eBook | EPUB File | Error Messages | Page Anchor Not Found | Questions

[Joe-New-to-ID]

I created a 6-chapter book via InDesign. It will exist as a print version and an eBook (two ISBNs). The print book is squared away. I've worked out most of the eBook bugs that were causing viewing problems in Kindle Previewer. One of the last bugs I'm working on has to do with page anchoring. Here's an error message summary minus the file name and path details:

   External Page Anchor not found : 29

      Page Anchor in "Chapter 1.indd" is missing: 5

      Page Anchor in "Chapter 2.indd" is missing: 1

      Page Anchor in "Chapter 3.indd" is missing: 1

      Page Anchor in "Chapter 4.indd" is missing: 10

      Page Anchor in "Chapter 5.indd" is missing: 12

I've reviewed many posts and remedies in this support community and other forums, and reviewed many things in my InDesign documents as a result. The remedies appear inconsistent and sometimes irrelevant leaving me confused. My eBook has an eReader navigation TOC, a traditional TOC for the eBook itself, and an Index. The Index has many hyperlinks to the respective entries. A "Find" search for "<FEFF>" always jumps to an index entry. I'm not sure what "<FEFF>" means or what this is suppose to tell me. Here are my questions:

1. What do the numbers mean that reside at the end of each error message?
2. Do these error messages matter for Amazon/Kindle vetting/validation? Must they be solved to move forward? Everything seems to work otherwise.
3. What is the core issue here? The TOC, the Index, or something else?
4. Why don't I get page anchor error messages for Chapter 6? It has a ":" symbol at the beginning of each chapter title like all the others, and has many index entries. I tried deleting the ":" symbol for one of the chapters as a troubleshooting step, and it resulted in an additional error message.
5. Is there a simple remedy to all of this?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Three thoughts:

First, a display TOC is rarely needed in an ebook, as most readers have much better, often much deeper dynamic TOCs. You might omit the display TOC and see if that eliminates any confusion between the markers.

Second, always update TOCs as a final-final step before exporting. Even small edit and changes can leave indexing and TOC markers un-hitched.

Third, and a bit of a workaround/hack: be sure the doc is fully updated, TOC/s included, and save it. Reopen it and do the export before you do anything else at all. For some reason, this sometimes bypasses indexing glitches that are triggered by editing etc. (ETA: Make this a completely cold start - save the doc, close ID, restart ID, open doc, generate export immediately.)

And if not, we'll try the next thing. (Which is the save to IDML, open as a new INDD 'purge,' so try that as step four while you're at it. 🙂 )

[Joe-New-to-ID]

James:

Thank you.

(1) I've been getting the error messages well before creating the eReader navigation TOC (in the hope they would eventually go away).

(2) Done. Same problem.

(3) I opened the book file only, without opening the individual documents with, exported to EPUB, and ended up with the same result.

(4) Sounds like I need to create an eBook test folder, copy all of my eBook documents and book file there, save each of the individual documents as IDML files, and do what you prescribed. Are the steps to opening as a new "INDD 'purge'" obvious? What happens to the INDD files? Do they need to be rechecked? Are they subject to glitches? Do the TOC and index links go beserk?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

These problems are caused many more times by glitches or flaws in the document than by mistakes at the content or structural level. (Generally, if you've mucked something up in the document structure, the export problems will be much more obvious or even fatal, and thus easier to fix.)

TOC problems tend to come in with docs that have been developed and edited for a long time, so that there have been generations of TOCs and indexes and markers. ID, like most document formats, tends to build up 'junk' in its contents, which may be ignored by downstream processes like export or start to cause erratic flaws.

Try this: create a complete copy of your book project and for the time being, work on it solely as the e-book/EPUB/Kindle version. Start by saving each original INDD file as an IDML file in the new location. Then open each IDML file and save it under a new (INDD) name version. This will often purge all the 'grit' and leftover undo info and small corruptions that have crept in, and by itself cure many frustrating little problems.

Just to make sure: do you have two completely different TOC "styles" defined for the dynamic and the on-page TOCs? Each should be fully defined and used separately.

[Joe-New-to-ID]

James:  Thank you. This is valuable insight. You've given me many hints as to the problem. I have to logoff for the rest of the day, but I will check everything you suggested and answer your questions first thing in the morning. Stay tuned. 

[Joe-New-to-ID · Accepted solution]

James:  Thank you very much for your feedback. After reviewing your comments, conducting some additional research, and putting the pieces of the puzzle together, I solved the problem: EPUB does not like page ranges in the index. I've since changed all of my page range index entries to Current Page such that I now have 0 errors upon exporting to EPUB. I'd rather have the page ranges since they make more sense in their respective contexts, but I'll have to write this off as another EPUB trade-off.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Interesting. My only thought, without doing some experimentation, is that page ranges are not good style or usage in TOCs. Indexes, yes. But TOCs are usually absolute or nothing. 

I can't really imagine that EPUB structure is so fussy that a page range, by itself, would cause problems. But it may be that the way ID forms the links is flawed. 

Added to the test list for some rainy day. 😉