Help Indesign Book TOC and Anchors/Cross Reference

[kathyc43099740]

Help.  I have a very large book that I am trying to add anchors/cross reference links from my TOC to the different sections of my book.  I created the book in indesign 2020 and I have all the individual files in the book, but how can I link my TOC to the different sections of the book, specifically to different headings in each individual section?  I looked at the tutorial, but I'm not getting how to link to the individual files. 

[Barb Binder]

Hi Kathy:

When InDesign creates a table of contents, it will create hyperinks to the headings automatically, as long as you enable the Create PDF Bookmarks checkbox in the Table of Contents dialog box. You do not need to add x-refs.

• To follow the links in the InDesign file, use Window > Interactive > Bookmarks. 
• To follow the links in Acrobat or Reader, export to Adobe PDF (Print) and enable the Include Bookmarks checkbox, or export to Adobe PDF (Interactive) which enables the bookmarks automatically. Then just click a heading in the TOC and Acrobat/Reader will jump to the page with the heading.

~Barb

[kathyc43099740]

Thanks.  I created a separate document for my TOC and added the individual sections.  Will this still work in this instance?

[Randy Hagan]

I think we're talking about two issues here: one establishing a ToC for multiple files which compile a single book, and the second for using the resulting ToC to drive cross-references between spots in the book.

On the first, I can offer a definitive answer. You need to:

1) Create paragraph style(s) which you will use consistently through the book to create headers for your Table of Contents. Ideally, these will match up with Chapter/Section/Division title(s) which have already been placed in your book. Beyond style formatting, assigning specific paragraph styles lay the groundwork for defining your Table of Contents entries. You can learn more about that here:

InDesign Paragraph Styles

2) You need to compile an InDesign book file (.indb) which will contain your various InDesign documents which comprise your book, sort them in order for your desired sequence and, if necessary, repaginate them to establish consistent page numbering throughout the book. Book functions let you take the tools for creating a Table of Contents for an InDesign publication and apply those same capabilities across a multiple number of InDesign documents. The following link explains that in more detail:

InDesign Book Files

3) Finally, you need to set up your Table of Contents, applying the critical paragraph styles already created, addressing the multiple InDesign documents you've made and incorporated into an InDesign book file and creating the text file you'll place and massage into your book's Table of Contents. The link below will explain how you can do that:

Building an InDesign Table of Contents

However, you will not be applying cross-referencing through your Table of Contents with InDesign. InDesign creates and applies cross-referencing through its indexing functions and direct tagging of text in your documents. You can learn more about InDesign cross-referencing here:

InDesign Cross-References

I know this is a rather extensive reading assignment, but going through these links will give you the recipe for building your Table of Contents and your indexing/cross-references the way you like.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[kathyc43099740]

Thank you both.  I will read the references you sent and hopefully they will help me.

Kathy

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi Kathy:

Once can generate a TOC for a single InDesign file—or for a multi-file book—using the Layout > Table of Contents command. Once you have successfully generated a TOC, the hyperlinks will work as described in my first answer. 

If you typed up the TOC yourself—instead of letting InDesign do it for you—then Randy provided some excellent resources on how to build a TOC correctly, using paragraph styles. 

~Barb