Affinity Publisher V2: Cannot create character style(s) for initial words in TOC styles - or did I miss something?

[IgorRock]

I guess this is an oversight by Serif:

I have some headlines which use the Numberpile font to have a marker in front of them (which matches the ones used on a map on another page), which looks like this in the text:

This is basically an additional "Headline 2" style which uses the "Initial words" option to use the Numberpile font for the initial word (which in this case is just a "B", which matches the number "1" in a circle in that font, the two colour effect - the character in Numberpile as such would just the white circle with a transparent "1" in the middle - was done by using a 0.8pt border for the character, in case somebody needs to do this, too  ). 

This worked just fine in the text, but in the TOC, it of course shows up as a "B", since the TOC entry uses the same style for the whole line (besides the number, for which there is an additional TOC character style):

Not a problem, since I can change the "Initial words" option for that TOC style here, too, right?

Well, actually YES, it is a problem, since you cannot create additional character styles when working on TOC styles, the icon is greyed out and not clickable:

So the only character styles available to use in TOC styles are the ones for the different TOC numbers for the TOC levels (or styles to list you turned on). As such, those are the only character styles you can use in the "initial word" option of those TOC styles, too.

Right now, I am using a workaround to get my desired result (I simply changed one of the TOC number styles which don't show up in my TOC, because I'm not using the dark section names in this document, to the Numberpile font with the border and then used that character style for the initial words), but this is of course for obvious reasons not ideal:

Is this a bug/oversight/missing feature, or did I miss something myself here?

 

[MikeTO]

I think you missed a step because it worked fine when I tested it. This test doc has a TOC on the top of the page and the headings in the frame below it. The first and last headings are Heading 1 while the numbered ones in-between, as in your example, are Heading 1 Numbered.

I created it the same way you said you did, Heading 1 Numbered has an Initial Word set to a character style.

numbered.afpub

[IgorRock]

6 hours ago, MikeTO said:

I think you missed a step because it worked fine when I tested it. This test doc has a TOC on the top of the page and the headings in the frame below it. The first and last headings are Heading 1 while the numbered ones in-between, as in your example, are Heading 1 Numbered.

I created it the same way you said you did, Heading 1 Numbered has an Initial Word set to a character style.

numbered.afpub 23.67 kB · 0 downloads

Hi MikeTO,

Thank you very much for your example (using a unicode character instead of the Numberpile font might come handy for other projects later on), but I think you might have misunderstood the real issue I encountered.

In your example you're using unicode 2460 for the circled one (and I know there is unicode 2776 for the negative circled one, too), but the first problem is that the fonts I use (Alegreya Sans SC for the headline and Merriweather for TOC level 2, which are both free Google fonts I can use to publish my stuff without having to buy a font license to do so) both don't provide those special characters, so AP uses some standard ones from another font, so I have another font showing up in my document (of which I'm not even sure if I can use it commercially without having to buy another license).

And I could exchange the symbols on the map to use these, too, and could even use the same trick to get the white background in the headline in the text itself, as can be seen in this screenshot (right side shows the decoded unicodes, the first one is using the numberpile font for the circled five as in my original post).

But the real problem with the TOC is the same, even with the circled numbers using unicode - because there is no "add TOC character style" button available, I cannot add the character style needed for the "Initial word" to have two colors and the 0.8pt "border" to fill out the number instead of having it transparent, as can be seen here:

See what I mean? Your solution to use those unicode characters works fine as long as one doesn't need to have the circled number in exactly the same format (two colored) as it is on the map or in the heading itself (the TOC should help people to find the corresponding page easier when looking at that map, so the symbols should be exactly the same).

But it would be the same problem if I had (for some design reasons) headlines which e.g. have the Initial word(s) in bold (Like "Basement: The first room" and "Basement: The second room" - just a simple bad example to make it more clear  ), and this layout should be mirrored in the TOC as well.

As long as you cannot add "TOC character styles" yourself, every TOC entry is uniform, without being able to use Initial Words at all (unless you want them to use the same format as for the number of the same or another TOC level, that is, since the TOC character style for those gets created automatically by AP - which is what I used as a workaround).

[MikeTO]

While the add character style button is disabled when you're viewing a TOC, you don't need to add a TOC character style, any character style will do. Just create a character style as you normally would and then edit your equivalent of "TOC 1: Heading 1 Numbered" and choose that character style as shown in this screenshot.

[IgorRock]

Strange, in my Version, all other defined character styles don't show up when I edit the headline style (please note there is no scroll bar, so it's not that I forgot to scroll):

And I have a lot of character styles defined in non TOC edit mode:

Any idea what I might be doing differently? 🤔🤨

 

[IgorRock]

I just tried it with the example doc you created, and it's the same thing:

[IgorRock]

Just to be sure it's not a language related problem, I switched APub to English, but the result is the same, so it's obviously not that.

And I forgot to mention that I'm using V2.0.4.

[walt.farrell]

As far as I can see, the only Character Text Styles that exist within a TOC are the ones defined by TOC processing for the Number, and the bult-in Emphasis, Strong, and Strong Emphasis. I'm not sure how you got Numbered to show up in your screenshot, @MikeTO.

But I did get it to work with this procedure:

1. Create a heading style that you ultimately won't use. I called mine Unused.
2. Actually create a heading somewhere in the document using that text style.
3. Create or Update your TOC, and specify Unused as one of the text styles to include.
4. At that point, the Unused style should appear as a choice. Choose it.
5. Update the TOC again.
6. At that point, TOC1 Unused and TOC1 Unused Number should appear in the TOC text styles within the Text Styles panel.
7. Edit TOC1 Unused Number to have the initial word style you want.
8. Edit the other heading style (that you want to use Initial Words with). You should find that TOC1 Unused Number is available in the Initial Words style list. Select it.
9. You should now have the TOC1 Unused Number text style applied in the TOC.
10. Back in the TOC panel, uncheck Unused in the list of included text styles. You can also delete the line of text you added in step 2.

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

As far as I can see, the only Character Text Styles that exist within a TOC are the ones defined by TOC processing for the Number, and the bult-in Emphasis, Strong, and Strong Emphasis. I'm not sure how you got Numbered to show up in your screenshot, @MikeTO.

All character styles in the document are in the Initial Word style list when editing a TOC text style. I didn't have to do anything. I tried it again with a blank doc just now.