Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Recommended Posts

Hi again! Your help with generating a Table of Contents would be appreciated. I have followed the instructions and tutorials but have run into problems. I can't get the TOC to generate the page numbers. It will only show me the Headings. 

I formatted the headings using my chosen style, Half Right Title. There is also something odd going on because although the headings are all styled the same way in the desired Open Sans Font, all Caps, one entry in the TOC appears without a capital T for Two. Screen shot of TOC Page below.

Any clues, anyone? Thanks!

image.png.d78fcafe43131a318c8aaeef4a0db2ba.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Look in the TOC studio panel. To the right of the style names you will find a settings icon ("burger" menu, if I remember correctly). One of the options there is to include the page number.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A Visual to backup Walts post...
image.png.f4b2faa7f1f9f708bba69391d614b975.png

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PS. For future reference, if I want to add the epsilons.... between the entry and the page number next time, how would I do that? Clicking on bullet in drop down only gets me one bullet after the chapter entry.

I'd also like to know how to change the position of the TOC - clicking on the tab indent etc in the drop down doesn't seem to do anything.

If you can refer me to the instructions or a tutorial to explain, that might be easier for you, and I would be grateful. I don't want to have to trouble you with long explanations! It is good of you to give me your time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do you mean by "epsilons"?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first image above shows my TOC as generated except now I know how to put numbers in, thanks to you! So that is all good.

I was able to edit the format so that my TOC was a bit fancier. See image below and was very happy with it. 

Unfortunately, my preflight checker is not happy about these changes, and if I click on Fix it reverts to the format shown above, (but with number).

Could someone please enlighten me as to how I can put my TOC into a more pleasing format that will pass preflight checks?

Here is what I hope to achieve:

image.png.4b5349e54a40fdd5c6d6819804c94e16.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You'll need to have two unique Paragraph Styles in the Document. One for the Parts "PART ONE" (Call it Part Headings) and one for the titles, "From Pillar to Post" (Call it Titles Headings). Set up the ToC to have the page numbers for the Titles Headings but not have page numbers for the Part Headings. Finally you may need to have the Part Headings lower in the Layers panel than the Titles Headings if they are in separate Text Frames, if they are in the actual text flow then all should be good.

You can have the two Paragraph Styles based on other styles with nothing changed except the name of the text style. This means you can have a Chapter Heading that the Part Headings is based on and they will look identical in the publication, same font, size and weight etc but the Chapter Headings won't be included in the ToC.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Dungarven said:

Sorry! I meant elipses ...... dots!

For the leader dots, you need to update the Text Style used for the TOC entries. If you put the text cursor into the TOC, in a heading that needs the dots, you will see in the Context Toolbar or in the Text Styles panel what Text Style is used. For example, you might see that "TOC 1: Heading 2" is the text style:

image.png.4a2e1be1acbd20e395271d115348efc4.png

In the Text Styles panel, right-click on that Text Style and choose the option to Edit it.

In the Text Style edit dialog, click on Tab Stops in the list on the left. It will probably look like this:

image.png.1baea5900472e12a8543245c143116c3.png

Click on the ... icon, and change the leader to a . like this:

image.png.c64656f9e36385369462202d35c31e10.png

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Note that there are clear design flaws (omissions) in the way Publisher has currently implemented the TOC styles. Here is an example of how dots or ellipses would typically be used as separators in an automatically created table of contents that uses TOC styles.

tocstyles.jpg.6647d633fbf9544d1c741126987c613c.jpg

The top row represents the inherent TOC styling generated for Heading 1 styled paragraphs. Note that by default separating characters (here dots) and page number use the styling (here bold) and font size (here 14pt) of the parent style.

The middle row shows how an ellipses character would look if used as a separator instead of the in-built dot separator. Ellipses has dots a bit more loosely spaced compared to using just dots in sequence, and typically also leaves more space between the separating dots and the page number, but the third row shows why it is not necessarily a good idea to use ellipses as a separator, since if tracking is applied it would produce uneven spacing of dots.

The fourth row shows manually adjusted TOC styles where separating dots and the page number have been normalized so that they are similarly formatted disregarding the TOC level. Whether this is wanted is much a matter of personal preference or house style (or specific style and outlook of the publication), but the problem with Publisher is that it does not seem to allow creation of custom character styles for an automatically generated TOC or even applying non-TOC character styles for TOC entries, so these kinds of formats need to be applied manually, which is quite tedious if the TOC is long and complex. Typically TOC needs to be updated (or regenerated) multiple times during a book project so reapplying formatting becomes easily painful. Publisher does have separate formatting for TOC numbers but this style is not applied to separators, and it would of course be useful to have separate formatting style that is applied for the separators (InDesign e.g. has this feature, and it additionally naturally also allows the user to manually apply any style on TOC elements without restricting available styles to just in-built styles). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Walt. Your explanations and illustrations make it very easy to follow. Success! I now know how to add leader dots. I think esthetically I prefer it without in tis case, but am very pleased I can do it now! Thank you.

Thank you too, Old Bruce. Very kind of you to take the trouble to enlighten me! That made perfect sense and it worked a treat. We are getting closer! Now my TOC looks as seen below. But if I format it so that the PART ONE is in caps and there is no paragraph break between that and the name of the part, Pre-flight checker rings alarm bells again.

So,is there a way to format the TOC to look prettier and have the Part titles closer to the PART Numbers?

That lower case t in Part Two is still a mystery!

image.png.23b967f6989557680d70a9d86ba1dff4.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Iacerto. Your analysis is very comprehensive and much appreciated. I am beginning to get an understanding of the limitations of Affpub.

What would you suggest as a work around? Type up a last minute TOC? It is such a simple one with only four parts and their titles, this may be the best alternative for me.

Red lights in pre-flight are to be avoided at all costs I gather.

Once again, sincere thanks for your help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Dungarven said:

What would you suggest as a work around? Type up a last minute TOC? It is such a simple one with only four parts and their titles, this may be the best alternative for me.

Last minute generation (and keeping the old TOC as a formatting model and reference) may be the only possibility especially if creating digital PDFs with active TOC links. If the TOC is very complex it might be less tedious to just have a manual TOC and then generate automatic TOCs to get the up-to-date page numbers (and other changes) for a reference for comparison and checking.

Links can also be created in PDF editors (and some editors allow automation also in this context which helps a lot in maintenance of complex bookmarks).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In case you use baseline grid but want to avoid its use as per text frame or paragraph, you can override baseiine alignment by using the Text Frame panel and either ignore document baseline grid, or specify text frame specific different baseline grid; or, you can use the Baseline Grid section of the Paragraph panel and turn off alignment to document and text frame baseline.

In context of TOC and if the TOC entries are based on TOC styles, you can define the baseline alignment behavior as a paragraph style setting. TOC styles are by default based on TOC Entry style so it would be adequate to just turn off baseline alignment for that style:

image.jpeg.6eec52fb7299b35b8e21ca617c2b9ca0.jpeg

After having turned off baseline alignment, you can define the desired spacing between TOC entries by specifying settings for Space before and Space after paragraph settings (typically a bit different spacing for different TOC levels).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks again, lacerto. What you have suggested should have worked, but unfortunately, the preflight alarm was triggered in each case. I guess Affinity Publishers have decided double spaced TOCs are all the rage and that's all you can have! Guess that only leaves the manual option with last minute update as you said.

Another question, please. I would like to know how to delete the tab separators and replace with an em dash. I can insert the em dash OK, but clicking on the tab to deselect it only added another line of tabs! The author of this guide was not helpful when it came to removing tabs. How would you achieve this effect?

image.png.ab513edf08d988f0b98bc3eca2f32fa4.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Dungarven said:

I can insert the em dash OK, but clicking on the tab to deselect it only added another line of tabs! The author of this guide was not helpful when it came to removing tabs. How would you achieve this effect?

I'm not sure what you mean. Your screenshot only shows an em-dash, not a tab, as I see it.

You would probably do yourself a favor by creating a short test document and play with it. Then if you need help you can share the test document so we can more easily see what you're doing, and make suggestions with more information available.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Dungarven said:

Thanks again, lacerto. What you have suggested should have worked, but unfortunately, the preflight alarm was triggered in each case.

That is odd, I wonder what it is that triggers the warning (unless paragraph spacing not governed by baseline alignment causes increased spacing and overflow of text included in the TOC text frame. I suppose the preflight shows cause for the warning?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Dungarven said:

but unfortunately, the preflight alarm was triggered in each case.

What was the exact preflight error message?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/27/2022 at 6:12 AM, Dungarven said:

so now if I can just remove the spaces between the PART and its name, I will be done!

Can that be done?

All the TOC styles inherit from the Text Style named Base, and Base specifies a "Space After" value of 12 pt.

So, you should be able to put the cursor in one of the PART entries (which will highlight/select its Text Style in the Text Styles panel) and right-click that entry in the Text Styles panel and choose Edit <text-style-name>. Then

  1. Click on the Spacing entry in the Paragraph section of the Edit dialog.
  2. Change the Space After from [No Change] to 0 pt.

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once again, Walt, you cracked it. I thought I had already changed that spacing, but maybe I forgot to click OK. Anyway, that issue is now sorted. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And my thanks to others who all helped too. Much appreciated.

Any suggestions for the idea of an em dash without the tabs please, anyone?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Dungarven said:

Any suggestions for the idea of an em dash without the tabs please, anyone?

As I mentioned earlier, it looks fine to me in your screenshot so I'm not sure what you're talking about. More examples, or that sample file I also requested, would also help.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.