Table Of Contents Module

1. 79

   Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years ago

   I hate to compare Hubpages to Squidoo (I make no money on Squidoo and quite a bit here), but I do know that Squidoo has a table of contents feature and Hubpages does not.
   
   I sincerely believe this would lower bounce rates and increase the amount of time spent on pages.  All we need is a module we can put up at the top that automatically links to each module (by name).
   
   I understand there is a way to create your own (See: Oli's Discworld hub) but this is very frustrating.  It would be much more beneficial to everyone if we had a Table Of Contents module.

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   1. 86

      Stacie Lposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I write on Wizzley and they have a table of contents module.
      I don't see any difference in view using it or not.

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      1. 79

         Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Do you see a difference in Time Spent On Page or Bounce Rate?

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         1. 86

            Stacie Lposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            to be honest i see more time spent on ads...

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2. 83

   WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

   I agree that a ToC would be a really useful addition. I did generate one in one hub according to instructions someone posted, but found it a very difficult and complicated process, which took me over an hour to get right.

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   1. 66

      2uesdayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I also would like to be able to have a table of contents capsule to use on some of my pages.

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3. 68

   relacheposted 12 years ago

   It only takes about five minutes to build a table of contents.  And the link capsule works just fine for doing so.

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   1. 86

      Stacie Lposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I'd like to learn that...just because my wizzley articles sections don't get more attention maybe it would be different here on Hubpages

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   2. 83

      WriteAngledposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Actually, no it didn't when I tried. It took me an hour or more following the instructions someone had given in a hub.
      
      I have no idea how I would use the link capsule for this purpose because I only have one link for the whole hub.
      
      Condescending replies like yours are totally unhelpful.

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   3. 79

      Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hammering nails with a tree branch works just fine too, but if a better tool hadn't been invented, we'd still be using sticks.  It's thinking like yours that hinders progress.
      
      For someone with web design experience like myself, it only takes 5 minutes, but it's annoying when I know other websites that are similar already have that function built in (and it takes less than 5 seconds).
      
      You could save over 16.5 hours and have a functional and aesthetically pleasing Table Of Contents on every single one of your 200 hubs.  Imagine the hubs you could write (or updates to existing hubs) that could be done in 16.5 hours!

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4. 68

   relacheposted 12 years ago

   I have functional and aesthetically-pleasing table of contents capsules on the Hubs I wish, and I think they work much better being hand-built rather than the automated versions that exist at Squidoo. (BTW, I make a lot of money there, but quite a bit more here)
   
   Personally, I'd rather admin put their time into developing features that keep HubPages unique rather than imitating Squidoo.

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5. 77

   sunforgedposted 12 years ago

   A TOC capsule would be useful. I can also knock one together here rather easily, But a capsule would be a better solution.
   
   I dont see it as "imitating Squidoo (Or Wizzley)" or Wordpress for that matter, all 3 of those platforms have integrated TOC features simply because it is a good and common sense idea.
   
   I think most would agree that the stylized TOC at those platforms is far more "aesthetically pleasing" then the knobbed together link lists with gray backgrounds that you describe as such.
   
   On the other hand, I dont think the TOC does much of anything for your visitors. Its just a fun frill. Im sure most skip right by unless you have an absolutely enormous wall of text and they happen to have the patience and savvy to bother using it.
   
   Nor is "lowering bounce rates" an essential task, check out Peter Hoggans most recent hub to see an explanation if that seems like an odd statement to you.
   
   The note about aesthetics actually made me smile, crushing all your text into 25% of the screen real estate into tiny single columns is absolutely NOT pleasing. It probably creates a great clickthrough rate for adsense though, as the viewers wants to bounce out to somewhere they can actually "read" the content as soon as possible!

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   1. 79

      Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I can't stand the way the link list ones look right now.  They're so gaudy.

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6. 77

   sunforgedposted 12 years ago

   Hmm.. The HubPage search feature is a little on the suck side.
   
   the search term "Darkside Table Of Contents" doesnt bring up his hub for all the filters i tried, ho hum
   
   As far as I know this is the one that started them all and is solid.
   
   http://darkside.hubpages.com/hub/tableofcontents
   
   If you add "firebug" to firefox or use the "inspect element" function in chrome you wont even have to bother looking at the page source.
   
   Figured, Id share, just in case any of the difficulty is stemming from poorly written tutorials on the topic.

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