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Fab Dog
Participating Frequently
June 3, 2021
Question

How to create an image only TOC for EPUB?

  • June 3, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 1045 views

What is the best way to create a Table of Contents for an EPUB, that links directly to images that have no text (no title, no header, no caption)? Is there a way?

 

Thank you!!!!!

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3 replies

F
Fab DogAuthor
Participating Frequently
June 4, 2021

This is what I found for my FIXED LAYOUT EPUB:

 

placing the text box outside the page, or making the layer non printing just "suppressed" the TOC and the entries did not show on the EPUB.

What did work was creating text boxes with the the images' names, and placing them in a visible, printing layer, behind the image, inside the destination page, and then assigning them a paragraph style and including that in the TOC. The "trick" was to move the layer with the labels behind the one with the images.

So that worked, even though it feels like an improvised workaround. Also, I'm not sure how it would work in a REFLOWABLE EPUB, or if any of the "hidden" text boxes would show up at the end of a different reader!

Anyways, thanks for the help!

    Diane Burns
    Diane Burns
    Inspiring
    June 3, 2021

    You can create a text frame that sits on the edge of the page, adjacent to the image, but with the text itself off the page (via indent or just a large text frame), so the text doesn't show on the page. This text can be styled and pulled into the TOC. 

    But the question is, what is your reader clicking on in the TOC? Is it text such as "Image 1," that sort of thing? Then that is the text that would sit in the text frame next to the image.

      F
      Fab DogAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      June 3, 2021

      Thanks, Diane! I hadn't thought of that, but will def try it and post the results here.

       

      Thank you for the help!

      Peter Spier
      Community Expert
      Peter SpierCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 3, 2021

      Not tested, but have you tried creating "blank" paragraphs with a style to trigger a TOC listing and anchoring your images into the "text" in the paragraphs?

      F
      Fab DogAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      June 3, 2021

      wouldn't that create a blank item on the TOC?

      How could I name it, say "image01"?

      I'm thinking maybe something with object styles, section names, or something similar to an "alt" label?

       

      Thanks for the help!

      Peter Spier
      Community Expert
      Peter SpierCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 3, 2021

      I just checked, and unfortunately you are correct. The anchored image does not show up in the TOC, so I'm out of ideas at the moment.

       

      But I'm thinking I may have misinterpreted your question. I thought you meant how do you make the TOC consist of only images, whereas maybe you meant how do you make it point to images.

       

      If that's what you meant, then you can do what I do for making an "index to advertisers" TOC (I wrote an article about how to do this years ago for InDesign Magazine). I make non-printing text frames to tag the ads, using a style set to trigger a TOC entry and group it with ad (or in your case, the image). I make the text big and red so it's easy to see it's there, but that's just me. The key is to set that frame to non-printing.

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