Publisher Books TOC doesn't update

[vikingtone]

Hi, I am building a book which ultimately will be about 750 pages, made up of around 170 chapters  -  each chapter is 3 or 4 pages.  I have loaded around 30 chapters just to see how things will look.  I have tried to create a TOC, and a number of chapters (randomly??) show in the TOC, but not all the loaded chapters.  I have checked and the chapters have their headings set as Style Heading 1, yet no matter how often I tell Publisher to update TOC, or even update all TOCs, the list doesn't update.  Is there something I can try to get the TOC to work properly please?   2 pictures attached.

[stokerg]

Hi @vikingtone,

Without having a copy of your files, its a bit tricky to say why this isn't working correcly.

Most of the time, when I've seen this before, it is an issue with the Text Styles.  If you'd like to upload the 30 chapters you show in the screenshot to our Dropbox here and I'll be able to help look into this  

[vikingtone]

Thanks for taking time to reply. I will check  -  again, to see if I can see anything oddball about the style  -  I agree, it is the mostlikely suspect.  I will get back to you, and send chapters if I can't see what's occurring. Thanks again.

[vikingtone]

I guess I must be some sort of simpleton.  I took it (I don't want to say 'assumed'  -  though that's what it was) that a style called 'Heading 1'  in a chapter, and another style called  'Heading 1' in another chapter  -  in fact, let's say, any style called  'Heading 1' in any number of chapters, would show in the TOC.  Surely the TOC is a simple thing, it just makes a note of the page on which a style called Heading 1 appears.  Surely the thing isn't going to distinguish between styles with the same name?  why would it?

It looks like I may have some Heading 1 styles based on 'Normal' and some based on 'base'  although, in my defense, I did believe all my styles were the same.

It looks like I may have to edit every Heading 1 style in over 100 chapters.   Why on earth would Publisher care?  It's just a name, isn't it??

thanks again

I will put some chapters into the dropbox  -  they represent the first few files which do show in the TOC and the first few which don't  -  a zip file named BOSTROM WATERLOO

 

[vikingtone]

Hi again  -  I am really desperate to make this work  -  it's going to be a huge book so the TOC is vital.   I enclose 2 more screenshots  -  there is an obvious difference in that a chapter which works doesn't have the 'Normal' style lit up along with 'Heading 1' but the chapter which doesn't work does have 'Normal' lit up.

I don't know how this happened  -  I can see in the style description that the good chapter has a character fill spec but the bad chapter doesn't.  How this has happened is beyond my understanding, but why should it matter?

 

Please if anyone can shed some light on why I can't get the TOC to work, and whether it really is down to these seemingly irrelevant issues, I'd be very grateful.

 

 

[MikeTO]

In the first screenshot, you have two paragraph styles (Heading 1 and Normal) applied to the same text. This is possible (apply one and then right click the second and apply it to the selected characters rather than to the entire paragraph) but I don't recommend this for most users. In any case, it shouldn't matter, because if a Heading 1 + Normal paragraph works, and IF Heading 1 is included in your TOC and Normal is not, then it means Heading 1 is applied to the paragraph and Normal to the characters. On the other hand, if Heading 1 is not included in your TOC and Normal is, then it means Normal is applied to the paragraph and Heading 1 to the characters and your document will need some work.

I highly recommend getting your text styles sorted out with chapter 1 before creating additional chapters. Since you already have them all created, I think you're doing to need to do some style clean up.

First, what does your document use Normal for? Is it body text? That's the default body text font in MS Word so perhaps that's where it came from but you also have a paragraph style named Body. Which one do you use for your body text? Delete the one you're not using. If you delete Normal, then all of those Heading 1's that also had Normal applied will be the same as your other Heading 1's.

Assuming Heading 1 is the heading style you're keeping, open each chapter one by one and search for Heading 1. Remove Normal from those paragraphs. (Select all the text in the paragraph and choose the character version of [No Style].

Do the same for Heading 2 if that's also a problem. Once you have all of your headings cleaned up in all chapters, then check your TOC and ensure that only the Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles are included in it. That should give you a solid footing to work with.

Good luck.

[Old Bruce]

You have a little + sign in the Heading 1 Paragraph Style. Most likely this is due to @MikeTO's observation regarding the use of Normal. To get rid of it click on the little T symbol by the right side (this is not included in either of your screenshots). I show what I mean in the screenshots below, there is also the Text Menu item Text > Reapply Text Styles which will work if you have the Text Caret in the paragraph which is "wrong".

 

[vikingtone]

Thank you Mike.   I had no knowing hand in applying Normal style  -  it happened for reasons unknown to me. The words are cut and pasted from Word, so maybe that's the link, as you say.

I have gone through these first few chapter which I sent  -  and 'disconnected' the style Normal from the paragraph  -  it all looks as I imagine it should.

 

However, when I told Publisher to update the TOC, no new chapters were added.   I don't deny I find this whole thing to be quite challenging.   I would have though removing Normal style from the text  -  and therefore making the style menu look like (as far as I can see) chapters which work, really ought to fix the problem, but it doesn't seem to.  Thanks again

[vikingtone]

Thank you Old Bruce for your advice.  I looked at a chapter which hadn't had Normal detached from the text, and it looks just as your screenshot.

I detached Normal from the text and it looked fine  -  though the examples which I have done before also look fine, but don't show in the TOC.

I enclose a screenshot which shows what happens when I click the 'little T' to reassign  -  it loses the plot. In appearance it's OK, but is now justified to the left. The listing exposed by the carat shows all the styles in the file  -  most unassigned but alignment I guess is set to left.  As I say, it is how I want it if I detach Normal, but don't reassign.  But doesn't show in the TOC.

I will add the file to the book and see if it shows in the TOC after reassignment.  

thanks again for your help

 

 

[vikingtone]

For further information  -  I checked what would happen if I simply merged the chapters manually one at a time, instead of using the Books feature.  The exact same result  -  a few chapter show in the TOC, but the ones which fail in the Book, also fail in the merge.  Just wanted to check.  Thanks again for any assistance.  It's starting to look like I need a major re-build of my 700+ page document  -  because my customer wants one volume (yes, I know.......) so a hundred or more blank pages of padding won't work  -  and with an asymmetric master the book looks bad when 'left' pages are place to the right, and V-V.   I suppose I should have thought about this  -  but I knew I needed a big book, so a bigger gutter seemed to be a good idea.  To be honest, I really expected the Book facility to merge the master layout  -  but that was hoping for too much.  Looks like I have to rework every page

thanks for the help  

[MikeTO]

If you're starting over, you'll find lots of suggestions for structuring a book in the free manual I've uploaded to the forum, see the link in my signature. I'll share an expanded version when 2.3 is released that will also explain text styles.

And yes, you inherited the Normal style when copying and pasting text from MS Word.

Cheers

[vikingtone]

Thanks again MikeTO for helping me out.  There's no way in the world I can start again  -  it's been a difficult job as it is, I couldn't face starting over.  Also  -  as mentioned, even when I detach 'Normal' from a file which once had it attached, the file doesn't show in the TOC, so there are some major issues at play.  I couldn't avoid copy/pasting from Word, it's the way the information was provided to me.

I will have to complete the job  -  possibly merging or possibly using the Books facility, and do the TOC by hand at the end.

I also mistakenly believed the books facility would merge files and rearrange the pages to suit an asymmetrical layout. It doesn't, so the end result is disastrous as I can't have blank buffer pages. I will have to build all the chapters, merge them then output the whole thing to PDF and realign those pages in Designer  -  it's bonkers, you don't have to tell me, but it seems at this point in time to be the least-worst option.

All of these problems I brought on myself, some by being dumb and some for not seeing the problems grow like storm clouds as I ploughed through the material. There's no-one to blame, but me.  Thanks so much for giving your time to offer help, it's honestly appreciated   Also thanks for the manual, I downloaded it the other day and have been through it, scanning  -  I will read it properly when I have time.  I will never take on such a weird job in the future, that's for sure,  take care

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