ePub to Mobi with Calibre: cover is skipped when opening book

[mtrahan]

Thanks for the help, netseeker. I tried what you suggested (using "preface" instead of "text", and <a id="preface"/>, it validates correctly in Flight Crew! But unfortunately after converting to Mobi with Calibre it still doesn't open on cover in KindlePreviewer. :/

Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Maybe I'm placing the <a id> at a wrong place? This is on my first file, the one with the cover on: <div><a name="preface"/><img alt="cover" class="sgc-1" src="../Images/cover.jpg" /></div>

[st_albert]

I think by default a Kindle device or Kindle viewer will open to the place marked as type="text" in the <guide> section, or to the first text file in the ebook (typically the title page) if the "text" semantic is not set. It doesn't generally open to the cover, though there may be a way to force it to do so.

OTOH, the MS-Windows Mobipocket reader does open to the cover initially, IIRC.

BTW is the cover accessable in the "go to" menu?

[mtrahan]

Originally Posted by st_albert

BTW is the cover accessable in the "go to" menu?

Yes, working fine on that side.

Actually, I got distracted of the initial problem by trying to fix this cover thing. The most problematic case, the one that caught my attention, was a book I opened earlier today and it skipped a couple pages of text to start right on the first <h2> tag. So the problem was bigger than just the cover display, which I can live with. Now I know that the problem has nothing to do with the <h2> tag (or my other hypothesis: the 'page-break-before' part).

Having remembered the most crucial part of the problem, I went to edit that book with my new knowledge—the "preface" reference in the OPF guide+the <a id> in the first file of the book... and Kindle Previewer opened the converted mobi file on the page right after the cover. Which is fine, I guess.

I just didn't want the people to open my books on, say, page 5 and miss the beginning (quotes, etc.) just because of bad formatting.

I'll forget about Kindle opening a book right on cover—I spent way too much time on this already.

And a big thanks to you all—this forum is really full of helpful people.

Edit: Grrrr... I don't understand this. When I posted this, I had tested the file with Kindle Previewer, and it worked: opened the book on the page right after the cover. Now I just tried with my Kindle directly, and it did the same it did this morning: book is opened where main text begin, right on the first <h2> tag. But that is enough for today...

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by netseeker

Yes, i think calibre just ignores type="text" (as well as almost all other guide reference types) when converting to mobi.

Good to know. Thanks for the type="preface" tip. I'll be sure and try it one of these times.

[illustrata]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yes, you can use the Calibre's epub tweak to make those small edits, then rebuild the epub and convert to mobi.

I've heard this mentioned before but can't locate it -- where is the epub tweak in Calibre?