It has, actually, changed just a smidgen since I took this screenshot. I've been using Affinity Publisher to layout and publish my books since Zero Dark: Operation Nemesis, because it was simply considerably cheaper to buy it for £60 than to have an Adobe subscription at £240 a year. But I've been very impressed with Affinity Publisher and recently upgraded to version 2.2.
It's not a flawless piece of software. I've had some random crashes in documents originally created in version 1.5. And it isn't quite as intuitive as Adobe. But if you don't mind spending an hour reviewing tutorials now and then to work out how to do something that really, really ought to be a lot easier than it appears, it is a very powerful and effective tool.
Anyway, point being that this contents page is automatically generated by the software based on markers I have placed into the document. The index and cross-references work the same way.
Wait. Index? The original Horizon Wars didn't have an index!
Well, it kind of did, because I published it separately in Over the Horizon (which, incidentally, won't be available once Midnight Dark is published). But it was an area where Phil Smith at Osprey and I disagreed. I felt strongly that there should be an index. Phil felt that a good contents page was more than adequate to the purpose. As I wasn't going to be the one indexing Horizon Wars, he won that argument. But it's a good illustration of the kind of minor point of principle that led to my decision to bid farewell to Osprey and start out on my own. I think the index for Midnight Dark is going to be really useful for people who, like me, tend to read a rulebook only so far as getting the gist of what's going on before throwing down the dice and minis and then playing it by ear.
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