and select "all" (circled in red), sigil won't let me. It just reverts back to <select headings to include in toc>

[quixotic23]

There's also this (attachment). A huge discrepancy between the html code and what the Generate TOC box says. Did I bring too much crap over from the odt file? Should I have used word2cleanhtml.com first?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by quixotic23

I don't know if this is relevant, but when I try to pull down the menu and select "all" (circled in red), sigil won't let me. It just reverts back to <select headings to include in toc>

That implies you only have Level (h)1

Select All, does not mean Tick All. It means Look for in the book.
saves time for example if you use H5 style for 'sign posts' in the story

[theducks]

Originally Posted by quixotic23

There's also this (attachment). A huge discrepancy between the html code and what the Generate TOC box says. Did I bring too much crap over from the odt file? Should I have used word2cleanhtml.com first?

The balloon help just shows the actual H tag contents that it is referring to.

Your TOC will include all the ticked item, indented as shown.

Note removing a tick also HIDES the item from the list. Remove the tick at the bottom to see a Candidates (and to re-enable those oopses

[quixotic23]

Should the preview window have live links?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by quixotic23

Should the preview window have live links?

I rarely us Preview (F10)
The links will work in Book view (if done right )

[eschwartz]

Looking at the HTML ToC which is partially visible in your screenshot gives it all away: with a link that goes to "../../../Users/Evan/AppData/Local/Temp/AVSTemp16822835/AVSTmpD115145/AVSTmpD115145/OEBPS/Text/#thepartyyears" it's no wonder the links go nowhere.

Use the Sigil feature to generate an HTML ToC; the links will work.

Looks like something went wrong with your links when you imported from LibreOffice. (?)

[quixotic23]

I think it's working now. I use "split at cursor" to break at the beginning of the chapter. Then TOC edit to tell the TOC entry where to go (ie, the new html file).

The preview pane still doesn't have any live links, but the TOC pane (alt f3) has links that work.

I'm not sure what went wrong before. I suspect something between the odt and the html, since I was doing pretty much the same thing afterwards.

[DiapDealer]

Links in Sigil's "Preview" pane will never "work." Do you have a special need to use the Preview widget (with the ability to examine all the various html resources) rather than simply using the Book View pane and the Table of Contents pane? In your case, I would suggest closing the "Preview" pane and not opening it again for any reason. It's confusing you unnecessarily.

[quixotic23]

Preview is gone. Thanks DD.