Kindle Chapter Markers

penguintri · 08-30-2010, 07:33 PM

I have bought a few books from amazon now and none of them seem to have the little markers indicating chapters along the bottom of the progress bar that my books converted in calibre do, this also means I cannot skip forward and backward chapters by pressing left and right. Some of the amazon books have tables of contents which I can use to jump to chapters (assassin's apprentice) some do not (the girl with the dragon tattoo) but none have the chapter markers or allow moving chapters with the left right button. I have also downoaded many samples and none of them seem to have this either.

Are there not many books that have this functionality as I find it quite useful to be able to see how close to the end of a chapter I am?

AnemicOak · 08-30-2010, 08:58 PM

It depends on how the Mobi file is generated. Some of the books on Amazon were generated back pre-Kindle and sold by Mobipocket. When the Kindle launched these books were made available on Amazon, but their basic formatting wasn't changed or anything, or at least thats what I expect happened. I've found it hit or miss as to if a book will have them or not (especially if it's been out as an ebook for a long time). I sometimes re-format myself just so I can have them in my books.

As for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, it does have the marks (at least the copy I bought earlier in the month does) but it appears because of the way the source file was formatted (likely n ePub) the marks only show up for the "Parts" and not the chapters which are a level down on the TOC. It does have a regular TOC at least that can be used if need be.

ATDrake · 08-30-2010, 11:54 PM

Sometimes when it looks like there are only the markers for major sections (e.g. Part 1, Part 2, etc.), the book actually does contain more for the individual chapters as well. But they're invisible due to the way that Kindlegen (and presumably Amazon's DTP) handles nested NavPoints in the NCX file.

However, you can navigate between them by going to the start of, say, Chapter 1, and then flick the 5-way controller to skip to the next. I wish the Kindle would show them all in the location bar, even if they used a different style of "dot" to indicate some were a 2nd/3rd level navpoint.

penguintri · 08-31-2010, 05:14 AM

Hmm my girl with the dragon tattoo definitely doesn't have any table of contents or allow skipping to any part of the book. It's strange that there's two different versions. Maybe the uk published version has this omitted for some reason? Would stripping the drm from the azw and doing a mobi-mobi convert in calibre work for adding the chapter marks? Calibre seems quite good at recognizing and adding chapters. I'll have to try that when I get home from work.

ProfCrash · 08-31-2010, 09:18 AM

Weird that the different stores would have different versions.

foghat · 09-13-2010, 12:53 PM

gonna resurrect this one. I am expecting to take delivery of my K3 today or tomorrow. I have a bunch of epub files (with chapters) that I will be converting to mobi in Calibre. Do you know if I can expect to see the chapter markers?

bxrLvr · 09-13-2010, 01:03 PM

if you convert them with calibre, you should see the chapter marks. All the books I buy off amazon, I strip DRM and run thru calibre just so that I can get the chapter marks.

foghat · 09-13-2010, 01:47 PM

cool. thx. guess I will find out for certain shortly.

08-30-2010, 07:33 PM	#1
penguintri Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: Paperwhite 2	Kindle Chapter Markers I have bought a few books from amazon now and none of them seem to have the little markers indicating chapters along the bottom of the progress bar that my books converted in calibre do, this also means I cannot skip forward and backward chapters by pressing left and right. Some of the amazon books have tables of contents which I can use to jump to chapters (assassin's apprentice) some do not (the girl with the dragon tattoo) but none have the chapter markers or allow moving chapters with the left right button. I have also downoaded many samples and none of them seem to have this either. Are there not many books that have this functionality as I find it quite useful to be able to see how close to the end of a chapter I am? Last edited by penguintri; 08-30-2010 at 07:35 PM.

09-13-2010, 12:53 PM	#6
foghat Evangelist Posts: 464 Karma: 1006520 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Alberta, Canada Device: Kindle PW3	gonna resurrect this one. I am expecting to take delivery of my K3 today or tomorrow. I have a bunch of epub files (with chapters) that I will be converting to mobi in Calibre. Do you know if I can expect to see the chapter markers? Last edited by foghat; 09-13-2010 at 01:45 PM.

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08-30-2010, 08:58 PM	#2
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	It depends on how the Mobi file is generated. Some of the books on Amazon were generated back pre-Kindle and sold by Mobipocket. When the Kindle launched these books were made available on Amazon, but their basic formatting wasn't changed or anything, or at least thats what I expect happened. I've found it hit or miss as to if a book will have them or not (especially if it's been out as an ebook for a long time). I sometimes re-format myself just so I can have them in my books. As for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, it does have the marks (at least the copy I bought earlier in the month does) but it appears because of the way the source file was formatted (likely n ePub) the marks only show up for the "Parts" and not the chapters which are a level down on the TOC. It does have a regular TOC at least that can be used if need be.

08-30-2010, 11:54 PM	#3
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	Sometimes when it looks like there are only the markers for major sections (e.g. Part 1, Part 2, etc.), the book actually does contain more for the individual chapters as well. But they're invisible due to the way that Kindlegen (and presumably Amazon's DTP) handles nested NavPoints in the NCX file. However, you can navigate between them by going to the start of, say, Chapter 1, and then flick the 5-way controller to skip to the next. I wish the Kindle would show them all in the location bar, even if they used a different style of "dot" to indicate some were a 2nd/3rd level navpoint.

08-31-2010, 05:14 AM	#4
penguintri Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: Paperwhite 2	Hmm my girl with the dragon tattoo definitely doesn't have any table of contents or allow skipping to any part of the book. It's strange that there's two different versions. Maybe the uk published version has this omitted for some reason? Would stripping the drm from the azw and doing a mobi-mobi convert in calibre work for adding the chapter marks? Calibre seems quite good at recognizing and adding chapters. I'll have to try that when I get home from work.

08-31-2010, 09:18 AM	#5
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	Weird that the different stores would have different versions.

09-13-2010, 01:03 PM	#7
bxrLvr Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 102 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: California Device: Kindle 3, iPad	if you convert them with calibre, you should see the chapter marks. All the books I buy off amazon, I strip DRM and run thru calibre just so that I can get the chapter marks.

09-13-2010, 01:47 PM	#8
foghat Evangelist Posts: 464 Karma: 1006520 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Alberta, Canada Device: Kindle PW3	cool. thx. guess I will find out for certain shortly.

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