Wrong order in table of content

[Ociel]

• Affinity Publisher 1.10.4.1198
• Windows 10
• reproducable: yes

 

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Create a text box with a text style (e.g. header 1)
2. Duplicate it and replace the text, so you can see the bug
3. Create a table of content, where only elements with text style header 1 are shown
4. Change the order of the text boxes, so that the first one is behind the second one.
5. Switch the content of the text boxes.
6. Update the table of content.

Result: The order in the table of content doesn't reflect the order of the elements in the document (see the attached screenshot).

Expected result: The order should reflect the order of the elements in the document.

 

I hope, my description is understandable🙂

[walt.farrell]

47 minutes ago, Ociel said:

Result: The order in the table of content doesn't reflect the order of the elements in the document (see the attached screenshot).

TOC entries are created in a specific order:

1. Start with the first page of the  document.
2. Start with the bottom layer in the Layers panel stack for the page you're on, as the bottom layer is assumed to have been created first.
3. Look for relevant/selected text styles in that layer, and include them in the TOC.
4. Move up to the next higher layer in the Layers panel. If none, move to the next document page, and resume at step 2. Otherwise, resume at step 3.

(I have omitted some aspects related to Pinned text frames, and possibly a few others, but that is the basic approach.)

The layout as it appears visually on the page is not relevant. The processing is driven by the order in the Layers panel, from bottom to top.

[MikeTO]

I don't believe this is a bug. The order of entries in a table of contents is dependent on the layer position of the text frames. The TOC engine searches for entries starting at the bottom layer on a page, not the top, which is correct. Here's a fixed version of your example - you need to position Content 1 below Content 1 in the Layers studio (or use send to back). 

[Ociel]

Thanks for your explanation, @walt.farrell and @MikeTO! I understand. Still, from a user's point of view, who doesn't know how the entries are ordered in the TOC, it may be weird and seems to be a bug. But, I guess, it would be more difficult, to implement it to look at the layout because there may be cases, where it isn't clear, which element should come first.

[walt.farrell]

8 minutes ago, Ociel said:

from a user's point of view, who doesn't know how the entries are ordered in the TOC

Some users will already be familiar with that, as it applies in other areas. For example, in Designer if you have multiple Artboards, and export your document as a PDF, the PDF pages are generated from 1 to n based on the bottom-to-top order in the Layers panel.

But some may be surprised, as you were. And this does not seem to be covered in the Help.

[Dennison]

Thank you.  I was struggling with this took.