Problem with Page Breaks and Structure Detection

[cjallan]

At default, Calibre creates a page break before Heading 1, and ALSO before Heading 2.

A page break before Heading 1 is fine, but I don't want a page break before Heading 2.

Someone told me to disable H2 in Structure Detection.

That does disable the page break before Heading 2, but it also removes Heading 2 from the NCX, which I need.

Can someone tell me the proper way to disable the page break before Heading 2?

Thanks very much.

CJ

[jackie_w]

Try these conversion settings:

In Convert - StructureDetection

Detect chapters at: //h:h2
Chapter mark: none
Insert pagebreaks before: //h:h1

and in Convert - TOC

Level 1: //h:h1
Level 2: //h:h2

[cjallan]

Thanks very much, jackie_w... I followed your instructions...

But... it didn't do the job.

Heading 2 still does not appear in the NCX file... nor in the Table of Contents.

I have a proper Table of Contents, with Headings 1 and Heading 2, as I want them, at the beginning of my file, but I can't make Calibre use it.

The way I read the Calibre instructions, I understand that Calibre will use my own "user generated" TOC to make the NCX file, if "Force TOC" and/or "Structure detection" are not used, but I can't make it happen.

Do you know how I can do that... make Calibre use my own TOC to create the NCX?

Thanks very much for your help!

CJ

[jackie_w]

I wonder whether your understanding of what 'your own TOC' means may be the problem.

I think 'your own TOC' means that if your source document already contains a toc.ncx file (known as an external TOC) it will use it, if "Force TOC" and/or "Structure detection" are not used. epub, mobi and lit (and maybe others) often contain a working toc.ncx.

I'm not sure whether a page at the front of the book containing some hyperlinks to other pages (known as an inline TOC) will convert to a fully working toc.ncx.

I never use inline TOCs myself so perhaps I'm not the best person to answer your question.

What format is your source document?

[cjallan]

My source document is a MS Word 2003 Doc file, with a table of contents built with Word's TOC wizard.

I could build a hyperlinked table of contents instead of the Word wizard TOC if that would help.

[jackie_w]

Did you save the book as Webpage-filtered before importing to Calibre or did you save it as RTF?

Also, in the .doc file, did you style your chapter headings with the built-in 'Heading 1' and 'Heading 2' styles?

As I said previously, I don't know whether Calibre does anything with hyperlink TOCs. Someone else may chip in with an answer. However if you've used the correct Word heading styles, Calibre should be able to use those to create the toc.ncx file.

[cjallan]

Yes, I use MS Word's built-in chapter heading Styles, Heading 1 and Heading 2 and create the Table of Contents with MS Word's Table of Contents Wizard.

Then I save my Word file as "Web Page, Filtered", and import that HTML file into Calibre.

Calibre appears to be using my Table of Contents to build the Table of Contents that it puts in the end of the mobi file.

The reason I think that is, that if I don't add a Table of Contents to the front of my file, Calibre won't add one to the end of the file.

[jackie_w]

I believe that Calibre is using the <h1> and <h2> tags in the html file to create your end-of-mobi TOC, not your hyperlink TOC. However, I stand to be corrected as I'm not a mobi user.

The <h1> tags in the html file are automatically created from the Word 'Heading 1' styles and <h2> tags from 'Heading 2' etc.

I'm attaching a small sample Word doc containing 'Heading 1' and 'Heading 2' titles. I have not created any inline hyperlink TOC.

I then saved it as Webpage-filtered, imported to Calibre and did a zip-to-mobi conversion using the settings I listed above in post #2. As far as I can see, in Kindle-for-PC, the mobi is doing what you asked, i.e. a pagebreak for every H1 but not for H2s. The 2-level TOC also looks correct.

I've attached the mobi. Am I not understanding something fundamental?

[cjallan]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I believe that Calibre is using the <h1> and <h2> tags in the html file to create your end-of-mobi TOC, not your hyperlink TOC. However, I stand to be corrected as I'm not a mobi user.

The <h1> tags in the html file are automatically created from the Word 'Heading 1' styles and <h2> tags from 'Heading 2' etc.

I'm attaching a small sample Word doc containing 'Heading 1' and 'Heading 2' titles. I have not created any inline hyperlink TOC.

I then saved it as Webpage-filtered, imported to Calibre and did a zip-to-mobi conversion using the settings I listed above in post #2. As far as I can see, in Kindle-for-PC, the mobi is doing what you asked, i.e. a pagebreak for every H1 but not for H2s. The 2-level TOC also looks correct.

I've attached the mobi. Am I not understanding something fundamental?

Maybe a "bingo"... there...

I am not doing a "zip-to-mobi"... nor have I ever seen such a reference.

So maybe that is what I am missing.

I will look for that, then, I will look closely at your samples.

Thanks very much... it will be a few hours before I can get back on it, but I will go through these steps and come back to report my progress.

Thanks again,

CJ

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by cjallan

I am not doing a "zip-to-mobi"... nor have I ever seen such a reference.

So maybe that is what I am missing.

I will look for that, then, I will look closely at your samples.

When you add a HTML file to Calibre it is normally stored as a ZIP file. When you have such a file then ZIP is offered as a selection for the input format on the book in question when you select it for conversion.

[cjallan]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I believe that Calibre is using the <h1> and <h2> tags in the html file to create your end-of-mobi TOC, not your hyperlink TOC. However, I stand to be corrected as I'm not a mobi user.

The <h1> tags in the html file are automatically created from the Word 'Heading 1' styles and <h2> tags from 'Heading 2' etc.

I'm attaching a small sample Word doc containing 'Heading 1' and 'Heading 2' titles. I have not created any inline hyperlink TOC.

I then saved it as Webpage-filtered, imported to Calibre and did a zip-to-mobi conversion using the settings I listed above in post #2. As far as I can see, in Kindle-for-PC, the mobi is doing what you asked, i.e. a pagebreak for every H1 but not for H2s. The 2-level TOC also looks correct.

I've attached the mobi. Am I not understanding something fundamental?

I looked at your Mobi file with the desktop Kindle Previewer:

It illustrates exactly what I've been trying to describe.

The TOC does, indeed, display 2 levels... H1 and H2.

BUT... the NCX view displays only 1 level... H2.

It does not display H1, it just ignores H1.

That has been my luck:

The TOC is just fine, it displays H1 and H2, but I can't make the NCX view display properly.

I can display H1 or H2, in the NCX view, but not both.

Thanks very much!

CJ

[cjallan]

Originally Posted by itimpi

When you add a HTML file to Calibre it is normally stored as a ZIP file. When you have such a file then ZIP is offered as a selection for the input format on the book in question when you select it for conversion.

Thanks, Itimpi.

I guess I was doing it right, then.

I am taking great care to follow instructions correctly, but still cannot make the NCX file display correctly.

Any thoughts as to what might be wrong?

Thanks for your input,

CJ

[ldolse]

The NCX is probably being built with the Chapter detection xpath vs. the multi-level TOC xpath.

Try putting this in 'detect chapters' under structure detection ( still following the rest of jackie_w's instructions):

//*[name()='h1' or name()='h2']

Can't tell exactly what you're trying to do based on your descriptions though...
If you're trying to force Calibre to use your original inline TOC then you need to convert to ePub first, and follow the guidelines in this post:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...0&postcount=11

Note if you follow that post you then probably also need to go under the mobi output options and enable the 'Do not add Table of Contents to book' option.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by cjallan

I looked at your Mobi file with the desktop Kindle Previewer:
It illustrates exactly what I've been trying to describe.
The TOC does, indeed, display 2 levels... H1 and H2.
BUT... the NCX view displays only 1 level... H2.
It does not display H1, it just ignores H1.

What is the NCX view? I just used Goto TOC in Kindle-for-PC plus I opened the mobi in the Calibre Viewer. Both of these seemed to be OK. Is NCX view something else? I don't have a Kindle so I'm not familiar with the finer details.

[ldolse]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

What is the NCX view? I just used Goto TOC in Kindle-for-PC plus I opened the mobi in the Calibre Viewer. Both of these seemed to be OK. Is NCX view something else? I don't have a Kindle so I'm not familiar with the finer details.

Not to put words in the OPs mouth, but I can only assume he's referring to the tic marks at the bottom of the Kindle - you can see these if you load the mobi file into the Kindle previewer app (kindle for PC/Mac won't work). These also tie into the chapter skipping function with the 5 way controller. I don't know of any other use of the NCX file in mobi.