IDCS3: Empty table of contents

[Felix72]

I previously inserted a TOC into a document (approx 90 pages) with no problems. After discovering some formatting problems, I removed it. When I tried to insert a new TOC all I get is the title of the TOC ('Contents') and two carriage returns. It's like it no longer registers the styles any more, even though they have been there all along. Can anyone help - I have tried everything I can think of (and checking the book checkbox under TOC formatting is not available). of course it is urgent... Thanks
PS I am also seeing hash marks at the end of some paragraphs - anyone got any idea why? Could this be related?

 

[eugenetyson]

Felix72 (TechnicalUser) 18 Sep 07 4:22
I previously inserted a TOC into a document (approx 90 pages) with no problems. After discovering some formatting problems, I removed it. When I tried to insert a new TOC all I get is the title of the TOC ('Contents') and two carriage returns. It's like it no longer registers the styles any more, even though they have been there all along. Can anyone help - I have tried everything I can think of (and checking the book checkbox under TOC formatting is not available). of course it is urgent... Thanks
PS I am also seeing hash marks at the end of some paragraphs - anyone got any idea why? Could this be related?


Well you have to tell the ToC what Styles you want to go into the ToC, like selecting Heading 1 and making that Level 1, and Heading 2 and making that Level 2. Etc. You have to tell it what styles you want it to pick up on. Maybe you have done, but it doesn't seem like it. You say you noticed some formatting problems... exactly what? Did you remove the paragraph styles? Change them, rename them? What?

In the ToC dialogue box the BOOK option is only for if you are working with a Book Open. You have to have this open for this feature to work.

Books are a collection of your files put into to order by indesign (usually by chapters that you define). So you could have Chapter 1.indd as an individual file. You can copy this file and call it Chapter 2.indd, add in the material for Chapter 2 and then Choose, FILE>NEW>BOOK. You get a floating panel up and you add these two documents to this book in the order that you want. Chapter 1 first then Chapter 2.

With this option you see the Page Numbers in beside the files. You can open and close the files from this panel. But if you alter the files outside of this panel, i.e., by having it not open (or closed), then the files won't be updated in the book, i.e., page numbering won't be right (if you removed pages).

For the book to function acurately you have to tell InDesign which File is first, by putting your files into order in the Book Panel, and then opening the first chapter and going to Layout>Numbering and Section Numbers and then selecting that the page numbering starts on 1, (This is essential if you have automatic numbering in your documents, which carries through the documents in your book, i.e., Chapter 1 ends on page 50, then Chapter 2 starts on page 51. It's usual practice that Chapters start on a right page and end on a left page. So you have to ensure this happens.

There are options in the book to insert pages at ends of chapters so they balance correctly, as described above.

"Hash marks" at the end of paragraphs signifies the end of a story. If you keep on typing you will get a red overflow box, signifying that your text is being overset.

These marks are known as "invisibles" or "hidden characters" marks put in by indesign so that the user can see what is a space, a tab, an end of story, indentation marks, index markers and et al other types of marks. They are non-printing and they are meant to be there. If you want to turn them off then select TYPE>Hide Hidden Characters, or press CTRL/CMD + I.

 

[Felix72]

Thanks for the info. Sorry, should have been more specific (first time user of this site). I have been inserting all the headings etc both using default settings and creating my own - trust me, anything in that TOC settings box I have tried as many combinations as I can think of! As mentioned, it worked the first time, but not after I tried to insert TOC again after updating formatting. The formatting problems were that the people who had contributed to the document had applied some of the heading styles that I was using to create the TOC for lower level text, so that irrelevant or unsuitable text was appearing in the original TOC. I changed the text that was wrongly appearing in the TOC to other styles (without changing the headings that were of the correct level for the TOC). I also deleted a couple of unnecassary pages. I rechecked the pages were all linked, tried to insert the new TOC and my problem started - the TOC was coming up blank. It was also deleting all the text out of all the text boxes (leaving the empty pages with the master style). I only mentioned the book check box because someone somewhere else had the same problem and it was suggested to check this box - my document is not a book and I don't need to turn it into one (it is a long doc but no chapters). Oh, and the original document was placed into ID from Word. Any other suggestions? Anyone?

 

[eugenetyson]

http://www.theindesigner.com/podcasts/tid34_theindesigner_34.mp4

http://www.theindesigner.com/podcasts/tid35_theindesigner_35.mp4

http://indesignsecrets.com/creating-and-advertiser-index-or-other-difficult-toc.php

http://indesignsecrets.com/grab-more-than-256-characters-in-a-toc.php

This may help you understand a little more.