Table of Contents Chapter Descriptions
While it’s easy to create a table of contents using EightShapes Unify, those handy TOCs can sometimes serve a dual purpose: help someone find a specific page, but also help someone understand what a document contains (and, implicitly, what you may be covering during a meeting).
What
Therefore, I recent found it necessary to add more descriptive information about chapters of my deliverable by adding what I’ll call Table of Contents Chapter Descriptions. This page pattern (depicted below) includes presized grouped objects that include a gray horizontal rule plus a text area for the description you can place to the right of an area of your TOC.
How
When you drop the page pattern on top of an existing table of contents, you’ll have a few handy symbols and text areas to write up a brief description or rationale for each area of your document.
Considerations:
- The groups themselves (including the header text labels like “Wireframe Libraries”) are defined by adding Chapter pages to your document.
- Every time you update your table of contents, you may need to move the group objects around a bit.
Why
- These groups more effectively defined the document’s content without having to resort to an “About this Document” page that no one ever reads anyway.
- These groups set expectations as to what someone will find in each chapter.
- These groups – and the TOC in general – serve as a great way to start off a meeting with “Over the next hour, we’ll be covering…”
When
This page pattern will be available in the next release of EightShapes Unify.