Add glossary entries

You can make any word or phrase in your book a glossary term. Readers can tap or click a term to view its definition in an overlay, or view the term in the book’s glossary. You can add graphics or images to glossary entries, as you can to other text.

If a term appears in a book multiple times, you can make one instance (typically the term’s first appearance) the primary definition. This instance of the term appears in boldface in the book. You can specify other occurrences of the term to link to the definition as well; these are called index links, and they appear in italics. A reader can tap or click a primary definition or an index link to view the term’s definition. In the glossary, readers can tap or click a term or one of its index links to view the term in context in the book.

Creating glossary terms and index links is easy using the glossary toolbar (if you don’t see it, choose View > Show Glossary Toolbar):

To view the complete list of terms, click Glossary in the sidebar or click the Glossary button at the far right of the glossary toolbar.

Create a glossary term

Select the text you want to make a glossary term.
If the glossary toolbar isn’t showing, choose View > Show Glossary Toolbar.
In the glossary toolbar, click Add Term.
If the Add Term button isn’t available (if it’s dimmed and says “Added”), the term has already been added to the glossary.
By default, the new term becomes the primary definition and appears in the text in boldface.
To add a term’s definition, click Glossary in the sidebar (or click the term in the book), make sure the term is selected in the Terms list, select the placeholder definition text, and type the definition.
To link another occurrence of this term to the definition (so that the reader can tap or click the term to view the definition), select the occurrence in the book, choose the term from the “Index Link for” pop-up menu in the glossary toolbar, and click Add Link.
An index link doesn’t have to exactly match its term. For example, a glossary entry for “kitten” could include an index link to “cat.” Select “cat” in the book, choose “kitten” from the “Index Link for” pop-up menu, and click Add Link.

Modify glossary entries

Click Glossary in the sidebar.
Do any of the following:
- Add a term: Click the Add button . If you add a term this way (rather than by selecting a specific instance in the book, as described above), the term appears in the glossary but isn’t linked to a specific occurrence in the book. You can add links to the term any time, using the steps above.
- Rename a term: Double-click its name in the Terms list, type the new term, and press Return.
- Delete a term: Select it and click the Delete button , or press Delete.
- Add a related glossary term to an entry: Drag the term from the list to the area below Related Glossary Terms.
- Make an index link the primary definition: Select the term in the Terms list. In the area below Index, move the pointer over the index link you want as the primary definition. Click the triangle to the left of the index link and choose Primary Definition from the pop-up menu, so that a checkmark appears.
- Help manage long lists of glossary terms: You can assign one of three status labels (colors) to terms. For example, you could use blue for terms that don’t yet have definitions, red for terms whose definitions are incomplete, and green for terms with complete definitions. Click the dot next to a term in the Terms list and choose a label from the pop-up menu.

You can’t delete the Glossary element from a template, but if you don’t add any glossary entries, your completed book won’t have a glossary.