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Inspiring
September 20, 2022
Answered

TOC and Index on the same page...?

  • September 20, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 497 views

Hi again. The books I'm working on are set up so that there's a TOC at the top of the left-facing page, then an index begins below that and continues on the right-facing page. The way I've been doing it is generating a standalone index and a TOC, then cut-and-paste into the spread. I know that's probably the FM equivalent of making 3 left turns to go right. What I really want to do is have the Index and TOC set up as they're meant to be, so that refreshing the book updates those items automatically. Is there a way to set that up so the two generated items can be on the same page and both do the auto-updates? Do I instead have to do a mini-TOC or something? 

Thanks.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer LinSims

    A text insert is like importing a graphic, except you're importing another FM file or a specific flow from another FM file.

     

    To do what you want, you'd have to set up the individual TOC and IX files (as you do now). Then in a different document, you'd use File > Import > File and tell it to copy the TOC and IX files into the document by reference. 

     

    Make sure the new document has all the paragraph formats you want.

     

    You may have to create a new paragraph tag to give the text inset a place to be anchored, especially if you want them close together as shown in your screenshot. I don't work with text insets, so I'm not sure. As I recall, there's a few interesting things that happen with tags in the document being inserted into. I think the anchor line takes on the same format as the first paragraph tag found in the inset, but I won't swear to it.

     

    When importing by reference, the new document will be kept up to date everytime you regenerate the TOC and IX files. Any edits you want to make will have to be in the original TOC and IX files, however. You can't directly edit an inset file.

    1 reply

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    September 20, 2022

    Not that I've ever seen a layout like what you describe, but what about doing text insets of each type?

    Inspiring
    September 20, 2022

    This is it in a nutshell. I don't follow what you mean by text insets.