On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 11:46:10 -0700, Paul Novitski wrote: > I'm converting a book to a website and am mulling over various ways > to implement the text, index, and end-notes in web-standards, > accessible XHTML and CSS, potentially with the aid of scripting. I > welcome your feedback and links to existing examples on the net.
While I think the issues you are considering are more Information Architecture than Standards issues, the implementation can certainly be standards-based. > ============ > Index format > ============ > Here's an example of an index entry with both general page references > and three subentries: > > Carroll, Lewis, 40-50, 66 > Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 5, 24, 334 > childhood, 12-17 > Through the Looking-Glass, 23, 103, 334 My first thought is to put a name tag on each paragraph (I think it is only NN4 which doesn't handle this; in the unlikely event that this is a significant part of your user base you'd need to insert a named anchor tag instead) Then have the numbers link through to those marked paras. Exactly what the best item to display in the index is hard to say - paragraph number rather than the now irrelevent page number? > Carroll, Lewis, LINK, LINK > Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, LINK, LINK, LINK > childhood <--(itself a link) > Through the Looking-Glass, LINK, LINK I would consistently place Anchors on the numbers after, rather sometimes on the word and sometimes on the index item > In this latter model, does a range of instance numbers work for the > reader in the same way as a range of page numbers? Yes, it would take them to the beginning of the instance and give them an indication of how long the tract is. > ========== > End-notes: > ========== > A problem related to indexing, but simpler, is that of end-notes or > footnotes. Typically in print a footnote appears at the bottom of > the current page, whereas end-notes are clustered at the end of a > chapter or the book. You have more options than this - consider ABBR and ACRONYM title attributes too for very short notes. Also short paragraphs appearing and disappearing with javascript/css, inserted into the text appropriately. HIH Lea ~ looking for a permanent position in Brisbane - please contact me for CV -- Lea de Groot Elysian Systems - I Understand the Internet <http://elysiansystems.com/> Search Engine Optimisation, Usability, Information Architecture, Web Design Brisbane, Australia ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
