Table of Contents Update

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johann Swart
  • Start date Start date
J

Johann Swart

Platform: Win2KPro, Office 97 Pro
When updating a Word TOC, I have to manually reset
(select) the options (Styles) everytime. Is there not
somewhere where one can save the (my) default settings?
(This document is part of a set of hundreds which are
automatically converted to pdf in bulk. The pdf software
updates all fields before conversion, but in this manner,
I have to do each document's TOC individually; if not, I
don't get a TOC at all.)
 
You can save a TOC field as an AutoText entry. The field itself does not
contain any entries, just instructions on which headings to include and the
general layout of the TOC. TOC styles are saved in documents and templates.
If you want these styles consistent across documents, you will either need
to base the documents on a single template (or multiple templates with the
TOC styles defined identically) or copy the styles into the documents using
the Organizer.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Thanks for your response Suzanne.
Perhaps I should explain a little more.
For the time being, ignore that there are more than one document
involved, and that they get converted to PDF.
When I open an existing Word document, it correctly displays the TOC.
If I then select to view the code, it too lists the correct headings
to be included in the table:
{ TOC \o "1-1" \t "Heading 2;1;Heading 3;1;Heading 4;1;Heading
5;1;Heading 6;1;REFERENCEHEAD;1" }
I then revert to normal view, (mouse)right-click, and select 'Update
Field|Update Entire Table', I get an error message 'Error! No table of
contents entries found.' I then press 'Alt+Backspace' to get my
original TOC, select the entire TOC, and then select Insert|Index and
Tables|Table of Contents. At this point, I expect to see the headings
(see above) listed in the Preview pane, but I either see none, or I
see incorrect headings (styles) listed there. I then reselect the
required styles, and regenerate the TOC.
If I should return to the same document the next day (after having
switched the PC off overnight), I would have to go through the same
process again.
You may very well ask why is it necessary to regenerate the TOC so
often. The anser is: it isn't. But, as I mentioned before, this
document is but one of a set of hundreds which are frequently revised,
and we then issue the new revision of the entire set in PDF format on
CD. The software I use (which is in fact a macro named PDFLinks from
www.byteryte.nl), updates all fields, including the TOC, before it
creates the PDF, hence the frequent updating.

I hope you have a clearer picture of my situation.

PS: It does not happen with all documents; +/- 80% display this akward
(and very inconvenient) behaviour.
Platform: Win2KPro (SP4), Office 97 Pro (SR-2)
 
Thanks for your response Suzanne.
Perhaps I should explain a little more.
For the time being, ignore that there are more than one document
involved, and that they get converted to PDF.
When I open an existing Word document, it correctly displays the TOC.
If I then select to view the code, it too lists the correct headings
to be included in the table:
{ TOC \o "1-1" \t "Heading 2;1;Heading 3;1;Heading 4;1;Heading
5;1;Heading 6;1;REFERENCEHEAD;1" }
I then revert to normal view, (mouse)right-click, and select 'Update
Field|Update Entire Table', I get an error message 'Error! No table of
contents entries found.' I then press 'Alt+Backspace' to get my
original TOC, select the entire TOC, and then select Insert|Index and
Tables|Table of Contents. At this point, I expect to see the headings
(see above) listed in the Preview pane, but I either see none, or I
see incorrect headings (styles) listed there. I then reselect the
required styles, and regenerate the TOC.
If I should return to the same document the next day (after having
switched the PC off overnight), I would have to go through the same
process again.
You may very well ask why is it necessary to regenerate the TOC so
often. The anser is: it isn't. But, as I mentioned before, this
document is but one of a set of hundreds which are frequently revised,
and we then issue the new revision of the entire set in PDF format on
CD. The software I use (which is in fact a macro named PDFLinks from
www.byteryte.nl), updates all fields, including the TOC, before it
creates the PDF, hence the frequent updating.

I hope you have a clearer picture of my situation.

PS: It does not happen with all documents; +/- 80% display this akward
(and very inconvenient) behaviour.
Platform: Win2KPro (SP4), Office 97 Pro (SR-2)
 
I assume that your document does contain the Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.,
styles? A couple of notes: the example in my Help file shows commas between
the listings for the \t switch. I imagine that the use of the semicolon is
correct for your language version. The example also, however, shows spaces
between the style names; omitting the spaces may confuse Word as to what is
part of the style name and what is the level reference. And given that you
have specified the styles and levels, I suspect that the \o switch is
superfluous. Try this field and see if it works:

{ TOC \t "Heading 2;1; Heading 3;1; Heading 4;1; Heading 5;1; Heading 6;1;
REFERENCEHEAD;1" }

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Hi Suzanne,
Apologies for not getting back to you earlier; some server
problems I believe.
I think I've cracked it, thanks to your suggestion
regarding the semicolon/comma situation.
My dilemma actually has a bit of a history in that, our
national standard for the decimal, is the comma. Not to
have conflicting characters, I then chose the semicolon as
the list separator. That was some time ago. We recently
received a management directive, for a variety of reasons,
to use the decimal point instead, despite national
standards. Based on that, I have reset my Windows Regional
Settings. But the documents I was referring to earlier,
have already had their TOC generated under the
previous 'regime.' When I started noticing the problem, I
would just select the entire TOC, and, not being able to
update it, insert a new TOC over that. Had I deleted the
existing TOC and then inserted a new one, I wouldn't have
had the problem, but for some reason, overwriting the
existing TOC, still kept using the semicolons instead of
commas. Perhaps you can try and fathom that one.
But for now at least, the problem seems to be solved. I
just need to open each document again and, in field code
view, replace all the semicolons with commas.
Thanks a million for your effort.
Regards
Johann
 
Great, I'm glad you got it sorted, though I'm still curious about the lack
of spaces.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
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