Reader and chapter order

Create content/book/_index.md:

+++
title = "My book"
sort_by = "weight"
template = "reader.html"
page_template = "reader.html"
+++

Create a chapter such as content/book/first.md:

+++
title = "First chapter"
weight = 1
+++

Write the chapter here.

Subsections set template = "reader.html" for their introductions. Chapters inherit the closest page_template. Give every chapter a weight when its section uses weight sorting. Zola excludes pages without sorting data.

Register the book

[extra.devlab.collections.book]
section = "book/_index.md"
title = "My book"

Add { collection = "book" } to the existing navigation array for a header link.

The automatic sequence is the root introduction, its directly sorted pages, then each subsection's introduction and descendants. Transparent sections do not add their own introduction. The same sequence drives the chapter list and Previous/Next links, including links between a section and a page.

Choose an explicit order

After creating the listed sections and chapters, set their complete sequence:

[extra.devlab.collections.book]
section = "book/_index.md"
reading_order = [
  "book/_index.md",
  "book/first.md",
  "book/part/_index.md",
  "book/part/chapter.md",
  "book/last.md",
]

Entries are content source paths, not URLs. They must be unique and belong to the collection. Missing primary-language entries fail the build. Missing translations are omitted, leaving a valid sequence for each language. An empty list restores automatic order. Explicit order controls the Reader layout. Ordinary Docs keeps its documentation tree navigation.

Reading controls

Reader inherits the collection options, including breadcrumbs, TOC, pagination and page actions. A compact inline TOC appears below 1181px. Edit remains available below the text when the desktop TOC is hidden. These controls also work on regular documentation pages.

--reader-width controls the maximum reading-column width. Its fallback is 48rem. The print.css stylesheet removes navigation and controls and wraps code when printing any page. Printing includes all tab variants with their labels and removes the tab controls and announcement banner. Use the browser's Print action to print a chapter.