Designing a table of contents for a corporate intranet PDF requires careful consideration of usability, structure, and alignment with organizational goals.
Corporate intranet documents differ from public-facing content—they’re used by employees searching swiftly for employee handbooks, process SOPs, compliance frameworks, or training modules.
The table of contents functions as the central navigation hub, minimizing uncertainty and streamlining access to critical information.
Start by defining your primary users—such as HR personnel, department heads, or shop-floor workers—and adjust the terminology and level of detail to match their needs.
Choose terminology that aligns with how your teams actually speak—use familiar acronyms and phrases, but steer clear of obscure or department-specific slang.
Group related topics into logical sections and subsections, ensuring each heading reflects a distinct purpose.
Avoid broad, vague titles like “General Information” and instead opt for specific descriptors such as “Employee Onboarding Checklist” or “Expense Reimbursement Policy.”
Assign sequential numbers to each major section to enable precise citation during discussions, audits, or internal correspondence.
Ensure page numbers in the TOC match the actual PDF pagination, and double-check them after resizing, reflowing, ketik or updating content.
When the document spans many pages, indent subheadings to show their relationship to parent sections, enhancing scannability and comprehension.
If the document exceeds 20 pages, add an index or bookmarks within the PDF file to complement the table of contents.
Conduct a collaborative review with representatives from Legal, HR, IT, and Operations to validate that each department’s materials are correctly categorized and labeled.
Perform real-world usability tests: give employees a task, like “Find the parental leave policy,” and observe where they struggle or hesitate.
Remember, a clean, intuitive table of contents is not just a formatting detail; it is a critical component of internal communication efficiency.
