Annotations for characters

[Karellen]

Some longer novels may have lots of characters in the storyline. Sometimes these characters are introduced in the first few chapters, but then disappear until the end of the novel for their comeback, or they may have only a small, but critical role.

Occasionally I forget who these characters are so I have to scroll back to remind myself.

Is there any way to annotate the name of the character throughout the book?
ie, Marcus is introduced in the first chapter. I make a note about his character- "Lawyer at Bendini and Lambert, defending the protagonist John". Then every single instance of the word "Marcus" in the novel is linked to that note and I can call up the annotation from anywhere in the book the word Marcus is mentioned.

This would need to be edited into the ebook. Is it possible?

[Turtle91]

You could manually create an index. Otherwise it would be a function of the reading app or device. The app I use can do this, it’s called Marvin, but is only available on iOS.

[Karellen]

Thanks @Turtle91.

Creating an index (which I have never done) is probably not too different from what I am already doing by creating a "Character Summary" chapter at the end of the book. But I still need to navigate away from the current page, whereas instead I was hoping to touch the entry on the ereader and see a balloon note.

Sounds like there is probably no way to achieve that.

Spoiler:

<p class="noindent"><b>Benjamin Keyes</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Trial advocate from Memphis representing Sam Cayhall for the third indictment</p>
<br/>

[Turtle91]

I you realllllly want to create an inordinate amount of work for yourself...

You could manually create a balloon footnote for each name that pops up if you touch on it. You'd have to do that each and every time the name is mentioned. I'm pretty sure that only works in ePub3 and the devices that support it.

Good news is... you'd probably have all the characters memorized before you got around to reading the book!!

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I you realllllly want to create an inordinate amount of work for yourself...

You could manually create a balloon footnote for each name that pops up if you touch on it. You'd have to do that each and every time the name is mentioned. I'm pretty sure that only works in ePub3 and the devices that support it.

Yea, I don't mind the extra bit of work. It does help at times, first by memorising the characters, then as a quick reference.

I wanted to avoid creating a note for each and every instance which is a 1:1 link. Rather I was hoping for 1:N - one note linked to many locations. But I now realise that is not possible.

Thanks

[Turtle91]

Yes, the N:1 links work just fine, the 1:N doesn't work at all. What can work, but is strictly a device function, is the "back" button.
You certainly aren't the first person looking for that kind of functionality - there are a few threads here on MR on the subject. It would be nice if html/css could keep track of the "linked-from" information but I don't see that happening any time soon.

[j.p.s]

You could make your "Character Summary" a glossary at the front of the book. Then when you do an in book search on a word, the glossary entry is the first hit. Your reading software needs to have "back" functionality. As a 12 year kindle user who did not do in book searching in my pre-kindle days, I was shocked that many platforms do not have true "back" functionality.

And just FYI, the kindle X-ray functionality has what you are looking for and more (when they bother to do more than a half-ass job populating the X-ray database for the book).

[j.p.s]

For platforms that don't properly support "back" functionality but do allow use of open format dictionaries, you could build your "Character Summary" as a dictionary.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

you could build your "Character Summary" as a dictionary.

That is interesting. I haven't looked at how dictionaries work in ereaders.
Can you have a dictionary per novel?
How do you link a dictionary to a specific novel. I imagine I would have dozens of dictionaries each matched to a specific novel.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Some longer novels may have lots of characters in the storyline. Sometimes these characters are introduced in the first few chapters, but then disappear until the end of the novel for their comeback, or they may have only a small, but critical role.

Occasionally I forget who these characters are so I have to scroll back to remind myself.

Is there any way to annotate the name of the character throughout the book?
ie, Marcus is introduced in the first chapter. I make a note about his character- "Lawyer at Bendini and Lambert, defending the protagonist John". Then every single instance of the word "Marcus" in the novel is linked to that note and I can call up the annotation from anywhere in the book the word Marcus is mentioned.

This would need to be edited into the ebook. Is it possible?

There is something you can do with your Kobo that would work for what you want. I know it works for ePub. But I cannot say about KePub.

Highlight the character name and also put in your note(s) about that character. Then whenever you want to look up your notes on the character, go to the list of the highlights and when you see the highlight for said character, you'll also see your note(s).

[j.p.s]

I suspect each platform does its own thing with respect to dictionaries. I haven't heard of any that link dictionaries on a per book basis, but that does not mean that none does. I suspect most rely on book language metadata. I do know that kindle lets you switch among dictionaries in a menu.

There is a sticky dictionary thread in the kindle forum that is kindle centric but not exclusively kindle in content.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=131137

I got interested in this topic when I was reading an over 100 year old book with much of the spelling quite different from today. I got very frustrated when I could not look up the many words I wasn't familiar with and decided to make my own dictionary. In the early days of struggling with this, I came up with the glossary in front idea, which worked well and was easy. I never finished the glossary, but if I ever go back, that is what I would do. Unless, of course, someone ever presents a way to construct a dictionary that would be easy for me to follow. What I find easy or difficult might not match the experience of others.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I suspect each platform does its own thing with respect to dictionaries. I haven't heard of any that link dictionaries on a per book basis, but that does not mean that none does. I suspect most rely on book language metadata. I do know that kindle lets you switch among dictionaries in a menu.

Kindle users could use the WordDumb Calibre plugin to generate XRay files.
It shouldn't be too complicated to modify the plugin to generate endnotes with character definitions and link the definition to the first occurrence of a character.
It also wouldn't be too difficult to generate a StarDict dictionary with the same information for EPUB apps.

[Quoth]

I installed a good OED from 1930s on my Mars which needed KOReader for epubs. Links are on this site.
Never felt need for KOReader on Kindle or Kobo (and Sony is OK too), but the Mars stock reader is only good for PDFs.
I did install KOReader on the Elipsa, but purely to easily crop & adjust contrast/brightness on scanned PDFs, which the Mars stock reader does even better. I don't really use it for epubs at all.

[Karellen]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody.

The last couple of days I have been fiddling with the suggestions and came up with the following

Originally Posted by Turtle91

You could manually create an index. Otherwise it would be a function of the reading app or device. The app I use can do this, it’s called Marvin, but is only available on iOS.

I didn't try to create an index, but from what little I read, it wasn't too far different (but probably a bit more work) than my current method of creating a Character Summary at the end of the book. I am on Windows, so couldn't play with Marvin

Originally Posted by j.p.s

You could make your "Character Summary" a glossary at the front of the book. Then when you do an in book search on a word, the glossary entry is the first hit. Your reading software needs to have "back" functionality. As a 12 year kindle user who did not do in book searching in my pre-kindle days, I was shocked that many platforms do not have true "back" functionality.

And just FYI, the kindle X-ray functionality has what you are looking for and more (when they bother to do more than a half-ass job populating the X-ray database for the book).

From what I could see, no major difference to creating a Character Summary at the end of the book and just skipping to the last chapter, no search typing required.

Originally Posted by j.p.s

For platforms that don't properly support "back" functionality but do allow use of open format dictionaries, you could build your "Character Summary" as a dictionary.

While I liked this idea, it is not workable. You can't make a particular dictionary exclusive to a specific novel. Then as the number of novels increase on the ereader, overlapping of character names from different novels increases.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There is something you can do with your Kobo that would work for what you want. I know it works for ePub. But I cannot say about KePub.

Highlight the character name and also put in your note(s) about that character. Then whenever you want to look up your notes on the character, go to the list of the highlights and when you see the highlight for said character, you'll also see your note(s).

I also liked this.
In some cases it was easy because the characters name and a description of the role s/he played were in the same sentence/praragraph. Highlight the entire section and done
In most other cases the character description was revealed much later in the novel, so the typing on the small keyboard with my fat stubby fingers became a bit of a nuisance.

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Kindle users could use the WordDumb Calibre plugin to generate XRay files.
It shouldn't be too complicated to modify the plugin to generate endnotes with character definitions and link the definition to the first occurrence of a character.
It also wouldn't be too difficult to generate a StarDict dictionary with the same information for EPUB apps.

I haven't tried this, but will look into it a bit further, but my python skills are almost non-existent.

<hr/>


I also tried a <a> link to the Character Summary.
A search for "Michael" and replace with <a href....>Michael</a> then follow with a regex-function to append an incremental number to each id. (yes, I know, many of you could have done that in the one operation )
This worked well in combination with using the "back" function to return to the original position. The only downside I saw was the sheer number of links. After editing six character names I was already over 2,000 links, with 19 characters to go.
Do the enormous number of links cause any problems to the ereader or epub file? Are these stored in the ereader database?

At this stage, I will stick with the simple character summary at the back. An example for The Runaway Jury by John Grisham below

Spoiler:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>The Runaway Jury</title>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="OEBPS/stylesheet.css"/>
</head>

<body>

<h2>Character Summary</h2>

<p class="noindent"><b>Nicholas Easter</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury candidate</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Marlee</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall"></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">aka Claire. Co-conspirator and partner to Nicholas Easter</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Carl Nussman</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Defence</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Lawyer from Chicago who no longer practiced law but instead ran his own jury consulting firm</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Traci Wilkes</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury candidate. Age thirty-three, married, mother of two, doctor’s wife</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Rankin Fitch</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Defence</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Administrator of The Fund for the tobacco companies</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Wendall Rohr</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Plaintiff</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Brawler type trial lawyer suing the tobacco companies</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Jonathan Kotlack</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Plaintiff</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury research and selection for the plaintiffs</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Gloria Lane</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Court</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Circuit Clerk for Harrison County</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Celeste Wood</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Plaintiff</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Plaintiff and widow of deceased smoker</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Frederick Harkin</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Court</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Judge presiding over the trial</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Durwood Cable</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Defence</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Senior partner for Whitney &amp; Cable &amp; White who represent Pynex</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Lou Dell</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Court</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Court official charged with supervising the jurors outside of the courtroom</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Millie Dupree</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Fifty year old juror</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Hoppy Dupree</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Husband of Millie Dupree and owns a struggling realty agency in Biloxi</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall"></p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Martin Jankle</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Defence</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">President of Pynex</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Lonnie Shaver</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Black male and manager of a grocery store</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Herman Grimes</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Age fifty-nine, computer programmer, white, married, no kids. Blind</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Frank (Colonel) Herrera</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Retired colonel. Short and portly with tiny hands and an opinion on just about everything</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Jerry Fernandez</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Thirty-eight, a car salesman with heavy casino debts and a bad marriage</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Sylvia (Poodle) Taylor-Tatum</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Nicknamed Poodle because of her narrow face, sharp protruding nose, and shaggy thick graying hair. She was at least six feet tall, very angular, with a constant frown that kept people away</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Henry Vu</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Alternate number one</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Shine Royce</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Alternate number two. Fifty-two, unemployed, lived in a rented trailer with a younger woman and her six kids, and hadn’t earned fifteen dollars a day doing anything in years</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Phillip Savelle</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Jury</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Forty-eight-year-old misfit. He described himself as a self-employed tree surgeon, but no record of this profession had been found on the Gulf Coast for the past five years</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Beverly Monk</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall"></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Friend of Marlee/Claire from old waitressing days</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b>Swanson</b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Defence</p>
<p class="paraindentsmall">Ex-FBI agent working for a PI Agency</p>
<br/>

<p class="noindent"><b></b></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall"></p>
<p class="paraindentsmall"></p>
<br/>


</body>
</html>

[xxyzz]

Hi Karellen, please check out the test version of WordDumb(https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=275).