Table of contents? Don't bother!

I receive a four-page bulletin that always has a table of contents. Why? Will I get lost and have to go back to the table of contents to find out where I am? Will I overlook an article if I don't read the table of contents? I don't think so.

So, if a table of contents isn't appropriate for a four-page bulletin, what size bulletin should have one? In my opinion, none, no matter how large. I get a lot of bulletins, and I don't read tables of content. I read the bulletins. I might not read every word of all of them, but I will scan through, reading articles of interest. Sometimes I will find an article that I want to re-read later or steal from my bulletin. Do I check it in the table of contents? No. I turn down the corner of the page.

Tables of content are hard to do. I know, because I tried that for a while, before I decided they added no value. The table of contents goes on the first page, but is the last thing done, because until the layout is complete you don't know what page articles will be on, or even what articles there will be. Adjusting that critical first page to accommodate a last minute article in the table of contents is painful.

My advice is to omit the table of contents, using the space and the effort to produce a more interesting article.