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• • April 7, 2011 at 1:02 pm #59203
    Kip

    Member

    Just as I was putting the finishing touches on a book I noticed that the tables of contents listed the wrong numbers. Realizing that the book started out as a single indesign document and was then converted later into several InDesign documents (one for each chapter) I decided to click “include book documents” from under the TOC preferences. I clicked on it and the page numbers ended up being right but now the character styles ended up getting all wacky. I have included screen shots of both TOCs and their corresponding preferences. Any ideas as to why this is happening?

    Update: I just noticed that the screen shots are not coming across. Is there a way to attach them into this post? Apparently you can't do it by dragging the images into the text field.

    Update 2: I noticed that you can post screenshots on the Adobe forum so I have posted them there if you would like to have a look at them.

  • April 7, 2011 at 4:31 pm #59209
    Kip

    Member

    Here is the link to the screen shots of what I am talking about:

    https://forums.adobe.com/messag…..32#3600932

  • April 8, 2011 at 5:06 pm #59215
    Alan Gilbertson

    Participant

    From the look of what you posted on the Adobe forum, I suspect you have overrides on the Heading paragraphs in your various documents that come out “weird” in the TOC. It's a misfeature of the TOC function that if any overrides are present in text that is in the styles list for the TOC, it will be reproduced in the TOC. (E.g., If you have a 48 pt. chapter title and you tighten the leading to 48 pt., you get 48 points of leading in the 12 pt. TOC entry for that chapter title. It's infuriating, but according to the Adobe engineer I corresponded with on the subject, it's “as designed.”)

    Synchronizing styles across the book document doesn't affect any local overrides, so first remove any overrides in your headings (click inside the paragraph and Alt/Option-click the paragraph style name) in each document, then synchronize the documents with your style source once again, just to be sure, then try the TOC again.

    I'll post this on the Adobe forum, too, for you.

  • April 8, 2011 at 8:11 pm #59220
    Kip

    Member

    Great! That worked, thanks. I wonder why clicking “update toc” eliminates the leaders between the chapter title and it's corresponding numbers? I can put each leader back in one at a time but I wonder what the reason is for why it takes them out?

  • April 9, 2011 at 6:21 am #59221
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    I looked at your thread in the Adobe forum (great screenshot, very helpful!) and you got the right advice there. But I think you're still missing some important techniques.

    You need to create a specific paragraph style for your TOC entries, as recommended. That paragraph style should include the correct tab stop(s) and the leader dot style for the tab … all of this is selectable in the Paragraph Style Options dialog box, in the Tabs panel.

    If you want to change the font or color or tracking of *just* the leader dots, then you need to 1) Create a character style for the leader dots; and 2) Edit your new TOC Entry paragraph style so a Nested Style automatically applies your leader dots character style when it encounters a tab, and only applies it to that tab character.

    Test out your new TOC Entry style on some sample text to make sure it's right. Then choose the name of that style in the TOC dialog box, in the middle section (Style heading section, the Entry Style: pop-up menu). Right now you have it set to “Body” per your screen shots.

    That should fix your “update TOC” problem.

    AM

  • May 5, 2011 at 6:32 pm #59511
    Kip

    Member

    Thanks Anne-Marie, I finally got it fixed. I got a little frusterated for a while because someone on the Adobe forums was saying things that were contradicting what you and Real World InDesign were saying about using character styles. I got burned out and had to put this issue on hold for a little while. In the end for some reason the tab leader wasn't set up right in the paragraphs style.

    I was still wondering if there is an advantage in changing the leader dots though nested styles rather than just changing those atributes through the leader dots character style?

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