leader in toc

C

cyoung

I am completing a toc generated by word. I have period leaders before the
numbers.
I would like to have a .5" space between the number (right alighned) and the
leaders.
Can Word do this for me automactically?
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Unfortunately, no. This is a highly desirable effect and a much requested
feature, but at present I don't think it's possible except by unlinking the
TOC (after you are sure that editing is complete and it has been updated one
last time) and applying the formatting manually. Sorry.
 
S

Stefan Blom

The following is a (somewhat clumsy) work-around:

1. At the end of each heading, add a tab character. Type a single
character, format it in white. (Just adding a tab character does not
work; something must follow it.)

2. In the TOC styles, add a tab stop at the location where the leader
should "stop." Make sure to specify the desired leader for this new
tab stop. Remove the leader from the tab stop for the page number at
the right margin.

3. Press Alt+F9 to display field codes. The TOC field will look
similar to:

{ TOC \o "1-3" }

Add the \w switch to the code:

{ TOC \o "1-3" \w }

4. Press F9 to update the TOC.

5. Press Alt+F9 to redisplay the result.

NOTE. If each heading has an outline number, followed by a tab
character, you will have to add two tab stops: one for the
"leader stop" location, and one for the start of text after the
number.

NOTE 2. You may also want to set a right indent at the location of the
"leader stop" tab stop; that way, text will wrap nicely.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

To add to what Stefan has said, I would set the right indent somewhat left
of where the leader stops. If the leader stops at half an inch from the
right margin, I'd set the indent to at least 0.75", maybe 1".

The drawback of the \w switch, of course, is that it is not practical to add
tab characters to centered headings (though those are often the ones for
which you omit numbering).

But I'm curious, Stefan: Did you test your text-with-tab with the \w switch
before adding a white character after it? It's been quite a while since I
wrote http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TOCSwitches.htm, but apparently
when I was experimenting with TOCs to write that article, I did not find any
need to add text after the tab character in the heading provided the \w
switch was used. This may have changed from Word 97 (which is what I was
probably using when I wrote the article) to Word 2003, however.
 
S

Stefan Blom

Yes, at least in Word 2000, a tab character at the end of a paragraph
is not picked up by the \w switch. I haven't tested that in Word 2003.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
 
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