Quote:
Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd
Hi, I usually create Indexes like the one I attach (a screenshot from "Syria Calling" ePub). I think this is a good way to allow reader to follow link inside the ebook and have a way to differentiate the multiple instances of a word inside a single chapter.
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fbrzvnrnd:
Which brings up that dreaded other issue. If any of those entries go to the same place as another--or worse, 4 or 5 entries in the Index go to the same page or entry--how does your reader get BACK to the correct index entry? Do you embed in the text "[back to 1][back to 2]" etc.? Or, really, for usability, it would have to be something like:
[Back to Dogs, hunting][Back to Setters][Back to Setters, Irish][Back to Family Pets]
no? This is the issue that we run into all the time with comprehensive indices.
@Wolfie:
Wolfie, my sweet. I disagree with you, about an index "must have" the links. As most of you know, I am constantly reading one non-fic book or the other. Having a list of the terms that were considered important enough to be included, in the index, is quite useful in assisting my searches. We've done that--left an Index in, complete with the page numbers, but w/o the links, and put something at the top of the page saying that it's been recreated as it was in print, but that the reader should use his/her search functionality.
Indices, generally:
Now, when we are asking to recreate a printed index, with links, we do the page map thing. We create ids for each page number location, and we link the page numbers in the index to that. We warn our clients about the obvious usability issues--a phrase or sentence about "family dogs" may be the penultimate sentence on a referenced page, in print, and may be 4, 5 or even more screens away from the target/landing location, but...that's what we do. I've not found any really BETTER way to do it, not without making the entire book look like the dog's breakfast.
ePUB3 versus ePUB2: 
Lastly, IMHO,
there is no reason to use ePUB3, if you do
not need multimedia. The number of devices that support ePUB3 is still
woefully small. So, while the set of devices that will work perfectly with ePUB2 is large, the set of devices that will work perfectly with ePUB3 is teeny. If you have to err...err in the direction of more devices, not fewer. Fail up, not down. That's my opinion.
(And really? I have NO IDEA
why Anne-Marie--presumably, it was she?--would suggest such a thing, I
really don't. It's daft. Of course, many of the InDesigners are all Mac-centric, all the time, so they have an utter bloody blind spot about devices that don't start with "i." That's the only reason I can think of.)
FWIW.
Hitch