How To Hyperlink Chapters And Add A Clickable TOC Table Of Contents

When you list your chapter headings at the beginning of your book, don't put corresponding page numbers. Instead you hyperlink the heading to the chapter concerned. This means the reader can click on any chapter heading and automatically be taken straight to that page.

Kindles also have a “Click to Table Of Contents (TOC)” facility for readers as part of the actual hardware. If you embed the technical code instructions into your document, your reader can quickly navigate through your ebook at any time by pressing a button which will take them to the hyperlinked chapter listings at the front of your book.

Inserting Clickable TOC - Table Of Contents

You can find the simplest set of instructions on how to embed a TOC in Kindle’s June 2012 simplified guide Building Your Book For Kindle. Available free for both PC and Mac from the Amazon Kindle Store. It still took me a few go's before I got it, so here's a simplified version.

I first tried to do the TOC thing with my PC Laptop, thinking that I would be covered for the tedious technical “updates” that renders my old Mac useless on so many techie update occasions. I got so far, but then came totally unstuck because I don’t have the full, costly version, of Word on my PC Laptop, just the shortened version that the computer is sold with. GAH! So only embark on that route if you have more than the Starter Word kit installed on your PC. However, the Mac instructions tell you how to do it all manually, which I am sure would work on a PC as well.

First, go through your text chapter by chapter, highlighting each chapter heading and labelling it HEADING 1. To find HEADING 1, look at your top horizontal toolbar. Modern versions of Word will have a HOME tab, which is where you'll find it. Older versions have a little window called TEXT BODY and you'll find it in the drop down menu.

So, you've been through your text labelling your chapter headings HEADING 1 (Not 2,3,4 etc, just 1). The font will often change colour and position quite alarmingly. Don't worry, when you're done, just go through each one again changing it back to your preferred style, which won't delete the hidden link at all.

Next, highlight the TABLE OF CONTENTS heading of your chapter list. Go to INSERT at the very top of your computer screen commands > BOOKMARK. A box will appear. Under the command BOOKMARK NAME, type three letters: toc. (no full stop) Click > ADD.

An automatic Table of Contents will now appear when you publish to Kindle.

If you also want your own clickable chapter headings at the front of your book, under the heading TABLE OF CONTENTS, you can hyperlink each chapter number individually (see instructions below).

Hyperlinking

There is a wonderful video on You Tube that takes you through all the stages of turning your Open Office document into a PDF file. It also shows you how to make these hyperlinks and how to make your PDF document 'secure'. This is something you have to do before sending your book out to the public so that nobody can hack into it and change the content.

The You Tube video was made by Instantebookpublishing.com with no creator credited or I'd write his name loud and clear, it's called:

Creating PDF ebooks with Open Office

In case you don't have the You Tube link I'll explain it step by step as best I can below but you'll grasp how to do it so much faster if you watch the clip.

How to make chapter hyperlinks in Open Office:

Click on FORMAT (running across top of your computer screen) > Styles & Formatting

A box opens with a list of Headings. First you have to assign a Heading number to each chapter. Go to the opening page of your first chapter. Position your cursor at the end of the first chapter title, CHAPTER ONE, and double click on Heading 1. This often turns the text into bold and sometimes a completely different font, even a different coloured font. Don't worry about that for the moment.

Put the cursor at the end of 'CHAPTER TWO' chapter title and double click Heading 2 for chapter 2. Etc.

The Headings are numbered 1 – 10. If you have more than 10 chapters, continue your marking by going back to Heading 1 again. You won't wipe out the previous marking, the subsequent chapters will be logged as 2.1, 2.2 etc.

When you've done this go back to your chapter list. Highlight Chapter 1 by holding your mouse over the beginning of 'Chapter' and moving it to the end of the chapter title and releasing the click.

Now you're ready to Hyperlink the chapter heading to the actual chapter.

Go to the commands right at the very top of your screen: INSERT > Hyperlink (or click the hyperlink symbol on your toolbar).

A little screen appears. First click the 'Document' icon on the left of this little screen, the one with the green arrow pointing down.

Then click the image of the target icon in the centre of the three choices, under 'Target'.

A new little window opens to the left of the screen.

Click on 'Headings' and then click on the relevant chapter listed. Be careful about double clicking here as you can cancel your action out. Before going on to the next stage make sure there's a broken line surrounding your chosen chapter.

Double click Apply in the smaller window. See the words transfer to the larger window.

Double click Apply in the larger window.

You won't know if you've been successful until you've transferred the document to PDF, but if the chapter heading is now underlined you've probably done it.

BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER DO A TEST!

Transferring the document to PDF takes seconds. It's well worth checking you've cracked it before going through the whole document.

TO TEST:

Click FILE at the top of the Open Office command screen.

Click on Export to PDF.

Open your PDF (find in your 'documents' folder with same title as your Open Office file) and see if it works.

NB: Exporting to PDF in this quick way is only for testing. When exporting to your final PDF document there are other boxes to check for security and to ensure the document's not over-sized.

MAKING CORRECTIONS

If any of your links haven't taken. Go to the words you want hyperlinked then repeat INSERT > Hyperlink > Document > Target > Headings

Scroll down and see if your desired chapter is in the Headings list. If it is, highlight it with the broken lines and click > APPLY. Delete the broken words in your text and, with the cursor where you want the words to appear, type them instead in 'TEXT' > APPLY.

If your desired chapter isn't in the Headings list. Repeat the process from the beginning. Go to your chapter. FORMAT > Styles & Formatting > Double Click any Heading. If the texting indent changes, you won't be able to change it by hitting backspace or deleting the blank spaces. You have to go to the margin tags at the top of the page and readjust (sounds obvious but it took me ages before I twigged that one).

How to make chapter hyperlinks in Word:

Go to the opening page of your first chapter. Position your cursor at the end of the

first chapter title, CHAPTER ONE.

Click INSERT > Bookmark.

Write in Bookmark Name (C1) (has to be short or it won't work). Do this with all

your chapter titles throughout your ebook.

Go to the beginning of the document where you want your chapter listing to

appear. Highlight the words you want linked, i.e. 'Chapter One'.

Click INSERT > Hyperlink.

Highlight 'Document' in banner window.

In the 'Anchor' window type in your Bookmark Name (C1) > OK.

And your hyperlinked chapter heading will underline. Continue through.

Unlike Open Office, you can check that Word hyperlinks are working without having to transfer to PDF.

Once you've set up your chapters for hyperlinking you can use the same Headings again and again every time you wish to refer to something in a different chapter.

Don't forget to CHECK the hyperlinks are all working correctly on your final Kindle version.