Conflict between regular links and Kindle's new inline footnote feature

SigCalKin · 03-19-2014, 09:07 AM

The 5.44 software update for the Kindle PW (1st gen) has a nice new inline footnote feature: by tapping the footnote link it allows you to read the complete footnote text inline without changing the page or losing your place in the book.

In editing my books with Calibre Editor or Sigil, my preference is to use Sigil's or Editor's TOC tool to create an inline General TOC (higher headings tabs such as level 1 or 2) at the beginning of the book and then a Detailed TOC (all headings) at the end of the book.

At the headings of each of these two TOCS I place a link to each other: the GTOC heading links to the DTOC page and vice versa. I also put a link at each Part/Section/Chapter heading in the text directing it to its corresponding detailed contents on the DTOC at the end of the book.

Now, when one taps these regular links the new footnote feature appears, which defeats the purpose of these links. Is there anything one can do at the CSS level or somewhere else to modify this behavior, or maybe I'm too inexperienced to figure it out, or Amazon screwed up! The new footnote feature seems great but it should apply to footnotes only and not to regular links.

I hope I'm making sense. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

kovidgoyal · 03-19-2014, 11:01 AM

As far as I know, the footnote feature is a horrible hack. It uses some kind of heuristic to try to detect what is a footnote link and what the extent of the footnote text is. I have no idea how they ever imagined this feature would be a good idea. There may be something in the Kindle Publisher Guide that tells you how to mark a link so that their footnote recognizer skips it, you're probably best of asking in the MOBI forum about that.

SigCalKin · 03-20-2014, 08:03 AM

Thank you very much for your reply. I posted my query in the Mobi forum. More importanly, thank you for Calibre!!

03-19-2014, 09:07 AM	#1
SigCalKin Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: New York Device: kindle3, kindlePW1	Conflict between regular links and Kindle's new inline footnote feature The 5.44 software update for the Kindle PW (1st gen) has a nice new inline footnote feature: by tapping the footnote link it allows you to read the complete footnote text inline without changing the page or losing your place in the book. In editing my books with Calibre Editor or Sigil, my preference is to use Sigil's or Editor's TOC tool to create an inline General TOC (higher headings tabs such as level 1 or 2) at the beginning of the book and then a Detailed TOC (all headings) at the end of the book. At the headings of each of these two TOCS I place a link to each other: the GTOC heading links to the DTOC page and vice versa. I also put a link at each Part/Section/Chapter heading in the text directing it to its corresponding detailed contents on the DTOC at the end of the book. Now, when one taps these regular links the new footnote feature appears, which defeats the purpose of these links. Is there anything one can do at the CSS level or somewhere else to modify this behavior, or maybe I'm too inexperienced to figure it out, or Amazon screwed up! The new footnote feature seems great but it should apply to footnotes only and not to regular links. I hope I'm making sense. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

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03-19-2014, 11:01 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	As far as I know, the footnote feature is a horrible hack. It uses some kind of heuristic to try to detect what is a footnote link and what the extent of the footnote text is. I have no idea how they ever imagined this feature would be a good idea. There may be something in the Kindle Publisher Guide that tells you how to mark a link so that their footnote recognizer skips it, you're probably best of asking in the MOBI forum about that.

03-20-2014, 08:03 AM	#3
SigCalKin Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: New York Device: kindle3, kindlePW1	Thank you very much for your reply. I posted my query in the Mobi forum. More importanly, thank you for Calibre!!