Problems with TOC

[p3aul]

I load a book into MS word. Make the title Heading I, the Chapters Heading II. Save as an RTF. Convert the first book to EPUB LRF No problem. The chapter heading are in the TOC. Do the second book, the exact same way. No TOC. I can't figure it out.

[p3aul]

Does anybody have and answer to this?
I have tried several different formats ie.. Txt, RTF and html. It's just not producing a TOC
Paul

[Amalthia]

You may want to let us know what version of calibre you're using, maybe attach the file in question that works and then the one that isn't working? Right now it's hard to say what's going on without seeing anything.

personally, I don't use RTF to convert because I always get screwy results, instead I save as HTML (using MS Word 97) and then fix the code the way I like before converting to LRF.

[Student1]

I have the same problem, Tocs are broken under version 5.6. Loading a toc will only load that one file and none of the link. Not sure if it was broken in 5.6 but just noticed it under it. None of my toc books will be imported properly now.

[p3aul]

Well I get it working pretty well, using .5.5, using RTF but it seems to take forever in HTML. It's just not consistant. I looked up the Xpath and now it will detect the Chapters if I convert them to Heading 1 and heading 2 in RTF. Right now I'm using HTML and it's taking forever! I hope we get this all worked out soon and it's released as Final. It's such a great program I don't want to see it abandoned.
Paul

[kovidgoyal]

You need to open tickets and attach files showing the problem, if you want bugs fixed.

[HenryP]

Hello,
Before opening a ticket, I figure it might be useful to add this observation just in case someone out there can point out that there's no bug in Calibre but merely ignorance on the part of the (always grateful) user.

A couple of weeks ago someone pointed out to me that the .lrf file I'd generated from Calibre had included the endnote references in the Table of Contents list.

The .mobi file generated an accurate Table of Contents, and only a table of contents; i.e., it was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Unable to solve the lrf problem, I decided to wait for the next Calibre upgrade and see what that would bring.

I upgraded to 0.5.6 and generated the .lrf file again. Same problem. So I generated a .mobi in order to compare the outcome with a view to locating the offending code.

The unexpected result was that the .mobi file now suffered from the same problem that had previously pertained only to the .lrf; i.e., the TOC now included the endnote numbers.

So I played around with the regular expression syntax, moving between 'Heading' 'Heading 1', 'Heading 2', and so on. That didn't help.

As far as I know, the only code I have access to is the input file - .odt or .html in my case - and an examination of that code leads me to conclude that Calibre is inadvertently detecting other than TOC entries to generate the TOC.

Try it for yourself for an input file containing endnotes: limit the regular expression for TOC detection to the narrowest range, such as 'H[1-2]' or 'Heading', and so on. That 's what I've been doing and the final TOC includes the endnote reference numbers as if they were chapter headings - even though they do not have H1 or H2 signifiers.

Were it the case that .mobi files could be generated in good working order in previous versions of Calibre I'd not comment, here. However, since something which wasn't broke now seems to be then I figure it's worth drawing attention to with the example provided.

I'm sold on Calibre but I think something's awry in the latest version, something that was awry for .lrf but not .mobi detection in a previous version.

And, to reiterate, I'm aware that my two penneth worth, here, may be nothing but another case of ignorance masquerading as analysis.

henry

[kovidgoyal]

Again, open a ticket, attach a file showing the problem and add your analysis. Having a file that demonstrates the problem makes it much easier to fix complex code. Without that fixing it would take too much time and effort.

[p3aul]

Thanks for the replys! Well I only use it to generate epub and the Sony 505 format, which I hope to get. Right now I read them on my Acer AA1. The RTF and the Xpath for the TOC works fine. it's just //h2 and //h3 to select my title and chapter headings. xpath looked like some mysterious and complex language until read Kovid's explanation. Keep up the good work!
Paul

[HenryP]

Prior to submitting a ticket concerning the 'wasn't broken before but is broken now' conclusion drawn in my previous message, I worked my way through other MobileRead threads which might have already dealt with and possibly solved the problem.

I've not yet found a solution to the .lrf file TOC dilemma but have discovered that there's not a problem with the .mobi output file at all.

Rather, I made a false inference: i.e., that limiting my input file to a few sample chapters was a valid test procedure manoeuvre; it's not, though, because in doing so I should have adjusted the minimum range of possible chapters to be detected. I failed to do that and came to a false conclusion.
Apologies for wasting the time of anyone who might have chased this particular rabbit down a dead end.

henry

[kovidgoyal]

Not a problem, as a general note, in the 0.6 series calibre will use the same TOC creation options for all formats, so these kinds of problems should go away.