What is the best write a hyperlinked e-book?

[mark4asp]

Hello,

I want to write a hyperlinked book.

The book has a table of contents and several chapters.

Each chapter has several sections.

Each section may have several topics

Each topic may have several paragraphs.

[Possibly there may be even more levels with sub-topics and even
sub-sub-topics]

I would like to have a document map with collapsible titles and sub
titles - like those available with compiled html.

I also want a search feature, and ideally, an index.

Possibly I want the book to be indexed on the key words taken from the
paragraph headings (modified by chapter headings, as paragraphs in
different chapters may have the same headings.)

I should like a took which automatically produces index words [as this
is a big book, although that will need a lot of tidying up from me as
may index topics will be made up of several words]

The text of the book currently exists in MS word. It has only a few
embedded graphics.

What package should I be writing this in? I only really know word and
html (hand coded).

Should I be writing it in html and have it compiled to ebook form?
[It would be useful to have the book in easy to print format, but not
essential].

[If in word] Should I hyperlink to bookmarks or to headings? Is there
a way of producing collapsible document map titles by using bookmarks?

 

[Rene Pijlman]

mark4asp:

I want to write a hyperlinked book. [...]
What package should I be writing this in?

I haven't checked all your requirements, but I'd suggest to have a look at
DocBook. Its used by many open source projects to produce the
documentation in different formats (including hyperlinked HTML).
http://www.google.com/search?q=docbook

 

[Bill Burns [MVP]]

I haven't checked all your requirements, but I'd suggest to have a look at

DocBook. Its used by many open source projects to produce the
documentation in different formats (including hyperlinked HTML).
http://www.google.com/search?q=docbook

DocBook is an XML standard (DTD and schema) rather than an authoring tool
for developing content. You'd still need to index the files by hand, and
you'd still need a tool (XMetal, Arbortext Epic, XMLSpy, or FrameMaker 7) to
develop the content and to transform the raw XML into a presentation format.
It's a cool process when it's complete, but getting to the point of
completion is an involved process.

If you want a product that will allow you to continue working in Word, I
recommend either RoboHelp x4 or WebWorks Publisher 2003 for Word. I'm not
sure if ComponentOne's version of Doc-to-Help still runs on top of Word, but
that would be another option (although not one I would recommend).

If you want to convert your Word documents into a form that will give you
more flexibility and possibly more options for output, you might look at
Veredus (Rascal Software), AuthorIt, or RoboHelp. I think all of these have
auto-indexing capabilities. However, automated indexing is sure to produce a
lot of garbage. It's best to do this by hand. If you can hire a professional
indexer, all the better.

Bill Burns
MS Help MVP
(e-mail address removed)