Hierarchical Table of content according to the new styles

[Narada]

Like in Word you can just change the levels of the different headings and the indentation happens automatically:

[Narada]

I have found something similar where you can change the indentation style of the individual Headings but it just doesn´t has any effect. Does nobody has an answer to this?? I mean for a layout program this is really weak functionality. Even in word this is much easier. If you have a complex document with 5-6 sub headings and you want to make a TOC you don´t wanna go through all the headings in the TOC and edit them manually! this is nonsense. Here is the function which has no effect on the TOC but I just don´t understand why. Is it a bug?

[walt.farrell]

31 minutes ago, Narada said:

I have found something similar where you can change the indentation style of the individual Headings but it just doesn´t has any effect. Does nobody has an answer to this??

The indentation levels specified via the hamburger menus in the TOC panel have no effect in my documents.

However, my heading styles are automatically indented in the TOC when I use the default Heading 1 and Heading 2 text styles, and also if I make my own Heading 3 style based on Heading 2. That indentation is handled by the definition of the text styles (e.g., TOC1: Heading 1, TOC1: Heading 2, etc.). In those text styles, the left-indent starts at 0 for the top level, .25 for the next level, .5 for the next level, etc.

So, all you should need to do to get indented TOC entries is use the default text styles, or adjust the ones created by Publisher from your text styles (e.g., TOC1: Stil 1) and set their definitions correctly. Edit the text style, and change the Spacing in the Paragraph section.

[Narada]

 

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The indentation levels specified via the hamburger menus in the TOC panel have no effect in my documents.

Do you know why this is so? since I think it was made for this purpose. Strangely it also has no effect on the preset heading styles as well.

 

Yes if I just use the preset styles I can make it work. However it should be also possible to define  a style yourself and make it behave the same way. I checked all the settings in the preset styles and tried to remake it in my own defined ones but I just don´t know why it isn´t working the way I expect it to work.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Narada said:

 

Do you know why this is so? since I think it was made for this purpose. Strangely it also has no effect on the preset heading styles as well.

 

Yes if I just use the preset styles I can make it work. However it should be also possible to define  a style yourself and make it behave the same way. I checked all the settings in the preset styles and tried to re,make it in my own defined ones but I just don´t know why it isn´t working the way I expect it to work.

No, I don't know why the indentation levels in the TOC panel don't work. Probably a bug, but not one I can recall having seen. That function in the TOC panel was new with 1.9, I think, so maybe it's not fully working yet.

The only way I know of to make this work with your own styles is to adjust the Left Indent settings in the generated TOC text styles. But I haven't played with it very much. I would like to discover what it is that sets up the automatic indentation for the default styles, to see if it can work for our own styles.

Note that adjusting the generated text styles does not take much effort, and does not require making physical edits to the generated TOC itself. It is how we are intended to adjust the appearance of the TOC, and is much better and simpler than physically editig the TOC.

[Old Bruce]

The ToC method of working is extremely dysfunctional.

Tips

Always work with a Text Frame for the ToC which is drawn on the actual page, not a text frame from a Master Page.

If you have to delete the ToC for any reason, delete the Text Frame as well and make a new one.

Realize that inheritance does not always work so roll your own everything for Paragraph Styles.

Do the ToC at the very end of the project. If you want to 'check and see what it will look like' in the middle of the project, delete the ToC and Delete the Text Frame it was in. 

Never put it into a Text frame that is flowing into any non ToC text frame(s).