Table of Contents - InDesign

Under the Layout menu is "Table of Contents." Spend a few minutes define what you want it to take and how you want it set up and ID will take cae of it for you. This only works for simple TOCs. You can also set ID to have different TOC styles if you have multiple TOCs to do.

For our pub, I have ID set up to take anything in the "headline" font and set it as # {tab} Headline and then applying my "TOC style" to. And ta da! You might have to do some tweaking, but some is better than all.

For more information, check out the help files.

Jennifer

Here is a fairly quick rundown of the process. Let me know if anything's unclear.

1.) Create your (currently blank) TOC page, save it, and insert it into your book. Create Paragraph Styles for level of heirarchy that will appear in your TOC. (TOC Level 1, TOC Level 2...)

2.) In the Layout menu, you'll see an entry called "Table of Contents..." That's where it all takes place.

3.) You'll need to tell InDesign which syles should be appearing in your TOC. For instance, your Chapter Heads, and then the next layer of heads. (And maybe a third level?) We'll call them H1, H2, H3. This is done by selecting the paragraph styles corresponding to those heads, and moving them into the "Include Paragraph Styles" box. So, you will have H1, H2, H3 appearing under styles to include.

4.) In the "Include Paragraph Styles" box, click on your first TOC Level (H1). Below, you'll see "Style: H1" and some drop-downs. Use the drop downs to select the TOC Styles you defined earler. So, select "TOC Level 1" for H1, "TOC Level 2" for H2, etc.

--- Also note, you can have a character style for just the page numbers, and select that in the appropriate drop-down.

5.) At the bottom of the dialog box, you''ll see, "Include Book Documents." Make sure this is checked. Plus turn on any other options you may need (hidden layers, run-in, etc.)

6.) Click Ok.

7.) It may take a minute as it goes through all the documents included in your Book. When it's done, you'll get a Loaded Text cursor. Click a frame to fill it with your new TOC. (You will only get the Loaded Text cursor if no frame was selected before you opened the Table of Contents box.)

great suggestions!! I have styles in my layout but i just need to be careful to match my styles with my table of contents... perfect. just the suggestion i was looking for.

I've been using ID since beta for typesetting. When it comes to putting together a book of music images into individual pieces with a TOC of tile and composer, it has been a struggle which ID generally wins and I hand enter the info. A blog on theindesigner.com has an excellent podcast about TOC.

Now TOC works closer to correctly, but I have a weird glitch in my set up. Instead of the TOC grabbing the title and composer from each cover page, hidden behind the image, with the only instance of the paragraph style, the TOC style is using the title of the whole book for the section title, even though the book title does not have the same style sheet, and only appears in the front section with a different paragraph style. So my new TOC has BOOk TITLE instead of the section title. The page numbering is correct and in acrobat the title and page number are live, and the bookmarks are correct with the hand entered titles. But automatic would be good. Anybody experienced this behavior?

I've been using ID since beta for typesetting. When it comes to putting together a book of music images into individual pieces with a TOC of tile and composer, it has been a struggle which ID generally wins and I hand enter the info. A blog on theindesigner.com has an excellent podcast about TOC.

Now TOC works closer to correctly, but I have a weird glitch in my set up. Instead of the TOC grabbing the title and composer from each cover page, hidden behind the image, with the only instance of the paragraph style, the TOC style is using the title of the whole book for the section title, even though the book title does not have the same style sheet, and only appears in the front section with a different paragraph style. So my new TOC has BOOk TITLE instead of the section title. The page numbering is correct and in acrobat the title and page number are live, and the bookmarks are correct with the hand entered titles. But automatic would be good. Anybody experienced this behavior?

I've been using ID since beta for typesetting. When it comes to putting together a book of music images into individual pieces with a TOC of tile and composer, it has been a struggle which ID generally wins and I hand enter the info. A blog on theindesigner.com has an excellent podcast about TOC.

Now TOC works closer to correctly, but I have a weird glitch in my set up. Instead of the TOC grabbing the title and composer from each cover page, hidden behind the image, with the only instance of the paragraph style, the TOC style is using the title of the whole book for the section title, even though the book title does not have the same style sheet, and only appears in the front section with a different paragraph style. So my new TOC has BOOk TITLE instead of the section title. The page numbering is correct and in acrobat the title and page number are live, and the bookmarks are correct with the hand entered titles. But automatic would be good. Anybody experienced this behavior?

Amazing. I didn't even know anything about this. You are a life saver. :)

Great help so far. Any one know how to automate categories with in a ToC?

ie:
cars
item pg1
item pg2
item pg3
trucks
item pg4
item pg5
item pg6
item pg7 ...

Each page has "Cars(or trunks) | item" in it. So right know I am getting:
cars
item pg1
cars
item pg2
cars
item pg3
trucks
item pg4
trucks
item pg5
trucks
item pg6
trucks
item pg7 ...