Creator How to edit ToC

[JaneFancher]

I'm having issues with the mobi-created ToC. I don't like how it looks. (to put it mildly) I also can't figure out how to edit the appearance.

I can make a perfectly gorgeous ToC in WordPerfect, which translates (functionally) very nicely within Mobi...but it doesn't show up as an option on the dropdown "contents" menu.

My question is threefold:
1) Is there a way to make Mobi "connect" to a link within the main html file? (i.e. the internal ToC) (perhaps under the guide "script" and if so, is there a guide to writing such script somewhere?) or (alternatively)

2) is there a way to edit the mobi-created ToC into something other than Uuuuuuugly? and

3) do either or both of these options translate to other formats once I go through the Calibre conversions?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give a poor confused writer....

[Madam Broshkina]

Have you tried MobiPocket Creator? Harry T put together a nice tutorial.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17914

This is what I used when I was in the book making business and it appeared to work well.

[Peake]

I always use the guide option in Creator to point to my own TOCs in the source HTML. I enclose my table on contents in a div element, i.e:

<div id="toc">
my table of contents here
</div>

In Mobipocket Creator I use the guide to point to my table of contents. Name: Table of Contents, Type: toc, Filename: htmlfilename.html#toc

This may be explained much better in HarryT's guide though, I need to check that out

Regards,
Peake

[JaneFancher]

Thanks, both of you! Hopefully these will solve my problem. (Going to check out the tutorial this afternoon.)

Peake, do you know...when you do the pointer, does that create a prc file that translates the ToC pointer to other formats? We're trying to sell a combined file with all the formats Calibre translates to, but don't really have anything other than Calibre's reader to check them with.

[Peake]

I haven't tried a conversion from mobi to another format in Calibre, so I don't know if the Table of Contents would carry over from the mobi format to another.

If I were to use Calibre to convert to multiple output formats, I would likely feed Calibre my source xhtml files, and just use Calibre to create the TOC from my markup.

Regards,
Peake

[Terisa de morgan]

I have TOC in all my Mobi books (and it's my main format). From this I convert to ePub and lit with Calibre, and it keeps the TOC (if it doesn't it, usually the option "--use-auto-toc" is OK). The only problem with ePub is that the book shows the contents as another "chapter" into the book. You can remove it manually, but if you want to make a batch convert, you must take this into account.

[JaneFancher]

Peake...gave your method a quick try this AM and worked like a charm in Mobi. Tried a direct conversion prc to epub and it worked quite well, tho I'm less than thrilled with the sidebar links in the epub reader that comes with Calibre. That c/b solved with just making the ToC itself a link within the ToC.

Main thing is...I think I've got a working solution!

Terisa...Thanks and I love your avatar!

[Terisa de morgan]

Glad to have helped and... well, who is the most beautiful woman in the kingdom?

[Peake]

Glad that worked for you

Regards,
Peake