18 Front Matter
You may wish to include an Introduction, Acknowledgements or other material before the start of your book. Pressbooks lets you easily format these and other items as front matter in your book, which will appear prior to the main body.
This chapter will explain:
- How to create, edit, delete and change front matter items
- Types of front matter, and how to create them
1. How Front Matter Works
Front matter is the stuff that goes at the beginning of the book — before you get into the meat and potatoes. Front matter can include such things as: Preface, Dedication, Foreword, as well as the Title Page and Copyright page.
Front matter items function similarly to chapters. You can create, edit, delete, rename or reorder front matter items the same way that you would with Chapters, with one additional option.
The Front Matter Types menu lets you indicate an item’s type – which may change how it is styled in outputs.
2. Types of Front Matter, and How to Create Them
Pressbooks lets you specify 21 types of front matter, including Miscellaneous.
These types are:
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- Before Title Page
- Chronology, Timeline
- Dedication
- Disclaimer
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- Genealogy, Family Tree
- Image Credits
- Introduction
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Characters
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Miscellaneous
- Other Books by Author
- Preface
- Prologue
- Recommended Citation
- Title Page
To indicate front matter type:
- On the Dashboard, go to Text, then Organize.
- Click on Edit next to a front matter item.
- In edit mode, go to the Front Matter Types menu.
- Indicate the item’s type.
- Press publish.