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virtual_ink · 10-10-2011, 02:08 AM

I'm familiar with using the toc.ncx file to create a navigational Table of Contents, but I thought you meant I could also use it to create an Index.

"Why bother?"

There are plenty of reasons to include an Index, many of them discussed thoroughly in the above podcast. Personally, I'm trying to create quality ebooks and believe if the print book has an index, so should the ebook. I've used the Index in Liz Castro's book countless times, however the process she went through to create it shows how difficult it is: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/20...-indesign.html - and if you're working from a plain text Index, its even harder.

The people over at EbookArchitects are doing it (http://ebookarchitects.com/conversio...p#indexlinking) and they prefer working from Word or PDF, so I assume there must be a way to do this efficiently.

I find these Quality, Excellence, Design standards very reasonable (they actually sound simplistic for this day and age): http://www.publishinginnovationawards.com/the-qed so I think its a shame the technology makes it so difficult and time consuming to achieve these basic standards.

Anyhow, at this stage I may have to concede defeat as I can't afford the time to create the several hundred Index links manually.

10-10-2011, 02:08 AM	#9
virtual_ink Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 1000 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: iPad2, Kindle	I'm familiar with using the toc.ncx file to create a navigational Table of Contents, but I thought you meant I could also use it to create an Index. "Why bother?" There are plenty of reasons to include an Index, many of them discussed thoroughly in the above podcast. Personally, I'm trying to create quality ebooks and believe if the print book has an index, so should the ebook. I've used the Index in Liz Castro's book countless times, however the process she went through to create it shows how difficult it is: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/20...-indesign.html - and if you're working from a plain text Index, its even harder. The people over at EbookArchitects are doing it (http://ebookarchitects.com/conversio...p#indexlinking) and they prefer working from Word or PDF, so I assume there must be a way to do this efficiently. I find these Quality, Excellence, Design standards very reasonable (they actually sound simplistic for this day and age): http://www.publishinginnovationawards.com/the-qed so I think its a shame the technology makes it so difficult and time consuming to achieve these basic standards. Anyhow, at this stage I may have to concede defeat as I can't afford the time to create the several hundred Index links manually.