
{"id":80,"date":"2021-02-11T13:12:44","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T13:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/chapter\/create-and-display-glossary-terms\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T09:50:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T17:50:39","slug":"create-and-display-glossary-terms","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/chapter\/create-and-display-glossary-terms\/","title":{"raw":"Create and Display Glossary Terms","rendered":"Create and Display Glossary Terms"},"content":{"raw":"Pressbooks allows you to create and display glossary terms throughout your book content and to display an automatically generated alphabetized list of all selected glossary terms in your book.\n<h1><a id=\"createaglossaryterm\" href=\"\"><\/a>Create a New Glossary Term<\/h1>\nThere are two ways to create new glossary terms in Pressbooks. You can create terms directly from the <strong>Glossary Terms <\/strong>tool and then add them throughout the book, or you can create the terms directly from inside the content editor of your chapter, front matter, or back matter.\n\nTo create glossary terms through the Glossary Terms tool:\n\n1 &amp; 2: Click '<strong>Organize -&gt; Glossary Terms<\/strong>' from the left sidebar menu of your book\n<ol start=\"3\">\n \t<li>From the Glossary Terms menu, click the '<strong>Add New<\/strong>' button\n<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-2273 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.04.19-PM.png\" alt=\"Navigating to the Glossary page from the left sidebar menu. \" width=\"563\" height=\"518\"><\/li>\n \t<li>Enter a title for your term<\/li>\n \t<li>Enter the relevant definition for your term<\/li>\n \t<li>Determine whether or not the term should \"Show in Glossary List\"<\/li>\n \t<li>Click\u00a0<strong>Create<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-2483 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-03-at-11.21.47-AM.png\" alt=\"The Glossary term editor page with an example term and definition\" width=\"1740\" height=\"577\">\n\nTo create a glossary term directly from the content editor:\n<ol>\n \t<li>Place your cursor where you'd like to insert a new term or select a word or phrase that you want to add a glossary term for<\/li>\n \t<li>Click\u00a0<strong>GL<\/strong> on the Visual Editor toolbar to Insert a Glossary Term.<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-2269 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-2.58.19-PM.png\" alt=\"The &quot;Glossary&quot; button on the visual editor toolbar. \" width=\"929\" height=\"238\"><\/li>\n \t<li>The <strong>Glossary Terms\u00a0<\/strong>interface will appear. In the <strong>Create and Insert Term\u00a0<\/strong>tab, enter your desired\u00a0<strong>Term<\/strong> (if you highlighted a word or phrase before clicking the Insert Glossary Term button, that word will automatically populate the Termfield)<\/li>\n \t<li>Add a relevant <strong>Description<\/strong> for the term<\/li>\n \t<li>Click '<strong><strong>Insert'<\/strong><\/strong>\n<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-2270 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-2.59.39-PM.png\" alt=\"The Glossary Terms user interface. \" width=\"370\" height=\"311\"><\/li>\n<\/ol>\nYou will be returned to your content editor and will see the glossary term you created wrapped in a shortcode.\n\n<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-2271 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.01.19-PM.png\" alt=\"The glossary shortcode in the visual editor. \" width=\"635\" height=\"104\">\n\nThis shortcode is visible in the visual editor, but will be displayed as a functional tooltip in your webbook. Glossary terms are underlined with a dashed line in your Pressbooks webbook to visually distinguish them from normal hyperlinks. When a term is clicked, its definition will be displayed in an accessible tooltip.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_245\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"741\"]<img class=\"wp-image-239 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screenshot-from-2021-10-07-19-41-14.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"741\" height=\"460\"> A glossary term before it has been opened[\/caption]\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_245\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"731\"]<img class=\"wp-image-240 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screenshot-from-2021-10-07-19-41-28.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"731\" height=\"187\"> an active glossary term, displaying its definition as a tooltip[\/caption]\n\nUsers can press the escape key on their keyboard to close the tooltip. The tooltip will also close if the user clicks anywhere else on the page outside of the glossary term.\n<h1>Link to an Existing Term<\/h1>\nYou can also insert glossary links for existing terms. To do so:\n<ol>\n \t<li>Highlight the word you are applying the existing glossary term,\u00a0<strong>or\u00a0<\/strong>place your cursor where you want the term to appear<\/li>\n \t<li>Click\u00a0<strong>GL\u00a0<\/strong>on the Visual Editor toolbar to open the\u00a0<strong>Glossary Terms\u00a0<\/strong>interface<\/li>\n \t<li>Select the\u00a0<strong>Choose Existing Term\u00a0<\/strong>tab\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-241\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.17.36-PM.png\" alt=\"The Choose Existing Term tab on the Glossary Terms interface. \" width=\"341\" height=\"298\"><\/li>\n \t<li>Select the term from the dropdown menu\u00a0(<strong>NOTE:\u00a0<\/strong>If the text you've highlighted matches the name of an already existing term, the interface will automatically open to the <strong>Choose Existing Term <\/strong>tab\u00a0with the matching term selected)<\/li>\n \t<li>Click\u00a0<strong><strong>Insert<\/strong><\/strong>\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-242\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.18.37-PM.png\" alt=\"Term chosen on the &quot;Choose Existing Term&quot; tab of the &quot;Glossary Terms&quot; interface. \" width=\"342\" height=\"300\"><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h1><a id=\"createaglossarylist\" href=\"\"><\/a>Create a Glossary List<\/h1>\nA Glossary List will contain all\u00a0<em>listed\u00a0<\/em>glossary terms you've created for your book. Unless you exclude a term from the list by deselecting the <strong>'Show in Glossary<\/strong> <strong>Lists<\/strong>' option, all the glossary terms you create in your book will be included in your book's Glossary List.\n\nTo generate the glossary list, follow these steps:\n<ol>\n \t<li>Click <strong>Organize-&gt;Add Back Matter\u00a0<\/strong>to create a new piece of back matter for your glossary terms.<\/li>\n \t<li>Add your desired title for your glossary<\/li>\n \t<li>Select '<strong>Glossary<\/strong>' from the Back Matter Type menu\n<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-2280 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.31.11-PM.png\" alt=\"&quot;Glossary&quot; selected in the Back Matter Type menu. \" width=\"305\" height=\"101\"><\/li>\n \t<li>The following message will appear at the top of your screen: \"To display a list of glossary terms, leave this back matter's content blank.\"<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-244\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-2.53.31-PM.png\" alt=\"Banner on Glossary page warning to keep the content editor empty. \" width=\"1261\" height=\"62\"><\/li>\n \t<li>Leave the content blank and click '<strong>Create<\/strong>'<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<img class=\"size-full wp-image-245 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-20-at-4.27.11-PM.png\" alt=\"A full glossary list in the back matter of a webbook. \" width=\"254\" height=\"476\">The glossary list will be generated and displayed in your webbook as well as your EPUB and PDF exports. The glossary list will present\u00a0 a consolidated, alphabetized list of all of the glossary terms which have been selected for display in the glossary list. The design of the glossary list is dependent on the theme and the book format. Glossary definitions can also be styled with links, bold, or italics with the Glossary Term visual editor toolbar. These styles will display in both the glossary list and the tooltip.\n\n&nbsp;","rendered":"<p>Pressbooks allows you to create and display glossary terms throughout your book content and to display an automatically generated alphabetized list of all selected glossary terms in your book.<\/p>\n<h1><a id=\"createaglossaryterm\" href=\"\"><\/a>Create a New Glossary Term<\/h1>\n<p>There are two ways to create new glossary terms in Pressbooks. You can create terms directly from the <strong>Glossary Terms <\/strong>tool and then add them throughout the book, or you can create the terms directly from inside the content editor of your chapter, front matter, or back matter.<\/p>\n<p>To create glossary terms through the Glossary Terms tool:<\/p>\n<p>1 &amp; 2: Click &#8216;<strong>Organize -&gt; Glossary Terms<\/strong>&#8216; from the left sidebar menu of your book<\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>From the Glossary Terms menu, click the &#8216;<strong>Add New<\/strong>&#8216; button<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2273 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.04.19-PM.png\" alt=\"Navigating to the Glossary page from the left sidebar menu.\" width=\"563\" height=\"518\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Enter a title for your term<\/li>\n<li>Enter the relevant definition for your term<\/li>\n<li>Determine whether or not the term should &#8220;Show in Glossary List&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Click\u00a0<strong>Create<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2483 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-04-03-at-11.21.47-AM.png\" alt=\"The Glossary term editor page with an example term and definition\" width=\"1740\" height=\"577\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To create a glossary term directly from the content editor:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Place your cursor where you&#8217;d like to insert a new term or select a word or phrase that you want to add a glossary term for<\/li>\n<li>Click\u00a0<strong>GL<\/strong> on the Visual Editor toolbar to Insert a Glossary Term.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2269 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-2.58.19-PM.png\" alt=\"The &quot;Glossary&quot; button on the visual editor toolbar.\" width=\"929\" height=\"238\" \/><\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Glossary Terms\u00a0<\/strong>interface will appear. In the <strong>Create and Insert Term\u00a0<\/strong>tab, enter your desired\u00a0<strong>Term<\/strong> (if you highlighted a word or phrase before clicking the Insert Glossary Term button, that word will automatically populate the Termfield)<\/li>\n<li>Add a relevant <strong>Description<\/strong> for the term<\/li>\n<li>Click &#8216;<strong><strong>Insert&#8217;<\/strong><\/strong><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2270 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-2.59.39-PM.png\" alt=\"The Glossary Terms user interface.\" width=\"370\" height=\"311\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>You will be returned to your content editor and will see the glossary term you created wrapped in a shortcode.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2271 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.01.19-PM.png\" alt=\"The glossary shortcode in the visual editor.\" width=\"635\" height=\"104\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This shortcode is visible in the visual editor, but will be displayed as a functional tooltip in your webbook. Glossary terms are underlined with a dashed line in your Pressbooks webbook to visually distinguish them from normal hyperlinks. When a term is clicked, its definition will be displayed in an accessible tooltip.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_245\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-245\" style=\"width: 741px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-239 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2021\/09\/Screenshot-from-2021-10-07-19-41-14.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"741\" height=\"460\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-245\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A glossary term before it has been opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_245\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-245\" style=\"width: 731px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-240 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screenshot-from-2021-10-07-19-41-28.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"731\" height=\"187\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-245\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">an active glossary term, displaying its definition as a tooltip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Users can press the escape key on their keyboard to close the tooltip. The tooltip will also close if the user clicks anywhere else on the page outside of the glossary term.<\/p>\n<h1>Link to an Existing Term<\/h1>\n<p>You can also insert glossary links for existing terms. To do so:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Highlight the word you are applying the existing glossary term,\u00a0<strong>or\u00a0<\/strong>place your cursor where you want the term to appear<\/li>\n<li>Click\u00a0<strong>GL\u00a0<\/strong>on the Visual Editor toolbar to open the\u00a0<strong>Glossary Terms\u00a0<\/strong>interface<\/li>\n<li>Select the\u00a0<strong>Choose Existing Term\u00a0<\/strong>tab<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-241\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.17.36-PM.png\" alt=\"The Choose Existing Term tab on the Glossary Terms interface.\" width=\"341\" height=\"298\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Select the term from the dropdown menu\u00a0(<strong>NOTE:\u00a0<\/strong>If the text you&#8217;ve highlighted matches the name of an already existing term, the interface will automatically open to the <strong>Choose Existing Term <\/strong>tab\u00a0with the matching term selected)<\/li>\n<li>Click\u00a0<strong><strong>Insert<\/strong><\/strong><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-242\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.18.37-PM.png\" alt=\"Term chosen on the &quot;Choose Existing Term&quot; tab of the &quot;Glossary Terms&quot; interface.\" width=\"342\" height=\"300\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h1><a id=\"createaglossarylist\" href=\"\"><\/a>Create a Glossary List<\/h1>\n<p>A Glossary List will contain all\u00a0<em>listed\u00a0<\/em>glossary terms you&#8217;ve created for your book. Unless you exclude a term from the list by deselecting the <strong>&#8216;Show in Glossary<\/strong> <strong>Lists<\/strong>&#8216; option, all the glossary terms you create in your book will be included in your book&#8217;s Glossary List.<\/p>\n<p>To generate the glossary list, follow these steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click <strong>Organize-&gt;Add Back Matter\u00a0<\/strong>to create a new piece of back matter for your glossary terms.<\/li>\n<li>Add your desired title for your glossary<\/li>\n<li>Select &#8216;<strong>Glossary<\/strong>&#8216; from the Back Matter Type menu<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2280 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-3.31.11-PM.png\" alt=\"&quot;Glossary&quot; selected in the Back Matter Type menu.\" width=\"305\" height=\"101\" \/><\/li>\n<li>The following message will appear at the top of your screen: &#8220;To display a list of glossary terms, leave this back matter&#8217;s content blank.&#8221;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-244\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-12-at-2.53.31-PM.png\" alt=\"Banner on Glossary page warning to keep the content editor empty.\" width=\"1261\" height=\"62\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Leave the content blank and click &#8216;<strong>Create<\/strong>&#8216;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-245 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.pub\/app\/uploads\/sites\/4748\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-20-at-4.27.11-PM.png\" alt=\"A full glossary list in the back matter of a webbook.\" width=\"254\" height=\"476\" \/>The glossary list will be generated and displayed in your webbook as well as your EPUB and PDF exports. The glossary list will present\u00a0 a consolidated, alphabetized list of all of the glossary terms which have been selected for display in the glossary list. The design of the glossary list is dependent on the theme and the book format. Glossary definitions can also be styled with links, bold, or italics with the Glossary Term visual editor toolbar. These styles will display in both the glossary list and the tooltip.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"menu_order":15,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-80","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":53,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/80\/revisions\/81"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/53"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/80\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}