Inline TOC from toc.ncx

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I could have mis-remembered. Are you sure iBooks has multi-level external TOC support?

Dale

I'll dig up a book with a multi-level ToC and see if it works with iBooks.

[wannabee]

Multi-level tocs work fine in iBooks.
Except they are always open. ie. I have a chapter with 68 items and you have to scroll all 68 to get to the next chapter.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by wannabee

Multi-level tocs work fine in iBooks.
Except they are always open. ie. I have a chapter with 68 items and you have to scroll all 68 to get to the next chapter.

Thanks, having to scroll is certainly a pain, but I am glad you can see them at least. I am hopeful in getting an iPad soon so I can see these things myself.

Dale

[pholy]

I am hopeful in getting an iPad soon so I can see these things myself.

Right! Just for research purposes... Like my eSlick and Gen3 and Libré...

[JSWolf]

So what app(s) that display ePub on an iPad do not work with a multi-level ToC?

[mostlynovels]

The perl script shared by St_Albert on page 1 in post #3, filters an EPUB's .ncx file to generate html code for an internal TOC.

The script inspired me to find out if this could also be done using regex+replace. The answer seems to be yes, as described in EPUB forum thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=1446702

(If you have any comments/replies to this regex approach, please post them in the EPUB thread.)

[elmago79]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But the reason they may not know of the external ToC is because of the internal ToC. So if ePub did not have an internal ToC, then people would ask about it and find out about it (IMHO).

I'm of a mind to remove internal ToC if there are not too many links from the chapter header.

In my experience, a lot of editors simply can't find the external ToC and make all sorts of weird assumptions about ebooks because they believe there's no easy way to navigate them. (I draw the line when they ask me why there are no white pages between the Title Page and the First chapter, however.) People still expect books to look and behave certain way, I guess, even if they're ebooks, and taking away the inline ToC is very hard to process. As we ease into ebooks, a lot of things are bound to change, I guess.

But that's without taking into account the fact that the inline ToC can be very handy if you want to turn your ePub into a .mobi file.

Mostlynovels: My first idea was actually using regexp, but I found it a bit intimidating, and it sure looks like it. However, it's something I need to get a lot better quickly, and that thread looks like a great way to start.

[JSWolf]

If you forget the internal ToC, Calibre still generates a ToC from the NCX file that is used in the menu for the Mobipocket eBook. So really, an internal ToC in an ePub is redundant and silly.

[st_albert]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you forget the internal ToC, Calibre still generates a ToC from the NCX file that is used in the menu for the Mobipocket eBook. So really, an internal ToC in an ePub is redundant and silly.

Are you sure about that? I always thought Calibre generated the inline TOC from the headers, or whatever you specify in the "Table of Contents" tab. Not the toc.ncx file.

And another thing: Calibre puts the TOC at the end of the book, whereas most publishers that I'm aware of want it earlier -- usually just after the copyright page. This SHOULD be irrelevant, since you usually navigate to and from the TOC via menu options in the various mobipocket or kindle readers. But if there is offered a free sample of the first x% of the book, it would be more likely to include the up-front TOC, thus informing readers of the contents of the rest of the book. This would be desirable in some cases.

But, desirable or not, silly or not, if the boss wants it after the copyright page, that's where it is going to go.