Need a Button behavior: go to next chapter

Question

I have a book with about 20 files in it. Each file is a separate chapter. On my master pages, I need two buttons: one that jumps to the next chapter and one that jumps to the previous chapter. But, those destinations are different for each document in the book.
Is there a way to be able to set up a couple of master buttons that do this, or do I need to set this up manually and never resynchronize my master pages again? I suppose I could set up 20 different master pages, and then apply the appropriate master page to the body pages of each document, but that seems excessive. I don't want 400 master pages. I just want a couple of buttons that jump to the next chapter.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Hi, Kelly:
You can probably do this with either a dedicated TOC, index, hyperlinks, or cross-references. i haven't tested these beyond a quick experiment, so no guarantees one or more will suit your need.
* For the TOC method, you could apply a dedicated paragraph style, named for the chapter, to a paragraph in each file, then create a mini-TOC in each file that looks for the dedicated paragraph style in the next and previous files.
* For the index method, you'd need to create a dummy first-level topic in each file with a sub-level topic named for the chapter (for convenience). In each file, create an index for the book on a master page that's applied to all pages - you might need to create a based-on master page that's used by all master pages for this. When you generate the index, place it on the based-on master page, delete all entries except the chapter-named sub-entries, and synchronize it across all files in the book. This will create clickable PDF links to all chapters. In the index on each chapter's based-on master page, delete the all the entries except the two that point to the next and previous files. When you update the indexes, you'll have to delete the unwanted entries.
* For the hyperlink method, create links in each file to the next and previous file.
* For the cross-references method, create a cross-reference to the next and previous files. IDCS4 has built-in cross-references. For CS3 and CS2, you can use the free cross-reference script by Teus de Jong (search Google), or the commercial InDesign cross-references plug-in from dtptools.com, or virginiasystems.com.
* You'll need create a button-like graphic for the links you create with any of these methods..
* I'm not near my IDCS4 machine, so I can't check if it can export book chapter files separately. IDCS3 only exports a book as a single PDF. Also, in IDCS3, the links in the single PDF point to the destination chapters in the same document. If your goal is to create separate PDF chapters, you'll need to modify the links to point to the correct files.
i think the TOC would be simplest to maintain, especially if you capture and include all the chapter links in every file, like a thumb-tab.
Let us know if any of these off-the-top-of-the=head approaches work for you.
HTH
Regards,
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices