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InDesign CS3  |  Go to CS4 Help

Generate a table of contents

Before you generate a table of contents, decide which paragraphs should be included (such as chapter titles and section headings), and then define paragraph styles for each. Make sure that these styles are applied to all appropriate paragraphs in the document or booked documents.

When you generate the table of contents, you can also use paragraph and character styles to format the table of contents.

Table of contents without paragraph styles (left) and with paragraph styles applied to entries (right)

  1. Do one of the following:

    • If you’re creating a table of contents for a single document, you may want to add a new page at the beginning of the document.

    • If you’re creating a table of contents for multiple documents in a book, create or open the document to be used for the table of contents, make sure that it’s included in the book, and then open the book file.

  2. Choose Layout > Table Of Contents.

    If you’ve defined a TOC style that has the appropriate settings for your TOC, you can choose it from the TOC Style menu.

  3. In the Title box, type a title for your TOC (such as Contents or List of Figures). This title will appear at the top of the table of contents. To format the title, choose a style from the Style menu.
  4. Select Include Book Documents to create a single table of contents for all documents in the book list, and to renumber the book’s pages. Deselect this option if you want to generate a table of contents for the current document only. (This option is dimmed if the current document is not part of a book file.)
  5. Determine which content you want to include in the table of contents by double-clicking paragraph styles in the Other Styles list to add them to the Include Paragraph Styles list.
  6. Select Replace Existing Table Of Contents to replace all existing table of contents stories in the document. Deselect this option if you want to generate a new table of contents, such as a list of figures.
  7. Specify options to determine how each paragraph style in the table of contents is formatted. (See Options for formatting a table of contents.)
    It’s a good idea to define a TOC style that contains the formatting and other options for your table of contents. To do so, click Save Style. You can also create TOC styles by choosing Layout > Table Of Contents Styles.
  8. Click OK.

    A loaded text cursor  appears. Before you click, you can move to a different page or create a new page without losing the loaded text.

  9. Click or drag the loaded text cursor on a page to place the new table of contents story.
Note: Avoid threading the TOC frame to other text frames in the document. If you replace the existing TOC, the entire story will be replaced by the updated TOC.



Comments

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Comments


MPoulalion said on Jan 8, 2008 at 7:46 PM :
I just came across a challenge on my first attempt at using the TOC feature
for a freelance book project I am working on and can't believe there is
nothing posted on this.

It is actually a manual and I have page numbers that use the module # then
a . then the page number of the module. ie, 3.4 is module 3, page 4.

I would like it to show up like this in the TOC. Seems the TOC only looks at
the page number. I even built the page number with a section number "3."

Am I going to have to manually use find/change to make this work?
Bob - Adobe Writer said on Jan 9, 2008 at 1:36 PM :
You can fix your problem by selecting each document one by one in the book panel and doing the following: choose Document Numbering Options from the Book panel menu (not from the Layout menu), specify the Section Prefix and select Include Preflix When Numbering Pages, and click OK.
kymbix said on Apr 23, 2008 at 3:35 PM :
So... is there a way to have InDesign automatically update your TOC when page numbers change within your document (say, by adding or deleting pages)? Or is there a way of linking pages to the TOC so that this happens automatically without having to regenerate a whole new TOC?

Thanks for the help!
Bob - Adobe Writer said on Apr 23, 2008 at 4:13 PM :
Yes. Choose Layout > Table Of Contents, select "Replace Existing Table of Contents" and click OK. Your TOC is updated. See the topic called "Update a table of contents."
kymbix said on Apr 24, 2008 at 1:12 PM :
Okay... but the "replace existing table of contents" option is grayed out and I can't select it. Does the TOC need to be a separate InDesign doc, or can it be part of a single document that includes all chapters, etc? I don't know why this isn't working for me! Thanks in advance...
Frontdesk Superstar said on Apr 24, 2008 at 1:29 PM :
I followed Bob's advice for the page numbering and the numbering occurs in my different chapters but not in my Table of Contents. I have tried a number of different things and nothing seems to work. I am working in CS3. Any other hints?
spot-on said on May 1, 2008 at 9:28 PM :
I have exactly the same problem! In my book, each chapter's pages have a prefix -- A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, etc. If I generate a TOC in a single chapter, the prefixes are correctly picked up. If I generate a TOC for the whole book, the prefixes are not picked up. And, yes, I *do*have the Section Prefix specified for each document, and Include Preflix When Numbering Pages selected in the Book palette menu's Document Numbering Options.
Bob - Adobe Writer said on May 2, 2008 at 7:32 AM :
This appears to be a bug. I notified a member of the program team.
kat tea said on Jun 9, 2008 at 5:20 PM :
Has this been fixed or is there any other way to achieve prefixes in TOC?
Bob - Adobe Writer said on Jun 10, 2008 at 7:58 AM :
Theoretically, if you follow the steps, the prefixes will appear in the TOC. But several people have mentioned that they've followed the steps, and for whatever reason, the prefixes aren't showing up in the TOCs. The testers are still investigating the issue. I was able to duplicate the problem, and I was able to fix it by changing the numbering options from the Book panel. I'm not sure if that works in all cases, but you may want to give it a try. If you can't get your prefixes to show up, please contact customer support. That way, real cases will get back to the testers.
No screen name said on Jul 1, 2008 at 6:14 AM :
Hi there

I am having a problem with InDesign CS3 - I am trying to generate a TOC for a book, however the page number prefixes are not showing up. I have read the following forum which addresses this matter:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/InDesign/5.0/help.html?content=WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-710a.html
however having followed the steps in that forum (ie: made sure i have a section prefix in each chapter and checked Include Preflix When Numbering Pages selected in the Book palette menu's Document Numbering Options.), i can still not get this to work. I see that one of your program testers has noted there i a bug with this and advised to contact Adobe Support.

Please help.

Thanks
Tannyth
F vd Geest (WA Veghel) said on Jul 5, 2008 at 6:36 AM :
I have the exact opposite problem:
When I generate a TOC for a book and documents in that book have a
prefix, this prefix is added in the TOC. I do NOT want this to happen. Include
prefix is off in the section options, they do not appear on the page but they
do in the TOC. Does this only happen when the TOC is generated for book
files? Any suggestion is welcome on how to not have the prefixes appaer in
the TOC.
joelkirzner said on Aug 4, 2008 at 7:57 AM :
Well, I had the same problem and it looks like a simple fix worked for me:

Make sure that the actual table of contents.indd file has the "include Prefix when numbering pages" option checked (when on page 1). Mine wasn't checked originally while I was having the prefix issue. After I checked the option in the TOC's file, I did an update table of contents and it's all good!

Hope that helps.
Joel
HolmanTibbett said on Aug 4, 2008 at 12:27 PM :
I'm trying to set up a table of contents. Everything works fine up to a point. I can see the small block of text accompanying the cursor as I bring it to the page I want to put the table of contents on, but when I click, the text block disappears and nothing else happens.
Bob - Adobe Writer said on Aug 4, 2008 at 5:48 PM :
It's possible that when you click, the text frame is empty. Try selecting it with the Selection tool. If the text frame is empty, go back and make sure the TOC includes the proper paragraph styles.

It's also possible that you're dragging a very small frame, though that's unlikely because you'd probably see it. In any case, try dragging the text frame to create the TOC. If it's still empty, then there's either a problem with the paragraph styles not being included or not be applied to the right text.
No screen name said on Nov 26, 2008 at 6:30 PM :
I have InDesign CS3 and generated a TOC for a manual. The TOC looks great except for the page numbers are followed by a space and a number. For example "Chapter 1: Introduction to Underwater Basket Weaving.......3 5". The chapter starts on page 3,but there is another number after it. The number seems to be sequential through my manual, but doesn't correspond to the chapters, so I am confused. Any suggestions?
Bob Bringhurst - Adobe said on Nov 27, 2008 at 11:12 AM :
I'm not sure what's causing the extra number to appear. You may want to try the user forum:

www.adobe.com/support/forums

 

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