Publisher 2 digital PDF TOC including entries from text box layers

[ogdredweary]

This is so perplexing. Following this video, I had set up my TOC pretty well perfectly—the test and proof copy that I exported were pristine and orderly, 

but I decided that I wanted there to be digital PDF TOC entries for the cover, front matter, and TOC (without having them shown in the document's TOC). To achieve this, I added H2 headings to each respective page (hiding the layer), as well as ticking the necessary Include entries before TOC box in the Table of Contents window. This, of course, resulted in all the H1 headings from the front matter loading into the document TOC. I figured the most expedient way to correct this was to change all the document H1 headings to a custom text style that I named Diary Heading 1 and select it instead of Heading 1 in the TOC window, which immediately corrected the document's TOC.

The problem is, though, that now the front matter H1 text boxes are being included as their own entries in the digital PDF TOC (even though the document TOC is omitting them). [Please note: the TEST TOC file shown below is only 10 or 20 pages of the whole document since it takes about 5 hours to export the entire thing.]

The first thing I tried was to untick the Include entries before TOC option—and yet this changed nothing as far as the digital output is concerned and all the erroneous TOC entries remained! Next, I created new text styles for every text box in the front matter, but that had no effect either. Then I realised that all of my new custom text styles were 'based on Heading 1', so I changed it so they were based on no style. Still no effect on the digital PDF TOC—all the text box layers are still being included in the PDF as TOC entries. Finally, I tried removing all text styles entirely from these text boxes—and finally the erroneous entries disappeared from the digital PDF TOC (while the diary headings remained as they should). At this point, I figured there must be something set in the custom text styles I made that was still having them identified as headings. So with deliberate care, I manually formatted the text in the text boxes so they looked how they should but without any preset text style being applied...and now all the erroneous entries are back in the digital PDF TOC. 

Additionally, I experimented with ticking and unticking all sorts of other options in the export window, but nothing helped with this problem. I clearly broke something somewhere, but I don't know what or where or how to fix it, and I'm really hoping someone here can help. The only thing I haven't tried yet is setting every single heading back to the way that it was because I'm afraid that it might not work and I'll have wasted yet more time. 

 

[ogdredweary]

So, I ended up having to rebuild this file completely (as far back as rejoining the files I had split to resize hundreds of remaining page images), which meant reconstructing all of the front matter from scratch including the TOC. This time, I didn't alter the TOC settings beyond what I knew to work, and instead of using custom text style headings to write the title page, I used only no-style body text boxes—and did not create new text styles of any kind, which meant manually formatting everything (not ideal). However, this did prevent the problem I outlined in my original post and gave me the result I was after: tidy, aesthetic front matter; comprehensive, convenient file-level TOC; organised, uncluttered document-level TOC.

Since everything came out exactly how I wanted, I was hesitant to muck about with it further. Probably I will duplicate the file at some point and test adding custom text styles on the title page. However, in the meantime, I'm still curious to know if anyone has any ideas about what might've happened. I was so sure that I created the problem through my own doing, which is why I posted it in the general question forum rather than report it as a bug...but I'm less certain now. Should I request this be moved to the bug forum? If so, how do I do that?

[Callum]

Hi ogdredweary,

I apologise for the delayed response, unfortunately its hard to say what might be happening here without a copy of the file. If possible could you provide a copy of your original file with the problem TOC so I can take a look at how its been setup etc.

Thanks
C