Two issues with EPUB->AZW3 conversion: Cover in TOC and Start/Begin

Zillion_ · 07-30-2023, 12:41 PM

Hello,

When converting EPUB into AZW3, almost everything is fine with all my e-books except for the following two issues that I have in all of them. Again, this is not an issue in one book or from one particular source. I have this in all e-books after I "rework" them.

1) I always add a TOC entry for the Cover page in the manual TOC editor. This always works in the EPUB, but never in the AZW3. The "Cover" entry is present in the toc.ncx on the epub:

Code:

  <navMap>
  <navMap>
    <navPoint id="num_1" playOrder="1">
      <navLabel>
        <text>Cover Page</text>
      </navLabel>
      <content src="OEBPS/Cover.xhtml"/>
    </navPoint>
    <navPoint id="num_2" playOrder="2">
      <navLabel>
        <text>Title Page</text>
      </navLabel>
      <content src="OEBPS/Title.htm"/>
    </navPoint>

... and in the inline toc:

Code:

<body id="calibre_generated_inline_toc">

  <h2>Table of Contents</h2>

  <ul class="level1">

    <li><a href="OEBPS/Cover.xhtml">Cover Page</a></li>

    <li><a href="OEBPS/Title.htm">Title Page</a></li>

...but it gets removed from the file after conversion to AZW3:

Code:

  <navMap>
    <navPoint id="num_1" playOrder="1">
      <navLabel>
        <text>Title Page</text>
      </navLabel>
      <content src="text/part0000.html#1-8f0a289ed0f0496fa70a80a6b840eb46"/>
    </navPoint>
    <navPoint id="num_2" playOrder="2">

... and leaves a broken link to OEBPS/Cover.xhtml in the inline toc:

Code:

  <ul class="level">

    <li class="calibre4"><a href="OEBPS/Cover.xhtml" class="pcalibre calibre5">Cover Page</a></li>

    <li class="calibre4"><a href="part0000.html#1-8f0a289ed0f0496fa70a80a6b840eb46" class="pcalibre calibre5">Title Page</a></li>

... I've tried all sorts of options regarding auto-generated toc or not, detect chapters or not, keep duplicates or not, .... but nothing changes this behavior.

End result:
- in the Contents "menu" on Kindle, the Cover appears and works
- in the inline Toc on Kindle, the Cover entry is visible but doesn't work (same in Calibre e-viewer with the AZW3 format, while the EPUB works fine).

2) Additionally, I'm trying to set the "Start Reading" or "Begin" location to the Cover page. Yes, I find cover pages important and nice to see and I'd like each new book to open with that first.
I've tried to set the "Start Reading" option in Conversion settings to

Code:

"//h:meta[re:test(@name, "calibre:cover", "i")]"

but that doesn't seem to work:

Code:

Failed to find start reading at position: //h:meta[re:test(@name, "calibre:cover", "i")]

... and this while the meta-data in question is present in the html code in the EPUB file:

Code:

<head>
  <meta name="calibre:cover" content="true"/>
  <title>Cover</title>

... but then again this code is lost after conversion to AZW3, as the cover html gets completely removed from the AZW3...

If you would have any suggestions as to resolving these issues, that would be very nice indeed

- thanks.

jhowell · 07-30-2023, 03:24 PM

In KF8 (azw3) format the cover is not a page in the book as it is in EPUB. It is instead a separate image file that is handled as a special case. Because of this you cannot create links to the cover in that format.

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07-30-2023, 03:24 PM	#2
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,070 Karma: 91577715 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Charlottesville, VA Device: Kindles	In KF8 (azw3) format the cover is not a page in the book as it is in EPUB. It is instead a separate image file that is handled as a special case. Because of this you cannot create links to the cover in that format.

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