Cannot make TOC

[FredVN]

Hello

 Last week I tested Publisher, yesterday I bought it and today the first question. J

 In my first book I tried a lot of things, including a TOC. Was OK.

 The next was an import of a pdf, generated in Word. I wanted to add a new TOC and that is not possible. On the left side I cannot select Headings etc. and they are also not on the right side. How can I fix this problem?

I could not find an answer on the forum.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

You don't seem to have the Frame Text Tool active, and the text cursor active in a Text Frame. Without that, how would Publisher know where to insert the TOC?

[FredVN]

Hello Walt

Thanks for your answer.

Even when I am in the text frame, where imo TOC1 is, I still don't get style names on the left of the screen like in my first screenprint. That's my problem as far as I can see. It looks lik therefore in screenprint 2 I don't get the headings styles to add to the field in the middle of the screenprit.

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

Next question, what do you mean by "import a PDF"? Among the possibilities are:

• File > Open
• File > Place
• Document > Add Pages from File

 

[FredVN]

I used File Open.

After that the PDF options, which I left unchanged.

I also made a pdf of the same Word-file, but where I removed the TOF in Word. No difference.

[walt.farrell]

Thanks.

I'm afraid I would need to have the .afpub file (and possibly the PDF file) to understand your problem enough to provide further suggestions.

[FredVN]

Thanks in advance. I will prepare both files. As I live in Vietnam (I'm Dutch) it's almost bedtime, so I will do it tomorrow.

As a newby here, I can add them to the post or are there other ways?

 

[Old Bruce]

14 minutes ago, FredVN said:

Thanks in advance. I will prepare both files. As I live in Vietnam (I'm Dutch) it's almost bedtime, so I will do it tomorrow.

As a newby here, I can add them to the post or are there other ways?

 

Just add them to a new reply, that is the best way in that we will see a new post to this topic and read that but not necessarily notice that the first post has been edited.

[FredVN]

A brief explanation

The basis is an earlier book. Most of it has been removed and here and there new texts have been added. So it is still in a beginning phase. Hence I wanted to convert it to Publisher.

I took out the TOC (Inhoudsopgave) in Word for the test.

 

Abandoned_places_in_Vietnam_-_Publisher_zonder_TOC.afpub Abandoned_places_in_Vietnam_-_Publisher_zonder_TOC.pdf

[FredVN]

An addition

I have also tested with opening a couple of pdf's I downloaded fom the internet. All gave the same result as inage 2 in the openings post.

To me it looks like a problem in Publisher when opening a pdf.

[firstdefence]

I think the reason for the lack of a TOC is the lack of text styles applied to the headings. The TOC is looking for styles and it cannot find any thus no TOC is visible.

Also in the screenshots no TOC is selected in the TOC panel.

[FredVN]

Agree. But where does the styles come from? Can they be added. If so, how?

I could not find that answer despite a lot of searching.

[firstdefence]

I find it very odd you can import Text Styles... but you cannot appear to export Text Styles such as Headings 1, Body etc, in Publisher. There are no categories for Text Styles so en masse export would be impossible and singular export just isn't a practical option. 

Even when importing I have no idea what exactly I'm looking for, none of this makes much sense to me.

I think a workaround to get a document with your content and default Text styles would be to create a blank document with the correct settings and dimensions and then try importing the content in, page by page, this probably sounds impractical but I can't see another way to do this.

Were text styles applied in word?

 

 

[FredVN]

The pdf I used is a subset of a book of >300 pages, I wrote in Word. See https://shielavandenbosch.com/small-companies-in-vietnam/

With TOC and headings in 3 levels in the whole book.

 

No matter if I use the pdf with or without TOC, I don’t get the styles in Publisher.

 

Of course I can do your workaround. But it’s illogical and inconsistent:

• When I start from scatch I have syles like Headings.
• When I start with importing a pdf I don’t have headings.

Why not???

[firstdefence]

Did a quick search and found this post: 

 

 

[FredVN]

Thanks for the link.But... "You have to import text and images separately. "

And for a book with on almost every page text and 1-3 images this is not a real solution.

Does Affinity give also answers by themselves? The developers?

[walt.farrell]

On 2/18/2021 at 7:10 AM, FredVN said:

No matter if I use the pdf with or without TOC, I don’t get the styles in Publisher.

 

Of course I can do your workaround. But it’s illogical and inconsistent:

• When I start from scatch I have syles like Headings.
• When I start with importing a pdf I don’t have headings.

Why not???

Probably because PDF files do not contain text style information. They are very basic, and intended to display or print the text. They do not say "this is a heading" (where "heading" is a style). Instead they say things like "draw the text 'abc' in 16 pt Arial". They may include leading, and character spacing information, but it is not defined in the form of named (or even unnamed) styles.

[FredVN]

No, not logical.

 The two situations.

 New

• I make a new document from scratch.
• I add a textblock.
• I copy past text in it.
• On the right of the screen I see all options for headings etc.
• Which means that they are default in the program.

 PDF

• I make a new document by opening a pdf..
• There are textblocks.
• (In fact the program copy pasted in it.)
• On the right of the screen I see NO options for headings etc.
• Where are the default headings?

For me this is an error: inconsistant behaviour.

[walt.farrell]

9 hours ago, FredVN said:

• Where are the default headings?

For me this is an error: inconsistant behaviour.

Not inconsistent at all.

1. If you create a document from scratch you get a default set of text styles that you can use.
2. If you adjust those text styles (add some, delete some, edit some) and Save the document, when you Open that document you have those changed text styles.

If, in 2, you delete all the text styles, then when you re-Open that file you will have no text styles.

When you Open your PDF you are opening an existing document, and you get the text styles defined there (just as in 2). It has none, so you have none. You will need to add text styles, and assign them to the text. And then you can make a TOC.

 

[FredVN]

Thanks for your answer. I disagree for several reasons, but I don't want to continue that discussion.

At the end you write "" You will need to add text styles, and assign them to the text.". That was what I was searching for, but cannot find how to do that.  Do you know and have a link.?

 

[FredVN]

I found it now. What an extremely primitve solution.

Why not add things like headings etc. to the default program so you can change them into your own wishes. Now, importing a pdf, you must always import another document with the styles you developed.

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, FredVN said:

Why not add things like headings etc. to the default program so you can change them into your own wishes.

Because many users who open existing documents would complain about having additional styles added, beyond those which their documents already contain.

I suppose it might be reasonable to add the default set of styles when Opening a PDF file. You could consider adding a feature request for that.

[FredVN]

Good idea. Tomorrow I will add this feature request.

Thanks a lot for your answers.

 

I also realized I did not told my solution. I found it more or less in the Help under styles.

I made a new document, added a TOC and a text block with 2 names.

The first I made heading 1 and the second Heading 2. Before accepting it I changed the fields to my preferences.

I saved the file as "Styles".

Then I opended the pdf and after that I imported the styles from the above document. Now I can add headings to the pdf. )

[FredVN]

I was a bit too optimistic with my post yesterday.

 Yes, after importing the file “Styles you see all the headings now. But after checking today all heading values are different from how I changed them in “Styles”. So you must again check all values. As I said: primitive.

 I will add a feature request.

[walt.farrell]

9 hours ago, FredVN said:

Yes, after importing the file “Styles you see all the headings now. But after checking today all heading values are different from how I changed them in “Styles”.

That seems odd. Unless, perhaps, the DPI of your Styles document and the DPI of the new document created from the PDF are different. That's about all I can think of that might have an effect.