How to create a TOC from scratch?

[greenapple]

I have a longish text file and I'd like to create an epub from that file with linkable table of contents at the front of the ebook.

I've read the Sigil manual a few times. I understand that there's a TOC editor that would detect headers.

After importing a text, and created headers for different parts of the text, I could see, from the TOC editor, that Sigil has smartly picked up the various headers as chapter breaks. The chapters seem to be fine..

But.. what now??

At this point, I saved the file as epub. There isn't a table of content using my epub reader.

The manual hasn't gone to the next step about what to do to put the table of content at the front of the book.

I'm sure the experts reading the manual would know what to do next. But as someone who's totally new to the program, I have no clue what I should do next.

Is there a step by step guide to create a TOC?

Thanks very much.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by greenapple

I have a longish text file and I'd like to create an epub from that file with linkable table of contents at the front of the ebook.

I've read the Sigil manual a few times. I understand that there's a TOC editor that would detect headers.

After importing a text, and created headers for different parts of the text, I could see, from the TOC editor, that Sigil has smartly picked up the various headers as chapter breaks. The chapters seem to be fine..

But.. what now??

At this point, I saved the file as epub. There isn't a table of content using my epub reader.

The manual hasn't gone to the next step about what to do to put the table of content at the front of the book.

I'm sure the experts reading the manual would know what to do next. But as someone who's totally new to the program, I have no clue what I should do next.

Is there a step by step guide to create a TOC?

Thanks very much.

Add or Highlight the text you want in the TOC
Make it a Heading 1,2 or 3 (the pulldown that defaults to normal)
I use H3 for chapters
H2 if there are "Part's"
And H1 for the Title on the Title page
Use the TOC editor to un-tic H1 thru 3, items that you do not want to appear in the TOC
Deleting them or changing them in the TOC editor, affects the original entry. Be Careful

[greenapple]

Thanks very much for the explanation..

Boy I do feel a little silly for asking the question after checking out the epub created by Sigil a little more. Actually by simply saving the text as epub (after checking with the TOC editor) would create an epub with an appropriate TOC. But this TOC was 'hidden' until I chose to view it via an option on my ebook reader.

I've often thought that TOC would be displayed as a list near the front of an ebook (such as those I purchased from fictionwise, and the RSS feeds I downloaded with Calibre).

Now I know better.

Big thanks to Sigil's creator. What a brilliant tool it is.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by greenapple

Thanks very much for the explanation..
I've often thought that TOC would be displayed as a list near the front of an ebook (such as those I purchased from fictionwise, and the RSS feeds I downloaded with Calibre).

That's called "inline TOC". Sigil doesn't have an option to do that, you should code it by hand, using references.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by greenapple

But this TOC was 'hidden' until I chose to view it via an option on my ebook reader.

That's how an EPUB TOC is supposed to work. It's accessed through the RS's menu system. What you're asking for is an inline TOC in the text of the book, and these are discouraged in EPUB books.

[greenapple]

The hidden TOC does work a lot better than the inline TOC, in terms of accessibility. I don't have to go back to the front pages to locate links to different parts of an ebook.