Apologies since this article was published long ago, but curious if it is possible to test anchor links before publishing?
I imagine that many of us want our TOCs to function inside the email our subscriber receives, as opposed to publishing the post and then adding the TOC after. Since the #§ method requires a LOT of trust in manually entering the appropriate and supposed anchor links based on the headings inside the post, I want to test those links before I send the post to hundreds of people, but when I test inside preview or in the test email, the anchor links don't exist yet and produce page not found errors (which makes sense, since the post URL is not live yet).
Anyone have any suggestions? Or perhaps a more trustworthy way of generating the anchor links BEFORE publishing without manually typing them in based on the headings throughout the post? If my own research holds true, there is no way to publish the post, add the functional TOC, and THEN send the post to one's subscribers. Thanks in advance!
Thank you -- I write long posts and this will be incredibly useful!
I'm also subscribing to your Substack because some of my scholarship involves the Jackson's film adaptations of Tolkien's novel, so the "textual variations" topic is intensely interesting to me (was trained in lit studies so had to pick up some of the film studies ideas on my own).
We actually met back around 2014, I think, at a Tolkien studies panel of the PCA conference. I presented about the many different versions of The Hobbit, including fan revisions. I also helped with the screening of the Hobbit 1 Extended Cut by using my computer - I think I was the only one with a functioning DVD player or something.
Anyway, thanks for subscribing and I'm happy my article helped you. Also, if you're looking for things to read about the Jackson film adaptations and/or Tolkien in general, I have currently one piece published here on my site (https://textualvariations.substack.com/p/saruman-rotk-cut) and I can recommend checking out JRR Jokien's newsletter here: https://www.jrrjokien.com
Hi Mikhail: Wow--lovely to see you! I totally remember your presentation *and* your tech support to show the film--but I have a terrible memory for names, and it's getting worse the older I get. I'm sorry for the delay in replying: I was in the middle of organizing the sessions for the 2025 Tolkien Studies area at PCA (we're in Chicago next year, first f/f since 2019).
I am definitely on the lookout for more people writing about Jackson and/or Tolkien (and nowadays the ROP -- although I don't plan to work on it, I have some friends doing incredible work on the adaptation). And "Jokien with Tolkien" is a lovely site (I saw your guest post on Sauron in ROP). Some on Substack: Mercury Natis posted a great piece on casting for S2 of Sauron (https://anditsfolkarequeerer.substack.com/p/tolkien-rings-of-power-and-the-spectre). And there are some others (I realized I should do a Tolkien Substack Recommendations post not to mention work out how to use the Rec feature on Substack).
I have posted the presenters at the TSA since I started it on my Substack as well -- turns out you were there in 2017!
Hey, Robin. Thank you! I was very happy to be there in 2017, as you correctly point out. I do believe I attended another conference without presenting on Tolkien though. In any case, very happy to have met you and that you were able to find some good JRR Substacks.
Yes, Jokien with Tolkien is a great site. I plan to publish more LOTR articles there over time. I def-ly think you should make a Tolkien Substack Recommendations post - it would complement your lists nicely.
Also, apologies for the long gap between my responses: things got busy in January and then February saw me mostly step away from the platform to deal with real life. Now, I'm slowly trying to come back.
Hi Mikhail, great to point this out. Can be very helpful. In my experience, step 2 and 3 are absolutly not necessary. Substack seems to convert the anchor links to the publish version as soon as your post is published. It works for me, in any case.
I'm new to Substack. Much of how Substack works seems great. It might build followers better than a standalone WordPress blog. But yikes! Such a fuss to get a TOC! In WP you add a plugin, tick "add TOC" and then do nothing but write! So easy. Substack & Medium are lite & social which is their power. But a fussy, manual TOC is crazy! :(
I'm having trouble making anchor links. I used to be able to do it, but seem to have forgotten. I post. roundup of posts by 60 authors. I want to create sections so people can click and go directly to what they are interested in (i.e. Public Affairs, Poetry, Dining). HELP!
I have been using this solution for a while but it has two problems. One is that it forces a reload of the page. The other is that it is a link to a section in the original page - if you duplicate the page, or any other textual operation, you get a link to the original page, not to the new page.
Substack should support intra-page links natively.
The hovering icon almost never appears in the editor. You need to publish the post first. The hovering icon definitely appears in the published post. Then you re-edit your article and insert the links.
Unbelieve that this isn't a native supported feature in Medium.com OR Substack newsletters. What is going on with the world today?!
:)
Apologies since this article was published long ago, but curious if it is possible to test anchor links before publishing?
I imagine that many of us want our TOCs to function inside the email our subscriber receives, as opposed to publishing the post and then adding the TOC after. Since the #§ method requires a LOT of trust in manually entering the appropriate and supposed anchor links based on the headings inside the post, I want to test those links before I send the post to hundreds of people, but when I test inside preview or in the test email, the anchor links don't exist yet and produce page not found errors (which makes sense, since the post URL is not live yet).
Anyone have any suggestions? Or perhaps a more trustworthy way of generating the anchor links BEFORE publishing without manually typing them in based on the headings throughout the post? If my own research holds true, there is no way to publish the post, add the functional TOC, and THEN send the post to one's subscribers. Thanks in advance!
Thank you for your comment. I will look into this and update the article if I come up with a solution.
THANK YOU!!!!
Thank you.
Thanks for sharing!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you -- I write long posts and this will be incredibly useful!
I'm also subscribing to your Substack because some of my scholarship involves the Jackson's film adaptations of Tolkien's novel, so the "textual variations" topic is intensely interesting to me (was trained in lit studies so had to pick up some of the film studies ideas on my own).
Hey, Robin! It's nice to see you here.
We actually met back around 2014, I think, at a Tolkien studies panel of the PCA conference. I presented about the many different versions of The Hobbit, including fan revisions. I also helped with the screening of the Hobbit 1 Extended Cut by using my computer - I think I was the only one with a functioning DVD player or something.
Anyway, thanks for subscribing and I'm happy my article helped you. Also, if you're looking for things to read about the Jackson film adaptations and/or Tolkien in general, I have currently one piece published here on my site (https://textualvariations.substack.com/p/saruman-rotk-cut) and I can recommend checking out JRR Jokien's newsletter here: https://www.jrrjokien.com
Hi Mikhail: Wow--lovely to see you! I totally remember your presentation *and* your tech support to show the film--but I have a terrible memory for names, and it's getting worse the older I get. I'm sorry for the delay in replying: I was in the middle of organizing the sessions for the 2025 Tolkien Studies area at PCA (we're in Chicago next year, first f/f since 2019).
I am definitely on the lookout for more people writing about Jackson and/or Tolkien (and nowadays the ROP -- although I don't plan to work on it, I have some friends doing incredible work on the adaptation). And "Jokien with Tolkien" is a lovely site (I saw your guest post on Sauron in ROP). Some on Substack: Mercury Natis posted a great piece on casting for S2 of Sauron (https://anditsfolkarequeerer.substack.com/p/tolkien-rings-of-power-and-the-spectre). And there are some others (I realized I should do a Tolkien Substack Recommendations post not to mention work out how to use the Rec feature on Substack).
I have posted the presenters at the TSA since I started it on my Substack as well -- turns out you were there in 2017!
https://open.substack.com/pub/robinareid/p/tolkien-studies-area-pcaaca?r=2xy4s&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Hey, Robin. Thank you! I was very happy to be there in 2017, as you correctly point out. I do believe I attended another conference without presenting on Tolkien though. In any case, very happy to have met you and that you were able to find some good JRR Substacks.
Yes, Jokien with Tolkien is a great site. I plan to publish more LOTR articles there over time. I def-ly think you should make a Tolkien Substack Recommendations post - it would complement your lists nicely.
Also, apologies for the long gap between my responses: things got busy in January and then February saw me mostly step away from the platform to deal with real life. Now, I'm slowly trying to come back.
Thank you! This was very helpful for me to write my first substack post. :) Cheers!
Hi Mikhail, thank you so much for your article. I was inspired to make it easier to make table of contents in 2023 and wrote this article here: https://thewinniewiki.substack.com/p/a-quicker-way-to-make-a-table-of.
Thanks for the shoutout! I'll be sure to take a look at your method when I have time.
Hi Mikhail, great to point this out. Can be very helpful. In my experience, step 2 and 3 are absolutly not necessary. Substack seems to convert the anchor links to the publish version as soon as your post is published. It works for me, in any case.
Thank you for confirming! I wasn't entirely certain. Will update the notes section soon.
Super cool!
It would be lovely if this was just built-in, Notion-style.
I'm new to Substack. Much of how Substack works seems great. It might build followers better than a standalone WordPress blog. But yikes! Such a fuss to get a TOC! In WP you add a plugin, tick "add TOC" and then do nothing but write! So easy. Substack & Medium are lite & social which is their power. But a fussy, manual TOC is crazy! :(
I'm having trouble making anchor links. I used to be able to do it, but seem to have forgotten. I post. roundup of posts by 60 authors. I want to create sections so people can click and go directly to what they are interested in (i.e. Public Affairs, Poetry, Dining). HELP!
I have been using this solution for a while but it has two problems. One is that it forces a reload of the page. The other is that it is a link to a section in the original page - if you duplicate the page, or any other textual operation, you get a link to the original page, not to the new page.
Substack should support intra-page links natively.
I read the article, and all the comments but still can't make this work. I don't see any hovering link icon in the editor
And couldn't figure out what the post title would be for the #§heading-in-kebap-case trick.
Any advice?
The hovering icon almost never appears in the editor. You need to publish the post first. The hovering icon definitely appears in the published post. Then you re-edit your article and insert the links.
Don't love that since I want the email users to be able to click the link as well. I will try to find some other way.
Thanks!