Table of contents inserts text in document body

[Marathon1908]

I'm new to APub but cannot get started properly because of the bugs.  I have a publication deadline and it looks as if I shall have to find another program.  I'm using Mac OS Ventura 13.5.1 with M1 chip and Affinity Publisher 2.2.0

This problem is that I cannot get it to create a table of contents.  I add 2 pages at the beginning of the document as per instructions, select insert TOC click on the new first page and it bizarrely inserts "Endnotes 25" in the middle of a word on p.1 of the text (see screen print).  This doesn't go away if I undo last action, nor if I close the file without saving changes.  I have to manually remove it.

Help please.

[walt.farrell]

The only thing I can think of is that you haven't actually changed the active/current page, or haven't actually selected the Text Frame for editing.

First, make sure that the current page shows the one where you want the TOC to go. You can see that most easily at the bottom of the screen, on the left side of the Status Bar, where it will show a page navigation control.

Next, don't just click on the Text Frame. Double-click in it so you can see the test cursor in the frame.

 

[MikeTO]

I don't believe these issues are bugs but just part of the learning curve. "Endnotes 25" is presumably the entire table of contents. Publisher inserted it in the wrong place because that's where the text cursor was positioned before you chose insert.

I couldn't duplicate any issues with Undo - keep in mind that even selecting a frame is a separate undo level so you likely just didn't undo far enough. There are a lot more actions happening in Publisher than in Microsoft Word due to the use of frames so it's important to know what you're undo-ing. Keep the History panel open while you learn the program and you'll see an action named "Insert Table of Contents". As I said, I don't think you undid far enough.

The table of contents has just "Endnotes 25" presumably because the heading "Endnotes" is the only heading in the document in a text style that one of the styles included in the table of contents and it's on page 25.

I couldn't duplicate the issue with the inserted TOC not going away after I close the program without saving changes because Publisher doesn't offer an autosave feature. I tried turning on the "Reopen documents on startup" feature in Settings and I tried disabling the equivalent "Close windows when quitting an application" feature in macOS Settings - there's just no way to get Publisher to automatically save a modified document. People have been asking for that feature for years so I think you must have saved the document at some point.

Please refer to "Creating a table of contents" in the free PDF manual I've uploaded to the forum for detailed instructions on creating and formatting tables of contents. While writing it I inserted and updated tables of contents over a thousand times and AFAIK there is only one bug with the TOC feature and it's with regard to updating multiple TOCs which you're not doing.

Good luck.

[Marathon1908]

Mike, Walt, you'll be pleased to know I'm making it work, but there do seem to be limitations in APub.  It gives imported styles that are different names with a + - Heading 1+ etc.  However it will not allow such styles to be used for the TOC.

I'm still struggling a bit with formatting, and I haven't been able to make the page numbers in TOC to link to the pages, even with the help of the guide.  I'm probably missing something, but hopefully will work it out. It's not vital - I shall be removing chapter TOCs and putting a book TOC once I'm near publication.

[MikeTO]

1 minute ago, Marathon1908 said:

Mike, Walt, you'll be pleased to know I'm making it work, but there do seem to be limitations in APub.  It gives imported styles that are different names with a + - Heading 1+ etc.  However it will not allow such styles to be used for the TOC.

The + sign indicates that the style is overridden.

If Heading 1 is Arial 24 Bold and you apply it to a paragraph but then select one word and make it Italic, the style will be shown as Heading 1 +.

If Heading 1 is added to a TOC as TOC 1: Heading 1, that Italic override will not be part of it because you didn't redefine the style.