Syncing to last page read...bug, formatting problem, or design oversight?

[djgreedo]

I've noticed that when I read a book with endnotes/footnotes, the Kindle feature that syncs between devices (in my case I occasionally read a few pages on my phone's Kindle app) considers the endnote/footnote section as the furthest page read (because it's at the end of the book or chapter) rather than my place in the body of the text. This completely breaks the feature.

Is this how it's designed to work? Or is it a matter of incorrect formatting in the books I've tried?

With this feature there should be a way for a book to section off parts that are not considered normal reading pages, such as an index and notes.

I've noticed it on a few books, but I'm not sure if it does this for all books as most of my books don't have footnotes and/or I get books from places other than the Kindle store (which don't sync at all. obviously).

[Jonimeesermann]

When you were synced to the footnotes, can't you just click the link in the footnotes it self to get back to the main text?

[djgreedo]

Originally Posted by Jonimeesermann

When you were synced to the footnotes, can't you just click the link in the footnotes it self to get back to the main text?

No, because I would have already gone back, read some more, then put the book down.

For example:
footnote reference (e.g. page 10)
stopped reading (e.g. page 20)
footnote text (page 300, linking back to page 10)

Kindle remembers page 300 as the furthest page read, and if I was to click back on the footnote I would be taken to where the original footnote reference was (page 10) instead of where I stopped reading (page 20).

It's not so bad if the notes are at the end of chapters because I usually read in full chapters, but when they are at the back of the book it's a pain, and makes me avoid using my phone to sneak an extra few pages sometimes.

I agree that sounds like a flaw in the system. MOBI is not a robust format, and I don't know if there is a tag to identify text as a footnote or endnote. If there is then the firmware should ignore footnotes/endnotes as far as furthest page read. In a reference book, the furthest page read is almost always going to be in the footnotes/endnotes section, and you don't need to go there in most cases.

Of course even if MOBI has a tag to identify text as a footnote or endnote, there is no guarantee that publishers will use it or even understand why they should use it. Most ebooks seem to have rather sloppy formatting.

[djgreedo]

Originally Posted by jswinden

. Most ebooks seem to have rather sloppy formatting.

Yes. The publishers seem to use ebook formatting as part justification for charging similar prices to paper books, yet most of the ebooks I've read are full of formatting mistakes and typos.