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• • August 28, 2013 at 11:58 am #65075
    Mark Gilvey

    Member

    I tried getting an answer for this over at the Amazon site but that was about 200 questions ago and a day. The kindle version of my document is missing a TOC. It works in the epub version but not .mobi. Is there something I need to change in my Guide perhaps?

    <guide>
    <reference type=”cover” title=”Cover” href=”CoverImage.xhtml” />
    <reference type=”title-page” title=”Title Page” href=”ADPT-Kindle.xhtml” />
    <reference type=”toc” title=”Contents” href=”toc.ncx” />
    <reference type=”copyright-page” title=”Copyright” href=”ADPT-Kindle-2.xhtml” />
    <reference type=”dedication” title=”Dedication” href=”ADPT-Kindle-1.xhtml” />
    <reference type=”preface” title=”Preface” href=”ADPT-Kindle-3.xhtml” />
    <reference type=”text” title=”Content” href=”ADPT-Kindle-4.xhtml” />
    </guide>

  • August 28, 2013 at 4:28 pm #65079
    Sarah H

    Member

    Mark,

    What are you using to create the .mobi file? .mobi requires an actual html file for the TOC. If you use Calibre to convert the epub to mobi, it will automatically create the contents html file for you. I don’t think it has anything to do with the guide.

    Sarah

    • August 29, 2013 at 7:59 pm #65105
      Mark Gilvey

      Member

      Hi Sarah,

      I’m sure you are just busy but I thought I’d give you a friendly poke.

  • August 28, 2013 at 7:07 pm #65081
    Mark Gilvey

    Member

    Hi Sarah,

    The file starts in INDD, then I export to .ePub, validate, then I open the ePub and add the guide, zip and validate again. Then I open the new epub in Kindle Previewer and it converts the file to .mobi.

    I haven’t used Calibre because Anne Marie suggested not to (on Lynda.com), but I don’t recall why.

  • September 4, 2013 at 6:17 am #65167
    Stephen Buck

    Participant

    Hi Mark.

    This weekend I just published a 390-page Kindle book created with InDesign, and even after passing all of the pre-publishing tests, have experienced the same problem you report. So, I began to re-watch the same Anne Marie’s Lynda.com course you reference…

    Anne Marie did not mention why Calibre formatting was not accepted by most ebook retailers, but I can make a guess based on experience: “Alf” provides a free DRM Removal hack that can be plugged-in to Calibre. That hack allows any DRM protected book to be opened, and even saved-as something completely different, including RTF. If Calibre formatted books are not accepted by book retailers, then the ease of hacking protected content is probably why.

    • September 4, 2013 at 12:36 pm #65171
      Mark Gilvey

      Member

      Hi Buck,

      Ok, I figured out that DRM = Digital Rights Managed but at what point does it get embedded into a file? I know I never requested it in my files (knowingly). I don’t even know if any of them have it because I haven’t seen any DRM warnings.

      You are correct though, Amazon doesn’t like the converted files from Calibre. That said, that information as far as I have seen dates back to 2011 and I can’t find anything recent that says Calibre converted files will be rejected. The only info I found was that Amazon has their nose up in the air because Calibre is OpenSource.

      That said, I went ahead and made two versions of my epub, one the way I’ve described in previous messages (getting the same result) and another using the conversion process (which wasn’t much) in Calibre. My friend tells me the Calibre conversion sort of works but still doesn’t work.

      Lucky for me I guess, he doesn’t really care about this version because the ePub version will also work but I need to get this right for next time. So yes, please keep me posted on your progress.

  • September 4, 2013 at 12:17 pm #65170
    Stephen Buck

    Participant

    https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A17W8UM0MMSQX6
    https://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/using/WSF9CAF072-F981-40f8-BF55-D23CA37044D2.html

    I’ve been looking into this a bit more and wonder if it is now as simple as creating a special bookmark labeled TOC.

    I will not be uploading the revised copy of my book until Sunday evening or so. Once I do and it is available, then I will update the results here.

  • September 6, 2013 at 10:44 am #65186
    Sarah H

    Member

    Sorry, I’m just getting back to this. I’ll have to do some reading myself. I was unaware there was any issue with Calibre. That is how I have always converted epub to mobi and have never had any problems. Just to reiterate, mobi needs an actual html file for the TOC, where epub does not.

    Also, DRM is applied by the vendor that sells the book, be that Amazon or whomever.

  • September 6, 2013 at 1:47 pm #65190
    Mark Gilvey

    Member

    Hi Sarah,

    thanks for checking in, I’m still here and though I finished this project, I’m going to have another wone soon so any input you can give will be helpful. You mentioned that you give Calibre an HTML file, I gave it an ePub file. I’d be interested to know what your workflow is. I’m still new at this.

    Have a beautiful September weekend.

  • September 7, 2013 at 10:10 pm #65203
    Stephen Buck

    Participant

    My idea has not worked. Adding bookmarks with the keywords “cover”, “toc”, and “start” adds additional bookmarks in the exported PDF, but not within the .mobi file.

  • September 8, 2013 at 1:19 am #65204
    Stephen Buck

    Participant

    Re: https://epubsecrets.com/where-do-you-start-an-epub-and-what-is-the-guide-section-of-the-opf-file.php

    So here is my attempted solution:
    Using InDesign, export to Epub 2.whatever.
    Validate.
    Open in Sigil.
    Right-click on three pages: Table of Contents, Cover, and the page I want the book to open to. ADD SEMANTICS of Cover, Table of Contents, and Text to each respective page.
    Save.
    Run through Kindle Previewer.

    The file looks okay because it opens to the selected Text page, and when previewed on KDP after uploading, the tiny drop down menu indicates that it has a Cover, Beginning, and Table of Contents.

    I’ve submitted my corrections. It’s going to take 12 hours to begin propagating through Amazon servers, and then in 48 hours I need to ask Amazon to notify all of the buyers that a corrected copy has been uploaded to the server.

    Hopefully by Wednesday I will know for certain whether or not it has worked.

  • September 8, 2013 at 6:44 am #65205
    Mark Gilvey

    Member

    So if I understand correctly, you did NOT make a Guide in the OPF file but did all that other stuff instead?

  • September 8, 2013 at 6:49 am #65206
    Mark Gilvey

    Member

    I’m reading that article as well. So if I understand correctly you DID NOT make a guide but did do all that other stuff?

  • September 8, 2013 at 7:07 am #65207
    Mark Gilvey

    Member

    Reading that article, I see it does need a Guide and it appears that only the Cover, TOC and the page you want the reader to start on are the only pages ever linked so all that other stuff I have in my Guide noted above is not necessary.

    Would be nice if this “Guide” could be auto generated when exporting from INDD.

  • September 8, 2013 at 7:12 am #65208
    Stephen Buck

    Participant

    Agreed.

    But, yes, my INDD Book exports to PDF just fine with the Navigational TOC working like it should, and even in ePub format. I thought I would be able to make the modifications to the files easily enough through Dreamweaver, but I wasn’t doing it right. So, I downloaded Sigil, opened the ePub in it, right-clicked on three files to add the necessary data, and left it at that.

    Oh, and I did some experiments by adding additional items to the Guide through Sigil (so I know the coding was correct). When I uploaded the file to the Kindle server to preview it, those additional items did not appear in the drop down. It was only the three, cover, toc, and “text” (not “start”).

  • September 8, 2013 at 7:31 am #65209
    Mark Gilvey

    Member

    This is great feedback Buck, I’ll give it a try.

  • September 25, 2013 at 7:09 pm #65525
    Stephen Buck

    Participant

    Hi Mark.

    I can provide a partial follow-up to the conversation.

    I exported my Kindle book to ePub, opened it in Sigil, and right-clicked to identify the TOC, Text (location where to begin), and Cover. The navigational TOC appeared just fine in Sigil.

    I ran the .epub through the Kindle Previewer, which converted it to .mobi. uploaded it to Amazon, and about 7-10 days later the latest copy automatically refreshed itself onto my reading device.

    No navigational toc was available. I have checked this on my phone, iPad3, Kindle’s browser reader, and Kindle’s desktop app (I’m running Windows 8 Pro 64x). No navigational toc at all.

    The small drop-down toc works just fine, but it only links to the cover, the plain old html page toc, the beginning (Sigil calls that the Text), and then the Book Extras (which is an automatic addition by Amazon).

    A true navigational toc would be a very nice feature to have enabled in the book, but at this moment, I still do not know how to create it.

    Buck

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