📚 Back matter: glossary, symbols, lists and the index

Status: workflow, part of Write a book.

Written for an author deciding which reference pages close the book. Assumed: a working outline (step 1). Not covered here: what goes into the Glossary and List of Symbols, and how to fix an entry; that is step 5.

🧭 The default

spec init ends every outline with:

## Back matter {#back}

### Glossary {#glossary}

### List of Symbols {#symbols}

### List of Figures {#figures}

### List of Tables {#tables}

### Index {#index}

The book prints them in that order, after the last chapter and any appendices, with the bibliography after the lists and the index after the bibliography: the index is always last.

⚙ Generated pages

Those five ids are reserved. Each names a page the assembler generates, not one you write:

Id	Page	Printed when
{#glossary}	Glossary	registry build --glossary wrote it: at least one accepted unit has a glossary term
{#symbols}	List of Symbols	registry build --notation wrote it: at least one math.md ## Symbols row
{#figures}	List of Figures	at least one chapter has a captioned figure
{#tables}	List of Tables	at least one chapter has a captioned table
{#index}	Index	always, once registry build --index wrote the term table; built from the glossary, tuned by index.toml (the index)

A generated page has no file, no unit and no sections: there is nothing to write or accept, unit status does not list it, and a #### under it is a parse problem. A page with nothing to show is left out rather than printed empty, and the assembler does not report it missing. Each one it prints is listed in the table of contents.

✂ Changing the order, or dropping a page

The outline is the switch:

• Drop a page: delete its line. A book with no figures worth listing does without ### List of Figures {#figures}.
• Reorder: move the lines. The back matter prints in outline order.
• Move a page to the front: put its line under ## Front matter {#front} (front matter). Not the index, which only {#back} may hold. The lists are the usual candidates; the Chicago Manual of Style puts them after the table of contents.
• Add your own pages: any other chapter under {#back} is a unit you write and accept ("About the author", "Further reading", "Version history"). It prints where you put it, unnumbered.

Each is an edit to the outline, so re-sign it afterwards (changing the outline).

🔢 Back-matter pages carry no number

LaTeX does not number chapters under \backmatter, which is what a reader expects of a glossary or an "About the author" page. It has one consequence: a back-matter (or front-matter) chapter cannot be pointed at by number. So glossary terms belong in numbered chapters: a glossary definition ends "Chapter 3" or "Appendix A", and a term defined in an unnumbered page would end with a reference to nothing. registry check reports a front- or back-matter unit that defines glossary terms, as a [glossary] finding. Such a unit with no glossary at all is not reported: a hand-written page has no dossier, and needs none.

↩ Outlines without reserved parts

An outline with none of {#front}, {#appendices} and {#back} (every book outlined before #1137) assembles exactly as before: the Glossary and then the List of Symbols, each if registry build wrote it, then the bibliography, and no lists of figures or tables and no index. Add ## Back matter {#back} with the lines you want when you want control over them. Once an outline has any of the three reserved parts, the outline decides: a Glossary or List of Symbols prints only where an entry for it stands.