'Create a catalog..' suggestions

tomsem · 07-01-2023, 02:37 PM

One of the issues I am running into when generating a catalog ePub is that the ToC can be impractically large if you select Genres or Descriptions.

I have 1800+ Tags (thus Genres) and over 4300+ books (with as many Description entries). So the resulting Table of Contents (toc.ncx) has that many more entries when these options are selected.

Genres could be addressed using same 'first character only' rule that is used for Author, Title, and Series, to reduce the number of TOC entries. That would require adding landing pages so you could navigate to the now-grouped-by-letter genres. As things stand, I need to leave this option off, because it adds too many entries.

I would find a catalog without book description pages worthless, but would like an option to suppress creating TOC entrys for them. As things are now, I have been editing the TOC to remove these.

Note that Send to Kindle starts to have issues converting ePubs with large TOC/NAV (last time I checked, anything with more than around 1500 entries). But even if it didn't, I would argue that any ToC with thousands of entries in it is unworkable in most reading systems.

One other suggestion: move the Create a catalog option to the calibre menu from Convert books menu. It does not seem to have anything to do with Convert books, whereas it would more intuitively be expected in same menu with Export options.

BetterRed · 07-01-2023, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

. . .
One other suggestion: move the Create a catalog option to the calibre menu from Convert books menu. It does not seem to have anything to do with Convert books, whereas it would more intuitively be expected in same menu with Export options.

The Create Catalogue tool is already available as separate item that can be added to a toolbar or menu, see Preferences->Toolbars and menus. I've been using calibre for well over a decade and it's always been there.

No idea why the 'back door' Conversion obscurity exists, or why some prefer to promote it.

As for the rest, I create CSV catalogues which I convert to HTML with CSVFileView.

BR

07-01-2023, 02:37 PM	#1
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,805 Karma: 26985557 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	'Create a catalog..' suggestions One of the issues I am running into when generating a catalog ePub is that the ToC can be impractically large if you select Genres or Descriptions. I have 1800+ Tags (thus Genres) and over 4300+ books (with as many Description entries). So the resulting Table of Contents (toc.ncx) has that many more entries when these options are selected. Genres could be addressed using same 'first character only' rule that is used for Author, Title, and Series, to reduce the number of TOC entries. That would require adding landing pages so you could navigate to the now-grouped-by-letter genres. As things stand, I need to leave this option off, because it adds too many entries. I would find a catalog without book description pages worthless, but would like an option to suppress creating TOC entrys for them. As things are now, I have been editing the TOC to remove these. Note that Send to Kindle starts to have issues converting ePubs with large TOC/NAV (last time I checked, anything with more than around 1500 entries). But even if it didn't, I would argue that any ToC with thousands of entries in it is unworkable in most reading systems. One other suggestion: move the Create a catalog option to the calibre menu from Convert books menu. It does not seem to have anything to do with Convert books, whereas it would more intuitively be expected in same menu with Export options. Last edited by tomsem; 07-01-2023 at 05:57 PM.

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