A kind reader who purchased my new ebook asked me how I was able to create the hyperlinked sections within the ebook. There are a couple of ways that it can be done, but the way that I did it is built into Google Documents. 

Like nearly every document that I create, I created 50 Tech Tuesday Tips in Google Documents. Within Google Documents there is an option to insert headers and section breaks. When you insert a header into a Google Document that header is automatically added to the index that Google Docs automatically creates for you. Those headers are automatically hyperlinked between the index and the corresponding section in your document. Then when you export the Google Document as a PDF the hyperlinked is preserved. Additionally, if you use the automatic table of contents feature in Google Docs, the table of contents is hyperlinked and preserved when you export your Google Document as a PDF. 

The whole process that I described above is demonstrated in this short video. It’s one of those things that’s a little easier to understand when you see it as opposed to just reading about it. 

Applications for Education

Hyperlinking sections makes it a lot easier for people to jump to sections in a long document. If you or your students are creating long reports in Google Documents, consider adding section headers to make it easier navigate.