kindle previewer problems

I have a Kindle Fire, but I didn't have that problem. Sounds terribly frustrating.

Are you using the Amazon downloadable previewer they offer or a different one?

I did a little searching around. I see others who had problems with the Kindle previewer cutting off the edges of the books in certain formats. It was recommended that they download and use kindlepc instead? Im still reading a bit on this to try and help you out so take that with a grain of salt.

One last edit to this post:

Try wandering around in this link. http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle ...orum=Fx21HB0U7MPK8XI&cdThread=Tx1192LGCK5I4S9

One Amazon guy says this: Hi,

We show the preview of how your book will look on the Kindle app on the iPad. This app currently does not support dropcaps which is why you do not see it in the Previewer.

Thanks,

The Kindle Team.

Anyway, I would start by lurking aruond in that thread a bit and see if it helps you out.

Find someone with a Kindle Fire to check. The Kindle previewer is a very bad joke.

The Kindle App is fine if you're testing the file on a computer; to do it right, you need to find tester on Mac OS X and Windows, various Kindles, and iOS.

I'm not sure which previewer you're referring to, but if you mean the non-downloadable one that you can click on before you upload (and looks like a mini-kindle), it's not very accurate. It showed that my formatting was a mess, but after double-checking the formatting, I uploaded and the book looks fine on Kindle.

Good luck!

oaktree said:

I meant the downloadable previewer, which allows you (theoretically) to view your book as it would appear on all the various iterations of kindles, as well as the IPad.

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It doesn't. In fact it tells giant whopping lies.

Medievalist said:

It doesn't. In fact it tells giant whopping lies.

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Haha! Yes I found that to be the case also.

oaktree said:

Unfortunately, in this case, the previewer was accurate. My friend said the formatting was a mess and the cover was missing. Argh! I don't understand how the cover can be there in every other version but this one?

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What program are you using to convert you doc to html?

If you are trying to convert the 'docx' file to Kindle format that could be part of the problem but i believe you said you were working with html. I had some formatting issues in the beginning but what worked for me finally was to entirely clear all the formatting from my manuscript first then try again.

I had a lot of problems with format in the beginning, just not with the format on my kindle fire LOL. Everything else was messed up! Good luck! There are some other good threads around here for formatting problems.

oaktree said:

I compiled the file using mobipocket (rather than uploading it directly to amazon), and that seemed to solve the problem. I'm still not sure what was wrong, especially since I emailed amazon (before I fixed it), and they replied that they checked it on the kindle fire and it looked fine!

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Im pretty sure its the crap previewer that was the problem LOL Did you read what Medievalist said about it above?

I spent two days trying to fix a non-existant problem reported by the Kindle previewer, because the previewer tells giant whopping untrue and false lies.

All yesterday I struggled with the Kindle Viewers and a file, gave up, e-mailed tech support, got a non-answer this morning and came here out of desperation to find this topic the first on the forum.

I can't tell if that is a good sign or bad sign.

I have uploaded my book in HTML (filtered) format (as the KDP Formatting FAQ suggests). Everything looks fine in the Simple Viewer. But when I download the file and use the Enhanced Viewer it says the cover art and the NCX file are missing.

The Formatting FAQ states that certain information is missing from the download file ("title, author, etc.")--which I presume is to prevent people from using their site as a free e-book maker--but it isn't clear if that means the cover and NCX files are excluded as well.

*sigh*

So if the Enhanced Viewer is a lying liar that lies, is my only option for quality control to e-mail the download file to someone who has a Kindle and have them report back?

(frustrated roach is frustrated)

ETA: I just summed up this thread to my husband, ending with, "So I guess I'll have to find someone who has a Kindle to look at the file." His response, "Can't you use the Kindle app on your phone?"

So, we'll try that too.

roach said:

So if the Enhanced Viewer is a lying liar that lies, is my only option for quality control to e-mail the download file to someone who has a Kindle and have them report back?

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You can check it on a Mac or Windows computer, or an iOS device, and you should.

But yes; you need to find beta testers for the actual Kindle.

These sites helped me:

http://gbenthien.net/Kindle/opf_ncx_files.html

http://allisonkraft.blogspot.com/2011/07/epub-done-and-kindle-toc-tips.html

So, after alternatively cursing and bashing buttons for a while I have learned the following:

1) I am having the same problem as oaktree in that the file looks fine in all other views in the Enhanced Viewer except Kindle Fire.

2) The NCX record is missing in all those views, except the Go To works in all the views (with the exception of the Kindle Fire which tells me the image is missing).

3) The Formatting Guide is apparently also a liar, liar pants on fire as it seems after making your HTML file you have to then use KindGen to make the actual and true Kindle file for upload? (Which would explain why all of the trouble shooting websites I had read over the last day kept mentioning multiple HTML files which made no sense as the KDP upload page only allows you to upload one file.)

4) All of which is to say that once again Amazon has succeeded in driving me towards thoughts of violence against words on a screen.

roach said:

3) The Formatting Guide is apparently also a liar, liar pants on fire as it seems after making your HTML file you have to then use KindGen to make the actual and true Kindle file for upload? (Which would explain why all of the trouble shooting websites I had read over the last day kept mentioning multiple HTML files which made no sense as the KDP upload page only allows you to upload one file.)

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I convert HTML to MOBI in a program called Calibre but I believe you can put all the (fully formatted) HTML into a single ZIP file to upload directly into KDP. So I think pants everywhere are safe.

J. Tanner said:

I convert HTML to MOBI in a program called Calibre but I believe you can put all the (fully formatted) HTML into a single ZIP file to upload directly into KDP. So I think pants everywhere are safe.

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Well, thanks to Medievalist's recommendation of EPUB Straight to the Point and this page: http://www.jedisaber.com/eBooks/Introduction.shtml, I managed to roll my own ePub file last night.

I just uploaded the file to the KDP page and checked the resulting Kindle file. On the Kindle program on my computer it looks fine (with the exception of the navigation listing the Copyright page but not actually pointing to it). When I loaded the file into the Kindle previewer program it told me the TOC couldn't be found. So I'm going to accept that the previewer program isn't all that useful.

And at the end of the day, and after nearly three weeks of yelling at my computer, I feel I finally have a handle on making the ePubs.

It's all clear sailing from here on out, right?

I particularly liked the time Kindle Previewer told me an illustrated fiction title we published was perfectly fine, except on an actual Kindle all the pictures were negatives.

One idea

oaktree said:

I'm ready to upload my html file onto the kindle, but I'm having some issues with the kindle previewer, and I don't know what to make of them.

Specifically, the file looks totally fine in every version *except* the kindle fire, on which not only is the formating a mess, but it also says the cover image is missing (though it displays fine in the other versions). It also looks fine on my own kindle.

I can't understand why the formatting would be perfectly fine on everything other than the fire, and I wonder if it's a problem with my file or a problem with the software. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone with a kindle fire, so I can't check on the actual device. Has anyone else had this problem? And if so, are the formatting requirements for the fire just radically different than for the other versions?

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I hope that by now you have figured this out, but a lot of problems with HTML, epub files, and any other kind of file recognized by different ereaders come directly from something very tedious (such as a character style being off or one word having an attribute it won't recognize). Are you using inDesign or some other program for designing your ebook?