"jump to a point" programs

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

I've been writing a summary for a novel, and there's a lot to it, including history of the world, characters, details of how the world works, etc. What I would like is to be able to write it on a program that I can create a table of contents at the top that I can click on and jump to the designated point to save time. And I would prefer it to be a free program, natch, but if its not too outrageous I would look at something I have to pay for. I don't have MS Word- I had it for awhile but I never explored it too much, so if that one has that feature its not an option. Thanks.

[Broomstick]

Try Open Office. Make a table of contents then use F5 to navigate to the header. It's free. I've been using it nearly a year now, pretty happy with it.

Open Office Website

[General Zod]

Or just use notepad and write up a simple web layout with html links.

[weemadando]

I used WikiPad to build up a pretty massive database for a RPG. It works well for the purpose you are proposing.

[Sarevok]

I second Wikipad. It was built for the kind of tasks described in OP. While a word processor like MS Word or OpenOffice works it is easier to use a custom built tool for the job.

[Steel]

If you want to do it without programs, you can have a page with the section titles at the start and then highlight the one you want and then press control-F and find will take you there.

[Sarevok]

In gamefaqs.com tutorials for video games they do something like that.

For example the table of contents at top of the text file would have something like this

Mission 5 = MIS05

and actual entry on how to complete mission 5 would begin like this.

Mission 5 [MIS05]

So to read chapter 1 you simply CTRL-F to find "MIS05".

It's clumsy but also quick and dirty.