When your stack is done (when is a stack ever really done?), you may delete the Contents (cont)* and Index (cont)* cards if you're sure you don't need them. Push the "Update Page Nos" button if visible. Alphabetize the Index using the "Add Topic" button. You can "dress up" the Table of Contents by pressing "Add Topic", inserting blank lines between the desired card ids and indenting the card ids whose headings you want indented. Then delete or hide the "Add Footnote", "Add Topic", "Add Entry", "Add Contents Pg", and "Add Index Pg." buttons. (Hiding them may be safer, in case you need to make changes later.) Finally, compact the stack using HyperCard's "Compact Stack" menu option. This removes unneccessary disk space presently occupied by the stack.
It is up to you how much power to allow the reader of your stack. At the least, you should lock the "heading" and "text" fields in the page background to avoid accidents. Beyond this, you may wish to write scripts to hide the menu bar or to restrict the user level to "authoring" or "typing" (so the user can still add notes). Be sure your script resets the user level when closing the stack. (See the example in my script for the "Add Notes Pg." button.) Or you may use HyperCard's "Protect Stack" option to limit the user level and set a password to prevent further changes to the Protect Stack dialog.
