Where's the TOC?

[JSWolf]

A ToC as needed by Kindlegen is just an XML page containing a list of links pointing to the various other XML files.

[Tulpana]

DiapDealer--Thank you for being the first person to state this. Barring any solution to my problem, hearing someone say what you do has helped.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Tulpana

DiapDealer--Thank you for being the first person to state this. Barring any solution to my problem, hearing someone say what you do has helped.

If you do not wish to learn to make ePUBs by using xhtml and css, then you should purchase a program called "Jutoh," which only costs $40. It works rather much like Word in many ways, and can make a reasonable and clean ePUB and MOBI books from a "word-processing" style interface. Making epubs with Calibre is, IMHO, bad practice. Some people here do it as a short-cut, and then clean the resulting epub in Sigil--but they understand ePUBS, and know what they are doing. (At least, some of them do.)

My only quibble with Sigil is that it is still listed as an WYSIWYG epub editor. That's true--IF what you want is very simple. That doesn't mean that, like iAuthor, any moron can make any book, replete with HTML5 and CSS3 features, without knowing anything. (This is not to say you, particularly, are a moron, please note). For example, in Sigil (or virtually any other epub-making method), you cannot embed a font without knowing CSS and HTML. Period. That's not WYSIWYG.

HOWEVER, all that being said, if you had chapter headings in Sigil, you should have been able to do nothing more than click in your chapter heading paragraph--from the book view--and simply select a heading from the dropdown menu. That would have changed your Chapter "line" or name or whatever into a heading style. Then, had you done that throughout the book, and you clicked "generate TOC from headings," you would have had an NCX made.

So, in other words, just like you can click in a paragraph in Word, and select a style, you can do the same thing with a header style in Sigil. It is, frankly, identical to the Word interface.

Really--try Jutoh. You might find it very comfortable and familiar.

Hitch

[Tulpana]

Originally Posted by Hitch

HOWEVER, all that being said, if you had chapter headings in Sigil, you should have been able to do nothing more than click in your chapter heading paragraph--from the book view--and simply select a heading from the dropdown menu. That would have changed your Chapter "line" or name or whatever into a heading style. Then, had you done that throughout the book, and you clicked "generate TOC from headings," you would have had an NCX made. Hitch

Hitch, thank you SO much. First, I experimented with the code part and just stuck h1 and /h1 tags in the code, and--here's the really (I mean really) scary part. After having successfully generated, for the first time, a TOC, Calibre failed to save it, and the EPUB file not only made Calibre crash but I got an error message about some "Python." Still not the worst.The entire EPUB vanished from my hard drive. I swear by Jove, this is true. If I had not fortuitously copied the un-TOC-ed .EPUB to my Nook, I'd have defenestrated myself. I haven't had something this weird happen since Windows 95.

To get to the point of my citation-- Yes, I believed that doing exactly what you say would/should have generated a TOC. It did not. I found but failed to bookmark a site by someone who seemed to have more HTML knowledge than I (not a glowing recommendation, of course) that stated outright that Sigil will not generate TOC's for WYSIWIG users.

So I've been copying and pasting header format (again, you're right about font style and format), adding <h1> and </h1> to the ends of that line, and...hopefully, when I do this all again, my laptop will not levitate or develop a force field or vanish under a cloaking device.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Tulpana

So I've been copying and pasting header format (again, you're right about font style and format), adding <h1> and </h1> to the ends of that line, and...hopefully, when I do this all again, my laptop will not levitate or develop a force field or vanish under a cloaking device.

While copying and Pasting (or typing in CV will defiantly work

In BV, just click the cursor on the line (you dont need to highlight the text. Now set the dropdown I circled in a earlier post, to the H Level you want.
That is it . The header retains the current style of the text which may or may not be what you want. A S&R in CV can easily correct that as those areas are no longer paragraphs with a paragraph style, but Headers with a paragraph style.

[JJ Joseph]

Originally Posted by Tulpana

As I stated, I do not know HTML--

On the other hand, I've been doing html for at least 15 years, it's STILL not a piece of cake even for the experienced. The tricky part for me is understanding how the ebook readers and viewers are processing all the different components of an ebook's source files (including the TOC). I don't have a Kindle or an iPad so I have to find someone with a Kindle willing to purchase my book and then I can see what the result is. That's how I found there's no TOC. So now it's time to do some homework. Thanks to everyone who replied. There's enough here to keep me busy for a week or two!

[Tulpana]

Originally Posted by JJ Joseph

So now it's time to do some homework. Thanks to everyone who replied. There's enough here to keep me busy for a week or two!

Interestingly, JJ, when Sigil ran the Epub Checker (or whatever, that little broom-thing), it totally changed the HTML I was writing/pasting/copying by the seat of my pants.

I, like you, thought that no TOC ultimately appeared in my EPUB, even though Sigil showed a TOC. Well, when I opened the EPUB on my Nook, I learned that the only way to access the TOC was by clicking on the (perhaps Nook-proprietary?) "Content" choice, from the navigation/e-reader menu. At that point, I was, schwing!!--it worked.

So Sigil clearly is more intuitive and WYSIWIG than I--a TOTAL HTML-novice--ever thought. I'd wager that if you know HTML, and Sigil shows a "No Problems!" thumbs-up, you're probably good to go.

But doesn't Calibre allow you to see what your book will look like?

[Tulpana]

Originally Posted by theducks

In BV, just click the cursor on the line (you dont need to highlight the text. Now cet the dropdown I circled in a earlier post, to the H Level you want.

Interestingly, I can't click on *anything* in Sigil CV. I have to hold down the Shift key and Drag to Select, and THEN cannot choose "Copy" from the "Edit" menu. I have to right-click and choose Copy. Everything I have selected turns green, and then I can Paste. The really weird thing is that triple-clicking on a line in CV highlights the line, but then, when you go up to "Edit" and "Copy," the highlighting disappears.

A S&R in CV can easly correct that as those areas are no longer paragraphs with a paragraph style, but Headers with a paragraph style.

I don't know what this means, theducks. What is S&R? Search and Replace? I'll have to continue to learn HTML, of course, and had one heck of a boost of confidence from you and some other posters here. What I would like to know is what command or symbol or...wot-evuh would enable me to have gotten rid of random Calibre-formatted Indent mistakes (my Word-generated XHTML document was after all generated by Calibre, and thus, I assume, first-and-foremost a Calibre, not a Word, formatted document). Before I began working in CV, and was working in BV, for aesthetic reasons, I Entered/Added an empty line above each chapter heading (in fiction, or at least in my mystery, simple successive numerals are the headings). I did not realize that neither Calibre nor Sigil "like" empty spaces.(Maybe the fact that I tried to select an empty line for my headings for the TOC was why I was never able to generate a TOC?)

But I'd like to know what command or symbol or whatever would have allowed me to remove Word's "First Line of the Paragraph" Indent--which was not generated by Word but randomly by Calibre. My headings in Word are always centered after chapter breaks. In the Calibre-generated EPUB, when I deleted the empty line at the start of each new chapter, believing that this empty space might have been the source of the "NO TOC FOR YOU! problem, some of the chapter heading/numerals just jumped up a line to the Center of the first line, but some jumped up to the Center of the First Line of Paragraph Indent (again, when NO SUCH indent had ever appeared in the Word document). I tried to understand the code that starts each chapter, but it is so arcane, that in my haste, I gave up.

If this is too minute or off-topic a question, please ignore. I'm just soaring tonight, having finally accomplished what I begged friends to do for me, only be told that I should "learn HTML.: So !!!

(Where would I post a question about how non-Apple-owners can upload their EPUBS to ITunes--if that is possible at all?)

[Hitch]

(Where would I post a question about how non-Apple-owners can upload their EPUBS to ITunes--if that is possible at all?)

You can't. You'll need an Aggregator/Distributor. Without a Mac running a certain OS, being an approved iTunes Publisher (for which you need a Mac, and meet various other requirements), you cannot do it yourself.

See the article in my KB: http://booknookbiz.desk.com/customer...pple-s-ibooks- , I think all the links are still good.

Hope that helps.

Hitch

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Tulpana

Hitch, thank you SO much. First, I experimented with the code part and just stuck h1 and /h1 tags in the code, and--here's the really (I mean really) scary part. After having successfully generated, for the first time, a TOC, Calibre failed to save it, and the EPUB file not only made Calibre crash but I got an error message about some "Python." Still not the worst.The entire EPUB vanished from my hard drive. I swear by Jove, this is true. If I had not fortuitously copied the un-TOC-ed .EPUB to my Nook, I'd have defenestrated myself. I haven't had something this weird happen since Windows 95.

To get to the point of my citation-- Yes, I believed that doing exactly what you say would/should have generated a TOC. It did not. I found but failed to bookmark a site by someone who seemed to have more HTML knowledge than I (not a glowing recommendation, of course) that stated outright that Sigil will not generate TOC's for WYSIWIG users.

So I've been copying and pasting header format (again, you're right about font style and format), adding <h1> and </h1> to the ends of that line, and...hopefully, when I do this all again, my laptop will not levitate or develop a force field or vanish under a cloaking device.

I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say, "Calibre failed to save it;" are you "tweaking" an ePUB in Calibre with Sigil? Instead of working in Sigil directly?

Don't confuse a toc.ncx--which is what is used to navigate in Nook--with an html toc (aka, "an inline toc"), which is required for Apple and for Amazon, as well as a handful of other retailers. You'll have to make a toc by HAND, the old-fashioned way (you type text, you make it into a link, pointing to where you want to go), and from there, you set your GUIDE items so that Amazon and Apple can "use" your hand-crafted TOC[*]. Your alternative is to use Calibre to take a final ePUB and either a) convert ePUB->ePUB to get it to make an inline TOC for you, or, b) convert ePUB-->MOBI so that you get a book that will work on Amazon. Yes, this means that the MOBI and the Apple ePUB have "two" tables of content--an ncx, the "invisible" toc--not "typed" on a page, for lack of a better explanation, and the "typed" TOC, which is typed like any other chapter or section or acknowledgements, etc., and then linked, in the code, to the relevant chapter heading or file (save yourself some brain-damage--in the html toc, just link to the relevant html file).
[*]This requires some, not a lot, of html.

n.b.--having said that, I have to remind everyone here that Amazon is still rejecting Calibre-made mobi's, but I don't know if you're creating a book for yourself or for sale. If you're just making a book for yourself, this doesn't matter.

I would strenuously recommend that you take some of the locally-available tutorials on making ePUBs, and try Liz Castro's most excellent book for ePUB Beginners, "ePUB: Straight to the Point," which you can find at Apple, Nook and Amazon, or on her website, (Pigs Gourds and Wikis) in PDF, I believe, if you want it that way. Worth every penny--I buy and provide a copy to every new employee we get here, even those that think that they already know how to make ePUBs. You can ignore practically the entire first half (sorry, Liz!), if you don't use InDesign, but her second half is worth it.

Hope that helps.

Hitch

[Toxaris]

I agree with Hitch, that book is good. In some small things she is wrong, but about 99% of her stuff is very good.

I can also recommend the (x)HTML/CSS tutorial from one of our forum members Pablo. That will help you to get the basics in a simple and straightforward way.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

I agree with Hitch, that book is good. In some small things she is wrong, but about 99% of her stuff is very good.

I can also recommend the (x)HTML/CSS tutorial from one of our forum members Pablo. That will help you to get the basics in a simple and straightforward way.

Tox:

A lot of those little bits weren't wrong when she published it. Oddly enough, for those of us who've been around, the ePUB world has changed a LOT since she published it. (Remember how, when it came out, you couldn't use fonts in iBooks? Yeeesh!) ;-) It's a very good primer, I think, for someone who needs guidance on the basics. I suppose it's the best I've found, or I wouldn't be giving it to our new people. We have our own internal clips, stylesheets, etc., but those tend to assume that someone knows the basics of ebooks and the making thereof, so I for one am glad to have Liz's very hand materials around. And it's priced very affordably, thank goodness.

Hitch

[Toxaris]

Well, one thing she had wrong was her remark that there were no readers/programs that could use the @page and that you should delete it. Almost all ADE-based readers were able to handle it, except iBooks. Then again, at that moment iBooks has also a lot of other issues...
It is a good reference, as it also helps (a little at least) in cleaning up Word documents and her blog can always count on my regular visits. She has a lot of good tips. The book were some very well spent dollars from my side and I do recommend it.

[Tulpana]

Originally Posted by Hitch

You can't. You'll need an Aggregator/Distributor. Without a Mac running a certain OS, being an approved iTunes Publisher (for which you need a Mac, and meet various other requirements), you cannot do it yourself.

See the article in my KB: http://booknookbiz.desk.com/customer...pple-s-ibooks- , I think all the links are still good.

Hitch

Thanks again.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Well, one thing she had wrong was her remark that there were no readers/programs that could use the @page and that you should delete it. Almost all ADE-based readers were able to handle it, except iBooks. Then again, at that moment iBooks has also a lot of other issues...
It is a good reference, as it also helps (a little at least) in cleaning up Word documents and her blog can always count on my regular visits. She has a lot of good tips. The book were some very well spent dollars from my side and I do recommend it.

Oh, absolutely! There's no doubt, Liz is a total Apple person, and for her, really, there aren't any other "readers" besides the iPad. I mean, everything she tested in EPUB: STTP was on iPads and iPhones. Fortunately, that actually helped ME when I had to fight with books to work on the iBooks app; compared to the average ePUB-reader, it certainly has its glitchy bits (although Nook's hyphenation issues are enough to give one an ulcer.)

;-)

Hitch