Creating Links within your Publications

One of the unique advantages of hypertext mediums such as HTML is the ability to create hyperlinks which the user can click to access related information. WordToWeb has a number of features which can create hyperlinks automatically based on the information in your source Word documents.

The first two items described below, the Table of Contents and Navigation buttons, provide a way of giving an overall structure to your online document, so that the reader can navigate and find major topics. The final three items, cross-references, index entry-based cross-references and AutoLinking, provide a way to create "ad hoc" links within your publication.

Table of Contents (TOC) Links

The table of contents provides an easy way for the reader to find major topics within your publication. WordToWeb will create a global table of contents for any publication which consists of more than one HTML page. In addition, you can also create a local table of contents at the top of each page. This is very useful if you have longer pages which contain multiple headings.

WordToWeb creates the table of contents links based on the headings in your documents. If you have not used the standard Word heading styles, you will need to specify unique font formatting which identifies the headings in your source documents. See Working with Word Heading Styles and Converting Documents which don't Use Styles later in this chapter for more information.

You can control how the table of contents is formatted in Wizard Panel 2.

Navigation Buttons

Navigation buttons are essential anytime you have a publication which consists of more than one HTML file. Navigation buttons allow the reader to "page" through your publication in a similar fashion to reading a book. These buttons also allow the reader to easily access important pages, such as the table of contents, index, and your website's home page.

You can choose between text navigation links or graphic buttons. You can control the setup of navigation buttons in Wizard Panel 3. Click the Edit Page Layout button, and then check the Navigation Buttons box on the left side of the dialog box. For more information, see the information on setting up Navigation Buttons in the previous chapter.

Cross-references

Cross-references are a feature of Microsoft Word which allow you to easily create a dynamic reference to another portion of your Word document. Cross-references help insure that any references you make to other headings in your document are consistent—even if you later change the referenced heading.

The basic idea is that instead of manually typing a phrase like, "for more information, see XXXX" you use a cross-reference to the heading "XXXX." This way, if you have multiple references to "XXXX" you can be sure that spelling and capitalization will be consistent, and if you later change heading "XXXX" to "YYYY", your cross-references can be updated automatically.

Cross-references are ideal for publications which will be converted to HTML because WordToWeb can turn the cross-reference into a live hypertext link. For this reason, you may wish to consider using cross-references in your documents even if have not previously used this feature.

1. Type the text leading into the reference, for example: "for more information, see also…"
2. From Word's Insert menu, choose Cross-reference. The Cross-reference dialog box will appear. (The Word 97 dialog box is shown; Word 95 uses a slightly different dialog box, but the process is similar).


Figure 22 - The Word Cross-references Dialog box

3. In the "Reference type" list, choose Heading. If you want your cross-reference to act as a clickable hyperlink in your Word document, leave Insert as Hyperlink checked.
4. Select the heading to which you want to make a reference. If you wish, you can also create a cross-reference to another item type, such as a bookmark, illustration, etc.
5. Click the Insert button to insert the cross-reference.

Index Entry-based Cross-references

One disadvantage creating hypertext links based on cross-references is that you must manually create each cross-reference in your source documents. This can be a problem if you need to translate existing documents which don't already use cross-references.

Index entry-based cross-references are an alternative method of creating links to related information. These cross-references are generated automatically by WordToWeb based on an analysis of the index entries in your documents. When WordToWeb finds common index entries on different HTML pages, it assumes that the pages contain related information and creates a "see also" link.

Index entry-based cross-references are discussed in Chapter 2, in the section on wizard panel 2, To Specify Index Options. For more information on how to mark index entries and create an index in your Word documents, search Word's online help for "index."

AutoLinking

Autolinking provides a way to turn specific words or phrases in your document into hypertext links. This is a great way give your readers easy access to related information anywhere on your website or the Internet.

For example, you might have two related online manuals posted on your website. Perhaps one manual refers to the other by title: "for more information on this subject, please see the Company Procedures Manual." Autolinking allows you to turn every occurrence of the phrase "Company Procedures Manual" into a hypertext link, so the reader can easily access the online procedures manual.

Another good way to use AutoLinking is with e-mail links. You can turn every occurrence of an individual's or department's name into an e-mail link. Readers can then just click to send a message.

For details on how to set up AutoLinking, see Cross-references and AutoLinking in the section on Wizard Panel 5.

Related Topics

Some Basic Terminology

Wizard Panel 3

Wizard Panel 5