ERROR Issues at EPUB verification

[Toxaris]

If you are using Smashwords, you have to take it up with them. There is not much you can do. This is caused by their conversion, not yours.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by sallyember

Can someone please write about how to fix these in MS Word format, not epub software, and NOT as if I can actually see this code (which I cannot) in my document?

Thanks.

There is your problem. You are using .doc directly, and heaven knows what Smashwords is doing to it.

You say you don't own and don't want InDesign or calibre, but you don't need to "own" calibre, or Sigil for that matter.
And you might want to re-evaluate your "don't want" stance, since in order to actually control your EPUB upload you will have to create it yourself.


There is NO solution for for not knowing how to make an EPUB correctly, other than learning how to make it correctly or paying someone else to do it for you.

Pablo's quick and dirty EPub Tutorial might help you lean the basics.
Sigil and calibre both include error checkers which are far more helpful and descriptive than EpubCheck. (calibre's focuses on real-world problems, Sigil's is more like EpubCheck with comprehensible error messages.)

[phillipgessert]

Doesn't Smashwords have some absurdly long formatting guide available? I'd imagine building your Word file perfectly to the spec described in that document would get you there.

Edit: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52 <-- This is probably it.

[Doitsu]

@sallyember: This might be yet another Smashwords Meatgrinder bug, or you didn't follow the Smashwords style guide to the letter and applied direct formatting to text (i.e., without applying a style). In order to fix these error messages you'll need to find out where they occur and what caused them.

Try the following:

1. Download the converted ePub from Smashwords.
2. Download and install Calibre (freeware).
3. Open Calibre and drag & drop your book to the main Calibre window.
4. Right-click the book and select Edit book from the menu.
5. Click Run check.
6. Click on an error message to display the code that causes the problem and post it here.

[PeterT]

I think it's also possible that the use of OO as opposed to MS Word could also add complications.

[sallyember]

Thanks, Everyone. My other books uploaded to Smashwords just fine with the same formatting and use of Open Office for MS Word.

I followed the SW style guide to the letter, PhillipGessert, except for that "apply formatting directly to the text instead of using Styles." I think I don't use Styles at all. But, if that is a problem, why isn't a problem with ALL 3 of my books?

It's not.

It's not so much that I "don't want" to download more freeware, eschwartz. The last time I did (MalWare Bytes), it crashed my computer and ruined my work time for WEEKS. So, I am justifiably wary. I haven't even downloaded the latest upgrade to Open Office for fear of getting the BSOD over and over (which is what happened with the last shareware/freeware download I did).


Before I do this (and thanks for the explanation and detailed steps, Doitsu!): I use Windows OS 8.1 on a desktop Dell with Chrome browser: any known bugs or problems with Calibre? I can't afford to pay anyone to do anything right now, Toxaris.

I have one online friend who helped me last time I had epub problems with this doc (which he fixed but didn't explain to me) and he says he can help this time, but not until tomorrow, which is all right, but I'm trying not to lean on him too much. Plus, he's in Italy and I'm in the USA. Time difference issues, also.

Thanks, All.

Sally

[sallyember]

Can't any of you explain to me in plain language what these two errors mean and how to fix them in MS Word itself? I am computer savvy, but not code savvy.

1 = Error while parsing file 'element "span" not allowed here; expected element "address", "blockquote", "del", "div", "dl", "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6", "hr", "ins", "noscript", "ns:svg", "ol", "p", "pre", "script", "table" or "ul" (with xmlns:ns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg")'.

Appears twice in tmp_6ecc9056e25d1ed623c17fc818afa7b4_pocC0b.ch.fix ed.fc.tidied.stylehacked.xfixed_split_004.html.

2 = 27 times in toc.ncx
Error while parsing file 'value of attribute "id" is invalid; must be an XML name without colons'.

Thanks.

Sally

[phillipgessert]

Originally Posted by sallyember

Can't any of you explain to me in plain language what these two errors mean and how to fix them in MS Word itself? I am computer savvy, but not code savvy.

1 = Error while parsing file 'element "span" not allowed here; expected element "address", "blockquote", "del", "div", "dl", "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6", "hr", "ins", "noscript", "ns:svg", "ol", "p", "pre", "script", "table" or "ul" (with xmlns:ns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg")'.

Appears twice in tmp_6ecc9056e25d1ed623c17fc818afa7b4_pocC0b.ch.fix ed.fc.tidied.stylehacked.xfixed_split_004.html.

2 = 27 times in toc.ncx
Error while parsing file 'value of attribute "id" is invalid; must be an XML name without colons'.

Thanks.

Sally

I think that trying to fix ePub errors in a pre-automated-conversion Word DOC is kinda like trying to turn a hamburger back into a cow, unfortunately. The first one sounds like an issue with local formatting within the Word DOC, i.e. a result of not using named styles. Perhaps.

[eschwartz]

Error #2 means somewhere, an ID is being created which begins with something other than a letter of the alphabet.
I would expect the conversion engine to not create those in the first place, but hey, complain to Smashwords. It is their converter.
The fix is to open the HTML and change the ids. As I have no idea how they were generated to begin with (I have no idea how Smashwords' MeatGrinder works ) I have no idea if it is even possible in .doc but it is easy in EPUB.

Error #1 seems to imply that a <span> was simply dumped into the <body> element. It should probably be a div, or at least be wrapped in one.
And once again, without knowing why the MeatGrinder created it that way it is impossible to know how to fix it in the .doc but it is trivial to do so in the EPUB.
Using Styles *might* help, using Styles helps with many things.
Not using Styles is shooting yourself in the foot.



And without an actual EPUB to look at there is no way to be certain of anything we say.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by sallyember

Before I do this (and thanks for the explanation and detailed steps, Doitsu!): I use Windows OS 8.1 on a desktop Dell with Chrome browser: any known bugs or problems with Calibre?

If your computer supports Windows 8, it also supports Calibre and if you download the program from the official website, you won't get malware.

Originally Posted by sallyember

Can't any of you explain to me in plain language what these two errors mean and how to fix them in MS Word itself? I am computer savvy, but not code savvy.

It's next to impossible to guess which part of the Meatgrinder conversion caused the two errors, but they'd relatively easy to fix in an ePub file.

@eschwartz: The second error is typically caused by numerical ids in the .ncx file. For example:

    <navPoint id="12345">
      <navLabel>
        <text>Chapter 3</text>
      </navLabel>
      <content src="Text/book.xhtml#sigil_toc_id_3"/>
    </navPoint>

Since another Smashwords author reported the exact same issue, I'm guessing that there's a bug in Meatgrinder.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

@eschwartz: The second error is typically caused by numerical ids in the .ncx file.

Typically numeric, but in theory it could be any sort of symbol or foreign-language unicode.
Is it more typical in the NCX than in other parts of the EPUB?

Since another Smashwords author reported the exact same issue, I'm guessing that there's a bug in Meatgrinder.

Well, yeah -- Meatgrinder would always be my first guess.
It's an automatic conversion, and we don't know how it works. For that matter, any automatic conversion is risky.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by sallyember

Can't any of you explain to me in plain language what these two errors mean and how to fix them in MS Word itself? I am computer savvy, but not code savvy.

1 = Error while parsing file 'element "span" not allowed here; expected element "address", "blockquote", "del", "div", "dl", "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6", "hr", "ins", "noscript", "ns:svg", "ol", "p", "pre", "script", "table" or "ul" (with xmlns:ns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg")'.

Appears twice in tmp_6ecc9056e25d1ed623c17fc818afa7b4_pocC0b.ch.fix ed.fc.tidied.stylehacked.xfixed_split_004.html.

2 = 27 times in toc.ncx
Error while parsing file 'value of attribute "id" is invalid; must be an XML name without colons'.

Thanks.

Sally

Sally:

FYI: I'm a professional converter of eBooks, making ebooks from crap of all kinds--Word, OO, LO, PDF, you name it. I have NO idea how to fix what you are looking at, in SW, in your source file. There's simply no way to know.

Here are some ideas--but they're not very good ones: did you underline anything in the manuscript? That MIGHT be the first error. The second one? Did you perchance put bookmarks in the file? And if you did, were they numbered, instead of alpha? For example, "3" as a bookmark for Chapter 3?

Note: I do NOT think that what I've suggested is what's wrong, actually. I'm utterly air-balling here. This is a weird error, as Smashwords uses the Calibre API to "meatgrind" books. You either need to go back through your Word file, and clean it up, in accordance with the dreaded SW Style Guide--EXACTLY--or you are going to need to open that sucker up in an ePUB editor like Sigil. or Calibre's ePUB editor. I'm sorry to tell you that, but the previous posters aren't jerking you around--as Phil said, it's like trying to turn hamburger back into the cow. There's just no way to diagnose what's happened here, not just from the error messages. Sorry.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by Hitch

You either need to go back through your Word file, and clean it up, in accordance with the dreaded SW Style Guide--EXACTLY--or you are going to need to open that sucker up in an ePUB editor like Sigil. or Calibre's ePUB editor.

Sally, I am NOT a professional formatter, but I've been publishing e-books since Amazon first introduced the Kindle, and actually for several years before that, through Fatbrain. I don't have the knowledge of most of the posters here, but I heartily endorse Hitch's second recommendation. I quit using Smashwords years ago, because I thought the files produced by the Meatgrinder looked awful, at least as seen on my computer using the various devices and apps available to me.

What I would do is run that *.doc file through Word2CleanHtml dot com online, open the resulting html file in Sigil, and tweak it there as needed. Takes some learning, but easiest in the long term. You can get the latest well-tested version at https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil/releases/tag/0.8.7

Also see the specific MobileRead Sigil forum, of course. (The wisdom there is that 0.8.6 is more stable than 0.8.7, but I have never had a problem with the last in that series. I'm staying away from the new 0.9.x versions for the time being.)

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

I'm staying away from the new 0.9.x versions for the time being.

Would it be possible for you to do that without making it sound like there's valid reasons (other than your own resistance to change) for doing so? It may be totally innocent on your part, but it smacks of trying to convince others they may want to do the same.

[Toxaris]

If you use Word 2007 or higher on Windows, you can try my add-in. It will create an ePUB directly from Word for you.