table of contents

[Tom G.]

I am having a lot of trouble creating a simple table of contents. I have
tagged relevant headings using the correct styles.
However, when I create the table of contents, everything is "right to left."
In other words an entry such as

Introduction .... 5

reads

5 ..... Introduction

Help!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You should get together with the user who is *trying* to format a TOC that
way!

 

[Tom G.]

I don't understand this reply.
I created this document, but somehow all tables of contents come out
backwards.
Can anyone tell me why?

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Tom

It is possible that no-one has provided a response to you because no-one is
sure of the answer.

My guess is that it has something to do with right to left languages. Follow
the instructions on this page:
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/LangFmt.htm

And, make sure that your whole document is formatted in a left to right
language. In particular, make sure that the TOC styles are in a left to
right language. To do that, put your cursor in the table of contents. Insert

Reference > Index and Tables. In the Formats box, make sure it says "From

Template". Click Modify and modify each TOC style to check its language.

And then update the TOC.

If this solves the problem, and if you have the same problems with every
document you create, then you'll need to make the same modifications in
normal.dot. For information on how to do that, see
Why is my "Blank Document" not blank?
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/BlankDocNotBlank.htm

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[SteveGerson]

Hi Tom,

Interesting. This is my first time to log on to this chat group and I'm
trying to find the answer to the same problem. We share Word files with our
operation in Israel so it's possible that the file somehow got "infected"
with a right-to-left language.

I have a fairly short document (15 pages) with only two levels of TOC
desired (using HEADER1 and HEADER2). What I am noticing is that it is only
the first entry on a page that is right-to-left. If there are additional
HEADER1 or HEADER2 paragraphs on the page, they will be formatted correctly.
The undesired TOC entries have the style TOC1+ or TOC2+. The good ones have
the style TOC1 and TOC2.

I tried Shauna's advise to creat the TOC "from template" but the styles
listed there are simply TOC1 to TOC9 and there is nothing about
'right-to-left' being specified.

On your document, is everything right-to-left or do you see the same problem
I have where only the first entry of a page is right to left.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[SteveGerson]

I tried saving the file as an RTF file, then reading it back in. The TOC now
looks good.

 

[SteveGerson]

Hi Tom,

I was able to get my document to work properly by saving it as an RTF file
and then reading it back in.

 

[Tom G.]

Shauna,
If I look at each TOC style, I see that each one is based on the Normal
style. My Normal style has Saudi Arabian Arabic as a complex script. I think
that that's the problem. I can't find where I can get rid of it.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Tom G.]

No, didn't work.

Hi Tom,

I was able to get my document to work properly by saving it as an RTF file
and then reading it back in.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Tom

This is interesting.

Did you follow the instructions at
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/LangFmt.htm?

If you create a new document based on nomal.dot, what language is the Normal
style in?

Shauna

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word