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Subject:Tables of contents? From:geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA Date:Thu, 17 Jul 1997 12:49:19 -0500
Salan Pazurik wondered <<Is there any merit to providing
two tables of contents--a "Contents at a Glance" and
"Contents in Detail"?>>
On the whole, a well-designed table of contents (TOC)
should be clear enough that the macrostructure is evident
without needing to create a separate table to reveal that
structure. All you have to do is use typography and white
space judiciously to separate chapter heads from headings
and subheadings. For a truly huge book, with many chapters
and dozens of headings and subheadings, you might be able
to justify a "summary' TOC... but I'd expect the TOC to be
at least 4 pages long before this would add any value,
because shorter TOCs would make the structure visible in
one or two glances.
There are two additional cases where specialized TOCs might
prove useful. One would be if you wanted to provide an
alternative "suggested reading order" that differs from the
one expressed in the main TOC. I'm not convinced this is
vital, but it _could_ prove useful. The second involves
using different _functional_ TOCs... for example, one for
the headings, and another for the tables or figures. I'm
convinced that this approach is useful based on personal
experience and anecdotes from colleagues.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
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