Hi Lofty:
Yes. But you need to understand what is going on...
God I wish Microsoft wouldn't try to make their product "look simpler" by
dumbing down the help!! This mechanism is simple, straightforward, and
reliable. If only you know how it works!!
The "Table Generator" analyses the text of the document and prepares all of
the options on the Index and Tables dialog. To do so, it takes "parameters"
from the field command embedded in the document.
Pay attention in class, there will be a test later
For the Table of Contents, you store these generator parameters in the TOC
field. There are three broad options:
1) TC Fields
2) Styles
3) Outline Levels
The parameters (named switches, in field codes, because they switch
behaviours on or off) are yet to make it into the Word 2008 help. You can
fiddle around and get it from the Insert>Field dialogue if you are very
patient. But it's so much easier to use the PC version:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP051862011033.aspx
Now "TC Fields" as a method is a last resort, used only when the text you
want to appear in the TOC is different from the text of the headings in the
body text. Let's ignore it for this purpose.
The other two methods are the ones used for 99.9 per cent of TOCs.
The Insert>Index and Tables>Table of Contents command inserts a {TOC } field
into the document. By default, it includes the "\o" switch, which includes
every paragraph that has an Outline Level within the specified range (by
default, Outline Levels 1 through 3).
Older TOCs also included a "\t" switch, followed by a list of style names.
If both switches are present, Word scans the document looking for ANY
paragraph with a level in the required range, regardless of the style
applied to it, or for any paragraph with one of the the specified style
names, regardless of the level applied to it.
You may need to re-read down to here a couple of times, then we're going to
take a look at your field codes, which will tell us where to look for the
problem
If you see "\o '1-3'" in the TOC field, we know that this table of contents
is looking for any paragraph with Outline Levels 1 through 3.
If you also see "\t 'Case citation, Opinion'" in there, Word is ALSO looking
for any paragraph that has EITHER Case citation or Opinion as its style
name.
In your case, I suspect that your TOC field contains only \o "1-3". If so,
we now need to look at the Style definition for those two styles.
In Format>Style>Modify>Paragraph, check the "Outline Level" that is shown
for the two styles. Chances are, you will find that Case Citation" has a
level of "Body Text", and "Opinion" has a level of either 1, 2, or 3.
There: That last paragraph is the complete answer to your question
However, you need to understand all the foregoing before the answer will
make sense. Chances are, all you need to do is correct the Outline Level in
the style definition so that Case citation is "in" and Opinion is "body
text" and your TOC will magically come right.
Make sure that your TOC has been inserted with a format of "From template".
If it has, then the settings for the TOC field and the TOC styles are stored
within the document, so you can format the TOC the way you want it. If the
format is anything else, Word overwrites the TOC field and the TOC styles
each time you regenerate the TOC, so none of your formatting will be
retained.
There: That's about all anyone really needs to know about the operation of
the TOC generator. It would be lovely if they would put that all in the
Help, wouldn't it ...
Cheers
I have a document from which I generate a table of contents from
Heading 1
Heading 2
Heading 3
Case Citation
Once upon a time, long long ago, I generated it from
Heading 1
Heading 2
Heading 3
Opinion
The problem is that every time I recreate the table of contents, the
document wants to use the old generation; I have to go to "options,"
clean out Opinion and add Case Citation. Not a big deal, but a pain.
Is there anything I can do to make my change stick?
-Lofty
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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
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