Tell Them Where To Go

Imagine you're doing some research on the internet.

Now imagine you've found a site that says it has the kind of
information you're looking for only ...

all the information
is contained on other pages of the site and the page you've
found doesn't provide any links to those pages.

Now, how valuable would that site be to you?

This is a rhetorical question since we all recognize the value
of putting links to the other pages on our site where our
visitors can find them easily.

But how about e-books?

Imagine you've found an e-book that holds a lot of valuable
information. The e-book has more than 200 pages of information
that has been split into logical sections for ease of use
however ...

there is no Table of Contents or Index contained in the e-book.

If this is a PDF e-book and you know the right search term, you
may be able to do a search and find what you're looking for. But
if it's not a PDF e-book, you have no way of finding the
information except by clicking through every page.

So how valuable is this e-book?

This is not a rhetorical question since many e-books are
created with no Index or Table of Contents.

Sure, you can take notes so you'll know where things are. Then
you can either go straight to that page or click that many
times.

But wouldn't it make more sense for the author to have provided
either a Table of Contents or an Index? Would you buy a hard
copy reference book that didn't provide 1 or both of these
things?

If you are an e-book author and create e-books that contains
more than a few pages (few is a ambiguous term so let's say 20
pages), then you should provide either an Index or Table of
Contents for your readers.

If you create PDF e-books which are the "in thing" right now and
you use MSWord to write them, then making an Index or Table of
Contents is not that difficult. All you have to do is:

1. As you write you're e-book, make every main section title a "Heading 1."
   
2. If you have subsections you would like contained in the Table of Contents,
   then make every subsection title a "Heading 2."
   
3. If you have subsections within your "Heading 2" subsections, you can make
   those subsection titles a "Heading 3."
   
4. After you've finished writing the content and saving, place your cursor at the location where you would like your Index or Table of Contents.
   
5. Click on "Insert" in the menu bar.
   
6. Go to "References" and select "Index and Tables ... ."
   
7. Click either the "Index" or "Table of Contents" tab.
   
8. Select the formatting options you want and click "OK."

You've just created a Table of Contents. True, it doesn't provide hyperlinks but at least the reader can see where things are located and can get to them easily.

You can play around with how you want to format your Index or
Table of Content until you find the one you like best. Just
remember to delete all the extra ones since MSWord doesn't
overwrite, it just keeps adding them.

(Side Note - If you discover you need to add new sections
or subsections to your e-book, you'll have to delete the Table
of Contents and recreate it after you've made your additions.)

If you're creating your e-books in .exe format, making an Index
or Table of Contents is like creating a site menu. You have the
option of putting it on a separate page, putting it on every
page or both. I also suggest that you use hyperlinks in your
Index or Table of Contents since the reader cannot get to pages
easily unless you do. Also, if you decide to put it on a
separate page, you'll want to provide a link to your Index or
Table of Contents on every page of your e-book.

Making either an Index or a Table of Contents does make a little
more work for e-book creators but it also makes the e-books more
user friendly.

So as you create your e-books, tell your readers where to go
because having quality information that is easy to find can help
build your reputation as a "good" e-book author.

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll