Quote:
Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd
It depends. I do not think the ebook like a book that must be electronic, but I think it like an ebook, something born digital. What is a index? It is a map of some contents "hidden" in ebook and it is a way to access those contents.
Some indexes are built as a one-side way, leaving the ereader the possibility to go back, other are a "two way" links. For example, in "Syria Calling" we have some terms that, from the chapters, moves to Glossary or to Timeline (using icons for this), and have some terms that from Subject Index or Index of Place Names leads to the chapter. In other ebook we build a "two way road", from chapter to Indexes and from Indexes to chapter.
If you want to see a *very* complex index I worked with, you can take a look to "Il ciclo della performance nei comuni" (it a free ebook): it has a lot of nested Indexes and "two way" links.
We cannot use a "go back", as you know there is no "go back" in XHTML, we cannot use in a significative way the canonical fragment identifier, we cannot use XLINK arc, we cannot use Javascript: this is the big problem in ePub2 and EPUB3: we are still building ebook using internet tools. We'll see if something is gonna change after the last news about W3C and IDPF merge.
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It's not that I don't think that you (or anyone) cannot create a complex, nested indices; it's how we do that, and
do not strand the reader that concerns me.
For example, let's say we have my previously-used example (here at Mobile Read) of a book on
Dogs. We have in this an entry, on Irish Setters. In the Index, the following items ALL go to that entry:
Setters, Irish
Long-Coated Dogs;
Hunting Dogs;
Family-suitable Dogs;
Large Dog Breeds;
Dogs that need significant exercise.
All six, let's say, of these items go to the SAME entry.
Now, let's say that I'm Jane, and I'm seeking a dog that will suit my lifestyle, get along with my kids and so forth. So, I've skimmed the book--and now I'm using the Index to help me in my search.
When I use a print book, I have the luxury of sticking a thumb in the Index page I'm on, and flip to the page that I found in that same index. So, in "family-suitable dogs," I see the Irish Setter entry. In print, I flip to page 55; I skim it, and then I flip back to that same Index entry, and move on to the next dog in that list that catches my eye in the Family-friendly Index list. Right?
But now I'm in the ebook. I go to Family-suitable dogs, and I see Irish Setters. I click the link, to go to the Irish Setter entry.
How do I get BACK to "Family Suitable Dogs?"
To me, this is the single biggest stumbling block in creating two-way linked eBooks. It's not the simple stuff, linking from Index entry 1 to page X. It's the a) multi-page items (e.g., "page 75-80"), and b) how you solve the multi-targeted landing page/item.
To me, that's the biggest single issue.
Hitch