need some table of contents help 1

[kaidomac]

I'm trying to make a table of contents based on a text box from chapters in my book file. I'm really struggling with the paragraph and toc styles. Basically, in each chapter of the book file, I have a text frame I'd like copied to the table of contents document. All of the chapters use the same Master and the text box is in the same format in each one. The material inside the text frame looks like this:

Job, Name

The Job area has the different job names I've typed up and the Name area has the different names I've typed up in each chapter. I want it to look like this on the toc:

Job, Name................page 130

Basically I just want it to add the "..." and the page number of whatever page the text frame is on. I'm trying to figure it out but I'm having a lot of trouble actually doing it. Is this even possible using the style tools or am I better off doing it by hand? It's over 150 chapters, so I'm hoping I can automate it. If someone could give me some pointers or a step-by-step quickie tutorial I'd appreciate it.

 

[MarcusStringer]

You can't the "Leader Dots" to the TOC using the Layout>TOC.
You will have to do it by hand.

In your Layout>TOC, where is says "Between Layout and number" you will have to insert a Tab.

Then manualy select you TOC, bring up the Tabs pallet and put a dot in the "Leader" bit.

This should fix you problem

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[kaidomac]

Thanks Marcus!

I'm still trying to figure out how to get text from text boxes onto my table of contents page. What I have right now is a book file with the chapters and a page for the table of contents. I selected the text box on the Master page of each chapter and made a paragraph style out of it (this may be where I'm going wrong). I then added that paragraph style to the "Styles in Table of Contents" section. I also tried putting the paragraph style under the Style section and also in the Entry Style. Nothing appeared on the table of contents page except the TOC title. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, anyone have an idea?

 

[kaidomac]

Let me clarify my setup. I have the following files:

1. Book file
2. InDesign document files (the chapter)
3. Table of Contents document file

Each of the InDesign document files contain text, including a text box that contains a job and a person's name. So the first chapter might have "Pharmacist, John Doe" and the second chapter might have "Clerk, Jane Doe." I want to be able to take those text boxes and place them on the TOC page along with the number of the page they're on. So the TOC page would look something like this:

Table of Contents:
Pharmacist, John Doe....page 1
Clerk, Jane Doe.........page 2

I have over 150 of these files and I want some way to tag the text boxes with the job and name information in them and place that information with the page number into a table of contents. I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to actually apply paragraph and toc styles and make this work. Any help would be appreciated

 

[MarcusStringer]

You may need to read the help file, on this one, because the explaination is long.
Basiclly, You have to set up you pages with Paragraph style sheets for eg.
Heading 1
Heading 2
Para one
Body text
etc etc .

In the TOC menu you just have to select the style which you have applied to the headings level you want to appear in the TOC.

eg.
Heading 1 = Job
Heading 2 =Name

so you select in the TOC menu, Heading 1, Heading 2.

It will then look like
Job, Name.......................................................Page number

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[MarcusStringer]

Sorry, you reposted to quick.

Scrap what I just typed

I thought all your file in in one ID file, not one per chapter.

This makes creating a TOC hard. You will have to do it the hard way. Unless you combine all in ID Files into one, or find a script which may do it.


Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[kaidomac]

Ah, so the TOC thing applies mainly to single files?

I've been reading the help files, my InDesign CS Bible, and watching the Linda training CDs, and I haven't been able to figure it out. Oh well, it will be a good 4 hour job

 

[kaidomac]

What's the easiest way to combine all of the InDesign files into one? Is there an insert file or something? That may be a good option too.

Right now I have a collection of job interviews that I'm going to output to a single PDF file for publishing. I created a template for the interviews and I'm going to be placing the text from Microsoft Word into the template. The way I'm doing it is that each interview has it's own InDesign document file. I will be making chapter introductions (dividers basically) as well additional informational chapters at the beginning of the book.

I learned how to use the book file in InDesign to add individual files and output them to a single PDF file. I was hoping I could tag the text boxes in each individual interview and have them magically appear with the page number in the table of contents file, but I guess that's not going to happen, lol.

I see two options. One, do it by hand, or two, merge the individual files into a big document. The thing is, the book is going to be around 500 pages or so and it seems like making a single file would make it a pain in the neck to edit individual interviews as needed or to create and insert new chapters, chapter dividers, etc. With the way I have it now, other people can work on editing the individual InDesign interview documents and then submit them to me completed.

Sometimes I think the whole digital publishing software industry needs to be looked at hard and re-coded so the programs are easier. It shouldn't be this hard just to make a table of contents, lol. The one improvement I like the most over Microsoft Word is the ability to put graphics and text into frames...that makes it much easier to do page design with. Oh well. Live and learn, I guess

 

[dzurn]

From InDesign help:
"You can save a collection of documents as a book in InDesign using the Book palette. This palette is similar to the Book Publication List in PageMaker. Using books, you can sequentially number pages across multiple documents, and generate an index or table of contents that compiles entries from all documents in the book. (See Adding documents to a book file.)"

You don't have to combine your InDesign files, he other poster is wrong. If you set up a book file (as sort of the container for all your other documents) then making a TOC from your 150 files is little different than creating a TOC for a single file. InDesign has some excellent multi-document features using books.

 

[dzurn]

Wrong" is not the word I should have used, the previous poster mentioned combining them into one "file." You wouldn't actually drag all the pages into one file, rather have the book file reference all the separate documents. So in a way the poster was right, but you certainly don't have to run a script to do it, just use the book capability.

 

[MarcusStringer]

Yes dzurn is correct. I forgot about the book feature, as I hardly use it.
But that will solve you problems.

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au