TOC Problem

[Jim K.]

Hello experts,

I have a book of about 250 pages with 21 chapters.

When I create the TOC using one of the standard Word
templates (Word 2000) using the standard headers levels 1
and 2. I do not use any other header levels, but have said
to use only header 1 and 2 in the TOC. When I create the
TOC, it is perfect... Except...

In a very few cases the Word generated section number for
the header level 2 entries (e.g. "13.7" from a header
level 2 reference) is in a tiny font. In my 21 chapter
book this happens three times in a TOC that has about 150
entries. The text with the section name is the correct
size, just the section number is the wrong font size.

I have tried deleting the entire TOC and starting from
scratch and the same thing happens with precisely the same
TOC entries. I have tried deleting the header line and re-
entering it, but the same problem persists.

In staring at the text with the header I can no obvious
differences between the incorrect headers and the correct
ones.

What's happening here?

Many thanks for your help.

Jim K.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Hi Jim:

In the Table of Contents, the "text" of both the header and the number comes
from the heading in the body of the text. The "Formatting" is applied by
the TOC style appropriate to the level of the heading in the body (in this
case, TOC 2).

The only time that could be different is if either manual formatting has
been applied to the TOC, or numbering has been applied to both the TOC
headings and the body headings.

There should be no numbering applied to any TOC styles.

There is one other thing that can happen, and this could be the case: if you
have elected the TOC option to hyperlink the page numbers in the TOC, then
the hyperlink applies a character formatting to the style formatting for
each TOC line. If somehow the hyperlink extends as far as the paragraph
mark at the end of the TOC entry, that will affect the formatting of the
whole paragraph.

To find out, re-insert the TOC and this time disable the Hyperlinks. That
way you can see what the TOC styles are doing. When you choose a TOC format
in the Insert TOC dialog, make sure you select the From Template format.
Any of the other formats are automatically generated, and any changes you
make to the TOC styles will be undone every time the TOC regenerates.

I hope this is enough to go on. If not, post back here and drop me an email
copy, since I do not always get across to this group regularly.

Hope this helps

Hello experts,

I have a book of about 250 pages with 21 chapters.

When I create the TOC using one of the standard Word
templates (Word 2000) using the standard headers levels 1
and 2. I do not use any other header levels, but have said
to use only header 1 and 2 in the TOC. When I create the
TOC, it is perfect... Except...

In a very few cases the Word generated section number for
the header level 2 entries (e.g. "13.7" from a header
level 2 reference) is in a tiny font. In my 21 chapter
book this happens three times in a TOC that has about 150
entries. The text with the section name is the correct
size, just the section number is the wrong font size.

I have tried deleting the entire TOC and starting from
scratch and the same thing happens with precisely the same
TOC entries. I have tried deleting the header line and re-
entering it, but the same problem persists.

In staring at the text with the header I can no obvious
differences between the incorrect headers and the correct
ones.

What's happening here?

Many thanks for your help.

Jim K.

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Jim K.]

Good morning John,

I thought for a while that I had stumped the experts,
thanks for leaping into action.

I am a bit confused about your numbering comment, so here
is the description of the heading 1 and heading 2 styles
when I go to the format style stuff.

Heading 1: Normal + font; 18 pt, Italic, Kern at
16pt,Indent: hanging 0.3" Centered, space after 24 pt,
Keep with next, Level 1, Outline numbered.

Heading 2: Normal + font: Arial, Bold, Italic, Indent:
Hanging 0.4", space before 12 pt after 3pt, Keep with
next, Level 2, Outline numbered.

The heading 1 are the chapter titles and come out looking
like "Chapter 1 - Introduction" and the heading 2 come up
looking like "1.3 Literature".

However I did figure out one possible cause of the
problem. In all three of the cases, I had a text box
containing a figure to the right of the header and the
text box characteristics where to wrap the external text
around the text box. When I moved the text box so that no
part of its outline was near the header the problem went
away. I can claim no insight here, I added some new text
in the prior paragraph and the the text box went through
one of those convulsive jumps to a new location that
happens whenever one adds text.

The clue was that only one of the numbers in the TOC
changed and that one was the one near where the text box
moved. So I went back to the other two examples of the
problem, and moved the text boxes and those two corrected
themselves.

After carefully making a copy of the entire document to
avoid trashing it, I went back and played with the copy a
bit. If I moved the text boxes back to their original
position, to the right of the header 2 lines, the problem
did NOT return! So there must have been something else
involved, but what, I have no idea.

So the fix is to move the boxes, and if they really have
to be where they were originally positioned, redo the TOC,
then move the text boxes back to the original location,
redo the TOC, and voila! Corrected!

Isn't Word wonderful!

Many thanks for your help.

Jim K.

The other possible

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The issue is probably not where the text boxes *are* but where they're
anchored. Position them wherever they need to be, but make sure they're not
anchored to headings.