More TOC help, please?

[Ed]

I have inherited a document with a TOC field. Every time I choose to update
the entire field, though, it goes haywire! I hope someone can help.

I have two styles used - Heading 1 and Heading 2. I believe they are both
resident in the document, and not necessarily the same as those styles in my
Normal template. At the moment, Heading 1 styles are formatted in the TOC
as bold, underlined, and no page number. Heading 2 styles are not bold or
underlined, and have a dotted tab leader to a right-aligned page number.
This is good and I want to keep it. The current field code is {TOC \O "1-2"
\Z}.

When I try to update the entire table, the Heading 1 styles are bold and
underlined, but have a page number, and the underline extends to the number.
The Heading 2 styles lose the dotted tab leader. Also, the tab setting is
changed to stop at mid-page. I've tried changing the TOC style when I
update, but it keeps getting worse!

It's probably time to start from scratch! What settings am I looking for
when I make this?

Ed

 

[Ed]

Okay - after reading through some stuff on the Word FAQ site, Shauna Kelly's
site, and Suzanne Barnhill's site, I've got most of this resolved. I edited
my heading styles, reapplied the styles, and edited the field code to take
out numbering for Heading 1. (If anyone is just throwing out questions here
and not reading these articles, you are missing great wealth!)

I am currently left with only one major nagging issue (others will crop up,
I'm sure!): my page numbers don't align on the right side. That is, I
would like the right edges of my one-digit numbers to match the right edges
of my two-digit page numbers. I have "Right Align Numbers" checked, and
even modified the TOC style as "Justified". Nothing seems to work, though.
Any suggestions?

Ed

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You probably just need to reinsert the right-aligned tab stop at the right
margin in the TOC 2 styles. When the TOC field "forgets" what it's doing wrt
numbering for some levels, this tab stop (which is generated dynamically)
also gets lost. If you're using the default 1.25" left and right margins
(does anyone ever?), the tab stop would be at 6" (though Word puts it at
5.99"); you'll need to adjust for your actual margins--look at the ruler for
guidance (and that's the easiest way to set the stop, too).

 

[Ed]

I'm not understanding you, Suzanne. I've got 1 inch left and right margins,
a left aligned tab with a dotted leader set for 6.2 inches, and I set a
right aligned tab with no leader at 6.48 inches. I then did an update ..
entire table, but the numbers still don't line up against the right edge. I
tried using the ruler and moved my tabs back and forth, but I still can't
get them to dance for me.

Ed

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Are they right aligned, but simply not at the right edge?

Are you modifying tab settings directly, or are you modifying the TOC 2
style definition? You need to modify the TOC 2 style definition if you want
the setting to survive updating the TOC field.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Modifications made to a TOC 2 paragraph usually suffice, however, since the
TOC styles by default are set to update automatically.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm not sure what the problem could be, then, unless the 0.28" between tabs
is not enough to accommodate the longest numbers.

 

[Stefan Blom]

See if the "leader in toc" thread in the
microsoft.public.word.pagelayout newsgroup applies.

 

[Ed]

Hi, Herb. Thanks for jumping in.

Are they right aligned, but simply not at the right edge? Correct.
Are you modifying tab settings directly, or are you modifying the TOC 2
style definition?

TOC2 style.

*sigh* There may be more than TOC that I don't understand here! Page setup
is 1" left and right margins. For TOC2, I've got a left-aligned tab with
leader at 6.1" and a right-aligned tab at 6.48". I typed a row of "a"s in
an empty paragraph - the text broke to the next line at 6.42". So I changed
my 6.48 tab to 6.4 to be within the useable text margins and updated the
field table - no go.

As far as the TOC is concerned, my employer isn't going to hang me if the
numbers aren't perfectly aligned! But I would really like to understand as
much as possible about what is happening with these tabs! I get the feeling
there's something pretty basic about how all this is supposed to work that
I'm missing. I would assume that a right-aligned tab would pull the right
edge of my text to wherever the tab stop is, just as a left-aligned tab
pushes the text to the tab stop. So why isn't the page number being pulled
to 6.4"?

Ed

 

[Ed]

Well, I guess what I didn't understand was _tabs_!! I cleared all the other
tabs and set one right-aligned tab with dotted leader at 6.45". Bingo!
Everything lines up beautifully!

Many thanks to Suzanne, Stefan, and Herb for staying with my dimness on
this. You people are the only reason I know anything about this thing
called Word!

Ed

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

From your description I assumed you wanted the leader to stop short of the
page numbers (a nice touch), which requires two tab stops but also two tab
characters and an additional switch in the TOC field; we've had another
thread here or elsewhere where someone was working on that, and I guess I
figured this was that one. Sorry for *my* dimness.