TOC /NCX attribute "id" invalid

[kimabook]

I have followed to the letter the style guide and used the nuclear method, but validator still gives the above message.
What does this mean? I have checked the bookmarks and hyperlinks and cannot fault my work, so what can be wrong?

[Ted]

Check to see if 'id' starts with a number. ePub2 books can't start with a number as far as I know.

Download 'Calibre' calibre-ebook.com/download

calibre has an integrated e-book editor that can be used to edit books in the EPUB and AZW3 (Kindle) formats. The editor shows you the HTML and CSS that is used internally inside the book files, with a live preview that updates as you make changes. It also contains various automated tools to perform common cleanup and fixing tasks.

You can use this editor by right clicking on any book in calibre and selecting Edit book.

Calibre has an "Edit Table of Contents" tool.

Calibre User Manual.... manual.calibre-ebook.com/

[Ted]

Kimabook, I was just thinking the problem may be with Smashwords conversion. You could try uploading MSWord .doc file again and see if it passes epub validation after conversion this time.

Or, you could convert MSWord .doc file to ePub using Calibre itself and test that file with the ePub validator. If no errors with the Calibre conversion then upload that ePub file to Smashwords. That way you know the ePub file has been checked prior to upload.

[reanimuspress]

Just wanted to add some info on this: This error is definitely a bug in Smashwords software. I reported it to Mark Coker last year, with details and how to fix it, and I believe they're working on fixing it. (It's a very simple fix; there are some auto-generated XML bits they create, and they can't start with a numeric digit; so all Smashwords needs to do is insert a letter or underscore in front of their auto-generated bits, problem solved. I've also suggested to the epubcheck people a more helpfully crafted error message, but that's a separate issue.)

Meanwhile, what I've noticed is that Smashwords is ignoring this error *IF* it's the only "epubcheck" error in your epub. If epubcheck flags some other kind of (real) error when they run it, they'll just say it has epubcheck errors -- then, when you run epubcheck yourself, you will see both the real error -and- a slew of these meaningless ID/colon errors. Ignore the ID/colon errors, focus only on the other ones. (Which may be just as inscrutable, but that's epubcheck for you.)