Table of Contents -won't behave + spurious section breaks

A

Annamarie Pluhar

I'm working on learning how to use TOC functionality. I have been reading
various articles on TOC on the MVP site - however I am testing with a
document that was sent by email by a colleague.

TOC function won't work at all. Is this because I don't have the .dot file
for the file on my computer?
Every time I try to set TOC levels they don't "stick".

Colleague also tells me that the doc adds continuous section breaks for no
reason that he can find. I don't know what his skill level is, but he said
he was on phone with MS for 2 hours. Perhaps he simply has a broken/buggy
template?

I have to work with this doc.. suggestions welcome.


Annamarie
Instructional Designer
 
J

Jezebel

TOC function won't work at all. Is this because I don't have the .dot file
for the file on my computer?
Every time I try to set TOC levels they don't "stick".
Click to expand...

Stick in what sense? No, you don't need the DOT file on your computer.
Specify the TOC entries using styles with the levels you want (eg use
Heading 1, Heading 2, etc). Define the TOC styles to look the way you want.
That's all there is for a vanilla TOC.
Colleague also tells me that the doc adds continuous section breaks for no
reason that he can find. I don't know what his skill level is, but he said
he was on phone with MS for 2 hours. Perhaps he simply has a broken/buggy
template?
Click to expand...

Word doesn't add section breaks for *no* reason. (The reason might be
obscure, but there will be one ... although it's not a problem I've ever
encountered.) Whatever the cause, it has nothing to do with his template.
 
A

Annamarie Pluhar

Hi

Thanks for responding. I've made progress and if my stupid mistakes can help
anyone else out I'm confessing. Mind you I'm working with a document that I
inherit from a colleague.

"Stick" in the sense that I specify the TOC entries for the styles and the
levels I want, (Insert/Tables and Indexes/Table of Contents/Options) click
OK, and when I reopen the dialog box to specify the TOC entries they aren't
there. I've done this over and over. However, I missed noticing that while
I was defining the styles "Chapter Title" and Chapter Sub-title" the Header
1, Header 2 and Header 3 were already assigned to TOC 1, 2 and 3
respectively.

Next problem is said colleague defined Chapter Subtitle with left and right
indents that caused a single column of characters to be the TOC 2 entry.

Once I figured that out it's been working fine.

Thanks.
 
A

Annamarie Pluhar

I take it back. The TOC entries aren't "sticking".... I'm wondering if it's
my application... ??

Do continuous section breaks get placed in a document as a result of setting
"keep with next" in the paragraph formatting of a Style?

Thanks
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I believe your problem lies in "when I reopen the dialog box to specify the
TOC entries." You basically can't revisit this dialog. When you do, Word
wants to create a new TOC from scratch, so everything is always set back to
the default. You need to either get it right the first time or learn to edit
the TOC field manually; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TOCSwitches.htm
 
S

Stefan Blom

If you want to revisit the Index and Tables dialog box without
actually creating a new TOC, you must delete the existing TOC first;
then you can recreate it with different settings. Usually, however, it
is quite sufficient to *update* the existing TOC to reflect changes in
your document.

In order to force an update of a table of contents, do the following:
right-click the TOC and choose to "Update field" (or, alternatively,
place the cursor inside the TOC and press F9). If Word presents a
dialog box, make sure that you specify that the entire table should be
updated.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

If you want to revisit the Index and Tables dialog box without
actually creating a new TOC, you must delete the existing TOC first;
then you can recreate it with different settings.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that's seems a bit self-contradictory; if you delete the existing TOC,
then you *must* create a new one.
Usually, however, it
is quite sufficient to *update* the existing TOC to reflect changes in
your document.
Click to expand...

Not if you want to change the TOC itself (include more levels, omit some
headings). Updating merely changes the TOC, as is, to reflect the current
document content. If that content includes Level 1 paragraphs that you don't
want in the TOC, there are ways to deal with this outside the TOC dialog,
but the easiest way is to clear the 1 from the style in the TOC Options
dialog.
 
S

Stefan Blom

Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
Hmm, that's seems a bit self-contradictory; if you delete the existing TOC,
then you *must* create a new one.
Click to expand...

My point was that for inexperienced users, deleting and recreating the
TOC provides a way to modify TOC settings without messing with TOC
field codes.
Not if you want to change the TOC itself (include more levels, omit some
headings). Updating merely changes the TOC, as is, to reflect the current
document content. If that content includes Level 1 paragraphs that you don't
want in the TOC, there are ways to deal with this outside the TOC dialog,
but the easiest way is to clear the 1 from the style in the TOC Options
dialog.
Click to expand...

Again, for inexperienced users, it is well worth stating explicitly
that updating a TOC is a possibility, if the goal is to make it
reflect the current document structure of a modified document. Of
course I didn't mean to say that updating would change the settings
(that would indeed be strange!). Perhaps making such a comment didn't
help in this particular case, though.
 
S

Stefan Blom

An additional comment...

Suzanne, it is correct that the first paragraph of my initial response
was self-contradictory. It could more clearly be stated in the
following way: "If you want to revisit the Index and Tables dialog box
without creating a *second* TOC, you must delete the existing TOC
first; then you can recreate it with different settings."
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Now that I'll buy! IMO this is a real defect in the Index and Tables dialog.
It should be possible, with the insertion point in an existing TOC, to
revisit the dialog and make changes. You can do this, of course, but then
Word asks if you want the "new" TOC to replace the existing one, which is
the only option. While that superficially accomplishes what you're after,
unless the problem of multiplying bookmarks has been solved (and I can't
recall that it has), then every time you replace the TOC, you've created a
whole new slew of bookmarks to clutter up the file. This is why it is really
useful for users who need TOCs often to learn to edit the TOC field (and
there are some effects that can be created *only* by doing that).
 
S

Stefan Blom

every time you replace the TOC,
you've created a
whole new slew of bookmarks to clutter up the file. This is why
it is really
useful for users who need TOCs often to learn to edit the TOC
field (and
there are some effects that can be created *only* by doing
that).
Click to expand...

Good point. I actually wasn't aware of the "bookmark problem"
with TOCs. (It is easy enough to verify that it still exists,
though.)
 
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