FanFicFare and eReaders
The calibre FAQ covers several issues regarding device integration in general. Here are a few issues more specific to FanFicFare:
'Zalgo' text may cause issues with various eReaders (Kobo may display as overlapping notdef characters, and it can outright crash Kindle devices). In this case, use max_zalgo in personal.ini:
## Some authors use 'Zalgo' text--arbitrary and often excessive
## added/combined unicode markings--to indicate 'noise' of some kind.
## While a critical part of some languages, when over used it can also
## cause problems for some ebook readers, such as Kindle.
## https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6579844/how-does-zalgo-text-work
## This setting will reduce the number 'Zalgo' characters. Set to 0
## to remove all of them, -1 or leave undefined for no limit.
## Note: This will also remove other 'marked' unicode characters. If
## set to 0, café will become cafe, déjà -> deja, etc. 1 will keep
## single marks and is the recommended setting if you use it.
max_zalgo:1
FanFicFare's inbuilt MOBI support is legacy code (predating JimmXinu's involvement with the project) and is generally not recommended for use as it has missing chapter markers, missing images, and occasionally poor HTML that breaks indexing. Note that support for the format is also deprecated for 'Send to Kindle' — AZW3 or ePub are recommended instead.
If you still wish to have a MOBI version, it is best to download as another format and use calibre's Convert function to change it. This post by Dylan Tomorrow also describes another solution that uses KindleGen.
With calibre, it's possible to sideload books onto a Kobo device. However, unless the 'Do not treat replacements as new books' option is enabled in KoboTouch (or KoboTouchExtended) driver settings, re-sending the book to device will overwrite the existing one, losing the current reading position and any bookmarks or annotations.
However, when this is enabled, the Table of Contents will remain out-of-date. The Calibre plugin Kobo Utilities has the option to update it, so run the option after sending the updated story to device:
After that, simply eject the device and enjoy!
One Exception: Two ToC entries with identical names cause 'Update ToC' to throw a 'UNIQUE constraint failed' error and glitches the book on the device. Unfortunately, the original author of the plugin has passed away, so this is likely to remain unfixed.
This may happen if you use strip_chapter_numbers. To prevent this, you can selectively restore the ToC numbering for that specific story with a story section and run 'update always':
[storyUrl]
add_chapter_numbers:toconly
If you fail to notice in time and get the error, delete the book from the device, re-send it, and eject the Kobo to let it re-import to the database. You will lose the current reading position.
To prevent further mishaps, Kobo Utilities can store 'reading position' to a custom column and restore it afterwards:
