Editing GoTo Menu

[Mike Reid]

Hello, MOBI gurus.

A provider created a MOBI for my client that has an incomplete GoTo menu: it only lets you go to Next Page, Prev Page, Table of Contents, etc. It does not allow direct navigation to the chapters of the book. The lousy provider is unwilling or unable to fix the problem himself.

I would know how to fix this myself if I were making this MOBI from an ePub using Kindle Previewer (I'd just put the added lines in the OPF <guide>). But I don't know how to get in and fix the MOBI itself.

Any pointers you can give would be much appreciated.


Mike

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Mike Reid

It does not allow direct navigation to the chapters of the book. The lousy provider is unwilling or unable to fix the problem himself.

Unlike epubs, mobi files allow chapter selection only via the inline TOC. (You can only go to the next or previous chapters.)
I.e. there's nothing to fix. As for the guide items have a look at this article.

[Mike Reid]

Holy cow.

Thank you, Doitsu, for explaining this to me. I have been misled for years, because putting chapters in the <guide> in content.opf actually makes the GoTo in Kindle Previewer let you go straight to chapters!

I realize now that this has no effect on the files as read on devices. My mind is blown.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Any idea why KP displays this stuff?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Mike Reid

Holy cow.

Thank you, Doitsu, for explaining this to me. I have been misled for years, because putting chapters in the <guide> in content.opf actually makes the GoTo in Kindle Previewer let you go straight to chapters!

I realize now that this has no effect on the files as read on devices. My mind is blown.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Any idea why KP displays this stuff?

There's a dual functionality here you may not be quite grasping. "The Go to" feature of the Kindle's software only allows you to go to the: TOC (the html inline toc), Beginning, or Cover. The NCX file is what allows you to "go directly to chapters"... with the Previewer or the Kindle Device. But on the device, you can only use the left-right buttons to jump directly between the chapters (or whatever sections the NCX has divided the book into). I believe the Previewer only provides that extra NCX view so it's easier to determine that you've got your ebook built exactly the way you want it. The NCX view may not always be identical to the html TOC.

[NiLuJe]

Note that the Touch (finally) provides a proper complete 'Go To' feature using the NCX file (with chapters & everything). That's only on the Touch (and probably the Fire, too), though. Not sure about the K4.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Note that the Touch (finally) provides a proper complete 'Go To' feature using the NCX file (with chapters & everything). That's only on the Touch (and probably the Fire, too), though. Not sure about the K4.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that you can select chapters via the .ncx on a Kindle Touch. This also means that if the OP tested the .mobi file on a Kindle Touch or Kindle Fire and didn't see chapters in the GoTo menu the .mobi file was most likely missing an .ncx file.

My Kindle 3 Wifi only has the following menu items:



Can you please post a screen capture that shows the chapter selection menu on a Kindle Touch?

[NiLuJe]

@Doitsu: Here's what it looks like with a proper NCX (K3 vs K5).

(You can see that it also properly handles the names you can give to your breaks in the NCX, even if they don't match what's actually in the HTML).

Each entry you can see on the Touch matches a black dot in the progress bar on the K3 (personal notes excluded, but I only have one on this book).

[DiapDealer]

Very nice! Can that new feature handle nested NCXs?

[NiLuJe]

@DiapDealer: I think it does, I'll try to find a book where I remember seeing one...

EDIT: Yep, it does, and doesn't flatten it, and you can collapse each sublevel individually.

(I messed up the APNX on this one, so, no page numbers).

[DiapDealer]

Thanks! That'll be very nice moving forward. I've always flattened my NCXs for the Kindle devices. Looks like I'll have to at least consider not bothering before long.

That is with a regular old MOBI, right? Not a KF8 or Combo Mobi/KF8 file?

[NiLuJe]

@Diapdealer: Stories is still a good old mobi7 (and that's a shame, especially for Joe Hill's short, but I digress), and Blackbirds is a mobi8 (non-combo) built by Calibre from an ePub, but I think I remember seeing a working nested NCX on mobi7 books, too.

EDIT: Yep, nested NCX on mobi7, too (and that's from stuff straight from my Archive, so it's not just Calibre/Kindlegen magic ^^) .