Generating a TOC in Pagemaker

You can create a table of contents from those heading styles that are marked for inclusion in your PageMaker publication. The TOC can reside in the same document as your eBook body or in a separate publication for use with PageMaker’s Book utility. I cover both methods in the following steps for creating a table of contents with hyperlink tags that can be exported to Acrobat.
To create a table of contents in the same publication as your eBook body, follow these steps:

1. In PageMaker, select the first page in your publication and choose Utilities➪Create TOC. The Table of Contents dialog box.
2. Type a new title or accept the default “Table of Contents” title in the text box provided and select one of the radio buttons in the Format area to specify the appearance and position of page numbers in the TOC. You can also specify a special character to appear between the entry and the page number (a tab space is the default) here.
3. Click OK to generate your table of contents story. A story in PageMaker terms is an independent text object with unique formatting that can be positioned anywhere in a page layout. The mouse pointer changes to the story flow cursor. Now you need to create empty pages in which to flow your TOC story.
4. Choose Layout➪Insert Pages and enter the desired number of empty pages you want inserted, select Before the Current Page from the drop-down list, and click the Insert button.
5. Go to the first of your newly inserted pages and click to flow your TOC story onto the empty pages from there.

To create a table of contents in a separate publication from your eBook body, follow these steps:

1. Create a new document from your eBook template containing the desired number of pages for your TOC and then save and name the publication.
2. Choose Utilities➪Book. The Book Publication List dialog box opens, This dialog box is used to specify the order of the publications you want to include in your book. Your current TOC document appears in the Book List on the right side of the dialog box.
3. In the list on the left, locate the documents you want to include and add them to the Book List by clicking the Insert button located between the two lists. Click OK to save your changes. You can remove files and change the order of files in the list using the appropriate buttons.
4. Choose Utilities➪Create TOC. The Table of Contents dialog box opens.
5. Type a new title or accept the default “Table of Contents” title in the text box provided and select one of the radio buttons in the Format area to specify the appearance and position of page numbers in the TOC. You can also specify a special character to appear between the entry and the page number (a tab space is the default) here. Note that when you’re creating a TOC from a document listed in a book publication, the Include Book Publications check box is automatically selected.
6. 6. Click OK to generate your table of contents story; then go to the first page of your TOC publication and flow your TOC story from there.

Your brand-new table of contents contains tagged hyperlink entries that will produce accurate bookmarks and page references in your eBook when converted to PDF and viewed in Acrobat. You can check your links in PageMaker by selecting the Hand tool on the floating toolbox. PageMaker inserts a text marker in front of every entry in the placed table of contents story in order to create hyperlink tags that will function when exported to tagged PDF. These text markers are visible only in story editor, (PageMaker’s text editing window) and if they are removed, the links will not operate. For this reason, if you are editing a TOC entry, be very careful not to press the Delete key when the insertion point is directly in front of a TOC entry or page-number reference, because this will remove the text marker from the publication. Your only recourse in such an event is to either close and reopen the document without saving (if you haven’t saved the changes already) or regenerate the TOC.
You can make text edits to your TOC entries (heeding the warning in the preceding paragraph), but if you decide to add any new entries in either the TOC or the body of your eBook, you will have to regenerate a new TOC to create links for those entries that will export to tagged PDF.

Setting up your eBook document in Pagemaker

The following list provides a number of important tips to utilize that will ensure high-quality output when you convert your eBook to tagged PDF. Some of the items deal with conversion settings that you specify in Acrobat Distiller prior to exporting your eBook document to PDF.

• When creating eBook content in PageMaker or any other layout program, make sure to set up a smaller page size so that your text won’t be distorted when rendered in the smaller screen area provided by your eBook reader of choice. A 6-x-9-inch page dimension with 1⁄2- or 3⁄4-inch margins all around translates well to desktop and laptop screen resolutions.
• Target output resolution should be 300 dpi or better to ensure clear, crisp text when the file is down-sampled and compressed during the PDF conversion process.
• Try to use your system’s Base 14 fonts in your eBook document. Otherwise, choose fonts that have strong serifs and strokes. If these font properties are too delicate, they’ll distort and cause reading difficulty when displayed in the Adobe Reader or Acrobat. In addition, be sure to embed those fonts you decide to use in the converted PDF. You can experiment with the readability of a chosen font by converting a test document to PDF and viewing it in Acrobat or Adobe Reader using a variety of magnifications and CoolType settings. You might also check for differences when viewing the eBook on a CRT or LCD computer screen.
• The minimum font size for body text should be 12 points. Use at least 2 points of leading. If you want to spread out your text, select a wider tracking value for your chosen font rather than using character kerning. Tracking can be applied globally and produces more significant visual enhancement than kerning, which also bulks up the size of your file.
• When creating paragraph heading styles in PageMaker, make sure you specify their inclusion in your table of contents by clicking the Include in Table of Contents check box in the Paragraph Specifications dialog box. You can open this dialog box by selecting the heading text in your document and choosing Type➪Paragraph or pressing Ctrl+M (Ô+M on the Mac). You can also access this dialog box while editing styles. Choose Type➪Define Styles, select a heading style in the Style list box, click the Edit button to open the Style Options dialog box, and finally, click the Para button.

Four things to consider when optimizing e-books for mobile devices

Graphic size and page layout are definitely restricted by the screen size of handheld devices, so it’s better to develop eBooks that you want to view on those devices in Microsoft Word, which is text-based and has Acrobat 6 features built in that enable you to create tagged PDF files with the click of a button. Here are a few considerations to take into account in order to optimize eBooks designed for Palm OS or Microsoft Pocket PC handheld devices:

• Graphics: With handheld device screen resolutions running between 320 x 320 for Palm OS devices and 320 x 240 for Pocket PC devices, graphics must be optimized for the target screen size if they’re used at all. Note that while the majority of Pocket PC and newer Palm devices in use have color screens, many more older Palm devices are out there right now without color. You could consider preparing your graphics in grayscale (thus creating a smaller file) for this reason.
• Fonts: Use the common Base 14 system fonts that are installed on your computer. These typefaces have been optimized for on-screen viewing and produce the best results when viewed on a handheld device.
• Paragraphs: Separate paragraphs with an additional hard carriage return for clearer visibility on the Palm handheld screen.
• Conversion settings: For grayscale Palm handheld devices, Adobe suggests some slight changes to the eBook job option in the Acrobat Distiller.

Adobe currently offers three free versions of Adobe Reader for hand-held devices that support Palm OS, Pocket PC, or Symbian OS (which runs on Nokia Communicator devices).
The Acrobat Readers are applications that are installed on their respective handheld devices and are designed to accommodate their specific screen characteristics. In addition to the reader software, the PocketPC and Symbian OS versions includes a Windows desktop application for preparing and transferring a PDF to a user’s handheld device. The Palm OS reader includes a desktop application for both Macintosh and Windows and a HotSync conduit. To handle synchronization, the Pocket PC version includes the ActiveSync filter, which has an added feature that attempts to create tags from untagged PDF files prior to uploading them to the Pocket PC handheld device.