Linking to Related Documents

Lengthy documents, such as books, are easier to view online when you divide them into a series of short documents, each of which fits approximately on a single screen and can be read with a minimum of scrolling. You guide readers through your information by creating links to related documents. Your readers can then jump from one short document to the next in the sequence you think best. For example, this booklet, which is available online from the Contents on the Help menu, has been created as a series of short documents, one for each section and subsection. A parent document specifies the sequence of all sections in a given chapter. Each sequence has a beginning document and an end document. A top document contains the Table of Contents and specifies the sequence of all chapters, as well as all the other elements in the booklet. To read sequentially through the entire booklet online, you begin with the top document, and then move to each section in sequence by clicking the Next Document button. To return to the previous section, you click the Previous Document button. In addition, all the short documents that make up this booklet are linked to a group of related documents containing information such as the index and the publisher, copyright, and trademark information.

You can apply the same technique to your own long documents to make them easier to read online. You use the Links tab sheet in the Document Info dialog box to organize your information and create the links to related documents. Your readers use the Links commands on the Go menu or the Links toolbar to move through your information following the organization you've established. From the Links tab sheet, you can create links for these relations:

Relation Links to
Author information about the author
Beginning Document the first document in the current sequence
Bibliography the bibliography for the document
Contents the table of contents linking to the document
Copyright the copyright information for the document
Disclaimer information related to any disclaimers related to this document
Editor information about the editor
End Document the last document in the current sequence
Glossary the glossary for the document
Index the index for the document
Next Document the next document in the current sequence
Parent Document the document immediately above the current document
      in the document structure
Previous Document the previous document in the current sequence
Publisher information about the publisher
Top Document the root document for the entire document structure
Trademark trademark information


$\blacktriangleright$    To create a link to a related document

  1. From the File menu, choose Document Info.

  2. Choose the Links tab.

  3. Select the relation for which you want to specify a link.

  4. In the File Selection box, type the address of the target. The target can be a document, an Internet location, or a marker in a document or Internet location (designated by #).

  5. Choose Link.

  6. Repeat steps 3–5 for all other relations you want to specify.

  7. Choose OK. The program establishes the links, which become active on the Links menu and the Links toolbar.


$\blacktriangleright$    To jump to a related document