Is it possible to create a fixed layout epub book with active toc and index in indesign?

[Mark Ben]

Good day all.

Please, i need your help again. A large paperback project i worked on a few weeks ago came back from the client requesting for a fixed epub format version to be uploaded on KDP.

The issue is that the client wants the fixed format to have a clickable TOC and active index. The index is about 350 and wants them all linkable wven though its a fixed format epub.

Please, how do i do this???? Is this possible???? However, the client already mentioned that he has a come accross a few fixed format epub files with these two clickable toc and indexes.

Please can anyone direct or guide me on how to do this?

Thanks in anticipation for a swift response.

is it possible to create a fixed layout epub book with active toc and index in indesign?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

The short answer is "yes." You can do both.

Of course, an in-text TOC is an ugly anachronism in an e-book, since you can do a much deeper one, one click away no matter where you are, using the EPUB or Kindle TOC function.

And an index is somewhat obsolete given the ability to search e-books; since most of what's called indexing these days is just keyword stacking, an index doesn't add much. If it's a professionally done index with concept entries as well as simple keywords, there's some value in including it. It is hard to do an index without (useless, dead) page numbers, though.

And fixed-layout EPUB is an obsolete format that should be avoided, especially for all- or mostly-text books, which this sounds like. Reflowable is the correct, modern, 'respect the medium' choice for e-books unless they are of the one-picture-per-page type like children's books or graphic novels.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

As to "how," though — it's just a matter of placing the TOC and the index in the book layout and making sure all hyperlinks etc. are turned on. Without a lot of work, though, the result will be ugly blue underlined links, which can't always be reformatted to something cleaner as links are often reader-dependent and -controlled.

It's worth finding out why the author wants these... lumps in his book, other than that he saw someone else do it. I also wouldn't do it for free or on the cheap; if he's not going to pay for this rather fussy, involved work that has no really good purpose, I'd politely decline/excuse.

[Mark Ben]

Thanks for your response James. How do i make sure all hyperlinks are "turned on" specifically since this is going to be a fixed format epub? Is there a specific function for that? I would like to see how it turns out before making the next decision.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

In the TOC setup, first of all, you will want to create two TOC "styles" — one for the reader's dynamic TOC and one for the in-text TOC. Create two separately named styles and use them separately, the 'print' one to lay the TOC in the book and the virtual one specified at export for the reader's use.

For both, you need to make sure that "Make text anchor in source paragraph" is checked in the TOC style. At the time of export, under the General pane, set "Navigation TOC" to "Multi Level" and select the virtual TOC style in the following drop-down.

That should do it. It should not be hard to get these two functions in the book and working, but it may be a lot of work to get them to appear (formatted, etc.) as you might like. Again, a large amount of how they are presented is handled by the reader itself, and it can be difficult to impossible to override certain aspects (like blue/underlined links).

This is all a "try and try again" situation. If something doesn't work, examine the relevant settings, change them, and try again.