It’s almost midnight but I finally did it! Vokhtah now has a proper Table of Contents right at the front – and you don’t have to use the awkward Kindle Go-to function to see it or use it. π
To explain why this is making me so happy I have to backtrack a little to a comment Metan made last week about moving the Vokhtan dictionary to the front so people could see it.
Given the extreme ‘otherness’ issues of Vokhtah, and the fact that so much is explained in the dictionary, I finally pulled my finger out and re-arranged the layout to have the dictionary right at the front.
Unfortunately, when I transferred the new file to my Kindle so I could check it out, I discovered to my horror that the dictionary went on for pages and pagesΒ – literally about 20 odd. Sci-fi or not, I couldn’t see people patiently paging through so much just to get to the start of the actual story. π¦
That was when I realised the problem was not so much that the dictionary was at the back, but that no one knew it was there.
My next experiment was to type up a manual Table of Contents showing the dictionary, and insert it into the book. I put the new page at the front, where it would be nice and visible. It looked good, but was like a politician’s promise – not worth the pixels it was written in because it had no functionality. To look something up in the dictionary you still had to get to the end of the book, or fiddle with the Kindle Go-to function.
By this point I was literally pulling chunks of hair out. In desperation I emailed the wonderful Mark Fassett [the developer of StoryBox, the writing software I use].
Was there someway of setting up a clickable Table of Contents in the actual ebook, I asked.
[toc] Mark replied. He actually said a few more things as well, but the nub of it was that lovely little command.
Of course my implementation managed to screw things up the first time around, but now I know how to do it – and it works like an absolute dream! Ta dah!
What you see in that pic is an actualΒ page of the book. It’s not the Go-to function. Each chapter heading is a link that will take you straight to the relevant chapter. I wish I’d known how to do this back when I first published Vokhtah. Oh well…
And now, in case there are other StoryBox users out there wanting to do the same thing, this is what I did :
Step 1 Add a new document [not chapter or scene] to your story.
Step 2 Move that document to the exact position where you want the Table of Contents to appear.
Step 3 Type [toc] in the new document.
Step 4 In the Properties pane, be sure to tick the boxes for ‘Include in Manuscript’ and ‘Page Break before’.
Step 5 Select Export, make sure the output format is set to mobi, and be sure to untick the box that says ‘Start at first text’.
And that’s it, except for one more little thing. If, like me, you use Calibre to convert your mobi file to Kindle format, doΒ NOT mess with any of the Calibre settings for Table of Contents. That was my big mistake. I messed. None of those settings are needed because that lovely, wonderful [toc] command has already done all the work.
StoryBox truly is an amazing writing tool. I’ve loved it all along, but today I’m just in awe of how powerful it is. If you write, and you’re an indie, then you need StoryBox. I’m serious.
Good night all!
Meeks
October 2nd, 2013 at 7:43 pm
Hi,
Reading your fascinating post, why do I sense that what you truly value is participation and involvement of others.
Shakti
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October 2nd, 2013 at 8:20 pm
Because I do. π
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October 2nd, 2013 at 2:25 pm
The things you do for your readers π And for fellow writers… there’ll be someone(s) out there who discovers this post and so grateful you’ve done the [toc] part of the hard work for them π
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October 2nd, 2013 at 8:23 pm
What can I say? I really love sharing information. Once a teacher always a teacher?
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October 2nd, 2013 at 8:40 pm
An ancient and honorable vocation… master π
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October 2nd, 2013 at 9:15 pm
Ah Grasshopper – you’ll go far. π
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October 1st, 2013 at 7:32 am
Very good!
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October 1st, 2013 at 9:03 am
π
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October 1st, 2013 at 6:57 am
No wonder you scare me, you’re so flippin’ efficient.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
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October 1st, 2013 at 9:03 am
Awwwww….. π
-hugs back-
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October 1st, 2013 at 6:01 am
For my first book I had to figure out how to set up the TOC in word. For the book I am working on now I have been using scrivener for edits. I compile the book into a kindle for reading and making notes then make the changes on the scrivener file. An interesting thing I discovered in this process, scrivener makes its own TOC for the ebook when it compiles the document.
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October 1st, 2013 at 9:03 am
Before I contacted Mark Fassett I actually did some research online and I remember reading something about the Scrivener TOC – it sounded rather involved but then I’ve never used it so that could just have been the way the description was written.
I suspect Scrivener and StoryBox are very similar in function. Way back when I first started getting frustrated with the limitations of Word, I heard about Scrivener but couldn’t get it coz it was for the MAC only. Then I found StoryBox for the pc and I haven’t looked back. π
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October 1st, 2013 at 9:25 am
Not sure how long ago they made the PC version, but that is what I use now. I am waiting for the Ipad version to show up so I can use it on mine.
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October 1st, 2013 at 10:15 am
I think the pc version’s been out for a year? two? I might suggest something similar for StoryBox as I’m going to need something when/if I finally get a job and am away from the desktop for long periods of time. Boy will that be a learning curve.
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October 1st, 2013 at 12:28 pm
I am currently using Textilus and Dropbox on my Ipad for most writing. Works great for transfers. But then I also use pages quite a bit and I have started using onenote instead of evernote. But for me each thing I use has a certain purpose.
If I could get scrivener I would probably lose the Textilus and pages apps.
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October 1st, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Hmm… I’ll have to look up all of that. π¦ Are these apps all specific to the iPad?
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October 1st, 2013 at 10:17 pm
Pages is the apple version of word and Textilus appears to be apple only too. But onenote, microsoft a version of a note app, and Dropbox are everywhere.
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October 1st, 2013 at 11:29 pm
Ah, okay. Thanks for that. I’m not a MAC person, obviously, so I was a bit lost. lol
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October 1st, 2013 at 3:38 am
Formatting my table of contents made me so very happy and very proud of my non-tech self. I agree, having the link to the dictionary front and center is a good idea for those of us who need help with the “otherness”. Yay You!!
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October 1st, 2013 at 9:00 am
Mwahahaha – you /are/ a techie then. π
And yes, I do feel a lot happier now. At least I know I’ve provided some sort of help. I very much wanted to include a map as well, but the graphics quality of the ordinary Kindle is just shades of grey so my existing maps are blurred and useless but… One step at a time. π
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October 1st, 2013 at 2:29 am
Your adaptations always impress me. π I can’t imagine the amount of work it must have taken to create a novel set in an entirely different world. I imagine you must have kept meticulous notes!
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October 1st, 2013 at 8:56 am
Gods…I have a HUGE folder on my pc dedicated to nothing else but notes. Sadly I need them because my imagination only works in very small, incremental steps. That’s part of the reason I can’t outline before I start writing. I simply can’t ‘see’ things that clearly. I know there are a lot of writers who do and /they/ always make me feel inadequate.
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October 1st, 2013 at 9:21 am
It’s whatever works for you. I’m a big outliner, but that’s my Type-A nature’s fault, I think. π
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October 1st, 2013 at 10:13 am
lol – I’m not familiar with those personality categories. What’s a Type-A, or B for that matter?
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October 1st, 2013 at 10:14 am
Type A is someone who likes things a certain way. Not high strung so much as disciplined. Type B is a little more laid back. They don’t use those terms in Australia?
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October 1st, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Not that I’m aware of, but I’ve been out of the general workforce for a while. I guess I must be a Type B then.:)
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October 1st, 2013 at 1:56 am
I often just build a TOC out of hyperlinks. I find this has much more control than any TOC functions in Word. All of my Kindle books are written in Word, and simply adding bookmarks and hyperlinks to those book marks have eliminated so much wasted steps and frustration.
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October 1st, 2013 at 8:50 am
I couldn’t go back to Word Jason, never, never. I wish you’d try the eval copy of StoryBox. It’s like a database, word processor and project manager all rolled into one. Plus it makes uploading to Kindle or Kobo so easy as it can export as rtf, mobi or epub.
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October 1st, 2013 at 1:14 am
Oh dear. Something more to wrap my head around. π Really useful, though. Thanks.
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October 1st, 2013 at 8:44 am
lol – sorry! I was just so euphoric last night I couldn’t help myself. π
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October 1st, 2013 at 1:11 am
I am very, very, very impressed. I’m such a non-techie that I can’t even imagine implementing your plan and YOU did it! Maybe that’s a fundamental difference between science fiction writers and mystery writers. Your science & technology can be real!
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October 1st, 2013 at 8:43 am
lol – thanks. π I do like my gadgets but real techies would laugh at all the mistakes I make. My learning style is pure trial and error!
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