Table of Contents
For my book, I used one “page” for the title, subtitle, and author name. One page for the copyright and other “front-matter”. Then I have the Table of Contents, and then I start the main book text. You will see suggestions from some authors to put all this front-matter at the end of an e-book so the first ten percent has as much main text as possible. The front ten percent is what people see when they download the free Kindle Sample or when they click on the Look Inside option on your paperback webpage.
If your front-matter is more than six or seven pages, I would agree with putting as much as possible at the end of the book. Writers who want a gigantic number of pages for their publisher may add a summary TOC, a section about what the book will tell you, a section about what the first section of the book will tell you, a section about what the first chapter will tell you, etc., etc. I have seen some books with 20 pages of crap before you get to start reading the main text of the book!
I have written a non-fiction book and I want my readers to be able to see the TOC for free. Since that is one of only three pages of front-matter, I left it all in the front. A Table of Contents is very easy to setup in MS Word. You don’t even have to think about it until you have started your second chapter. On the first page of your main text, just type your chapter title and then select it. Then bring up the “Home” tab on your Command Ribbon and select the style called “Heading 1”. Be sure to select that style for every chapter title you write. Then you can adjust whether you want each chapter heading to be centered or bolded and what font you want them to be. After you have started your second chapter, you can create your Automatic TOC. Position your cursor at the end of the last page of front-matter. Insert a page break. Then click on the References tab on your Command Ribbon. Click on the TOC button and a list should drop down. Click on the “Automatic Table 2” option. This will create a TOC with page numbering. Click on the TOC button again and then click on the “Custom TOC” option near the bottom of the list. This will bring up a box where you can select a checkbox for “Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers”. Check that box and then click on the OK button. Finally, if your first chapter heading is on the same page as your TOC, just put the cursor in front of the first letter of the heading and insert a page break so the heading starts a new page.
Now that you have an automatic, hyperlinked TOC, you can utilize one of the coolest features of MS Word. Click on the View tab on the Command Ribbon and you should see a group of three checkbox options above the word “Show”. They are Ruler, Gridlines, and Navigation Pane. Check the Navigation Pane box and you should see a pane on the left side of your document that lists all your Chapter Headings. Clicking on any of those headings will move your cursor right to the start of that section. That’s an incredible time saver.
If your front-matter is more than six or seven pages, I would agree with putting as much as possible at the end of the book. Writers who want a gigantic number of pages for their publisher may add a summary TOC, a section about what the book will tell you, a section about what the first section of the book will tell you, a section about what the first chapter will tell you, etc., etc. I have seen some books with 20 pages of crap before you get to start reading the main text of the book!
I have written a non-fiction book and I want my readers to be able to see the TOC for free. Since that is one of only three pages of front-matter, I left it all in the front. A Table of Contents is very easy to setup in MS Word. You don’t even have to think about it until you have started your second chapter. On the first page of your main text, just type your chapter title and then select it. Then bring up the “Home” tab on your Command Ribbon and select the style called “Heading 1”. Be sure to select that style for every chapter title you write. Then you can adjust whether you want each chapter heading to be centered or bolded and what font you want them to be. After you have started your second chapter, you can create your Automatic TOC. Position your cursor at the end of the last page of front-matter. Insert a page break. Then click on the References tab on your Command Ribbon. Click on the TOC button and a list should drop down. Click on the “Automatic Table 2” option. This will create a TOC with page numbering. Click on the TOC button again and then click on the “Custom TOC” option near the bottom of the list. This will bring up a box where you can select a checkbox for “Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers”. Check that box and then click on the OK button. Finally, if your first chapter heading is on the same page as your TOC, just put the cursor in front of the first letter of the heading and insert a page break so the heading starts a new page.
Now that you have an automatic, hyperlinked TOC, you can utilize one of the coolest features of MS Word. Click on the View tab on the Command Ribbon and you should see a group of three checkbox options above the word “Show”. They are Ruler, Gridlines, and Navigation Pane. Check the Navigation Pane box and you should see a pane on the left side of your document that lists all your Chapter Headings. Clicking on any of those headings will move your cursor right to the start of that section. That’s an incredible time saver.
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