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cathyb29394614
Participant
Apr 11, 2023 4:29 PM UTC
Answered

InDesign Table of Contents Only Showing Title and Not Populating Entries

I have tried numerous times to create a Table of Contents. I have defined Paragraph Styles, and selected these to populate the TOC but the only thing appearing is the title. I have made sure that there are no overrides in these styles but to no avail. Please help as I have now spent hours on this trying to figure out how to get it to work. Thank you!

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPressCorrect answer
Legend
Apr 12, 2023 3:59 PM UTC

Try a complete do-over — create a few temporary styles and enter a few lines of text with them, then create a completely new TOC 'style' using just those. It should show whether the problem is with your specific setup and styles, or something else.

 

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11 replies

McWriting
McWriting
Participant
Mar 10, 2026 9:57 PM UTC

Thank you, James, for that test. I had the same problem. Tons of experience with TOCs, but this one just didn’t work. Creating new styles DID show up in a new test TOC, which proved it was something wrong with the existing styles.
   I copied the book into a new document, and the TOC worked as expected. You put me on the right track to solve this.

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    aryap49305124
    Participant
    Feb 6, 2025 8:23 AM UTC

    Hey bud! I just facing the same problem as you Today. I did all the stuff some people told you in the comment section but nothing works. Silly me, it turns out I selected the wrong kind of style for all the text, I'm using character styles instead of paragraph styles.

    In case someone crosses this discussion and has the same problem, please check the styles you are using.

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    Peter Kahrel
    Community Expert
    Peter KahrelCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Apr 11, 2023 5:39 PM UTC

    As James requested, please post your document. The only way to figure out what's going wrong is to try and generate the TOC ad see what happens, and check the document's styles.

     

    P.

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    cathyb29394614Author
    Participant
    Apr 12, 2023 11:44 AM UTC

    Thank you both. The document is for a client and until it's approved I cannot post it. I'll see if I can sort it out. I appreciate the help!

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    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPressCorrect answer
    Legend
    Apr 12, 2023 3:59 PM UTC

    Try a complete do-over — create a few temporary styles and enter a few lines of text with them, then create a completely new TOC 'style' using just those. It should show whether the problem is with your specific setup and styles, or something else.

     

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      Community Expert
      Jeffrey_SmithCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      Apr 11, 2023 4:51 PM UTC

      I have to ask, are you certain the paragraph style you defined in the TOC is the same style applied within text?

      Another thing you can try is save/export IDML, open the idml file and try again.

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      cathyb29394614Author
      Participant
      Apr 11, 2023 5:16 PM UTC

      Hi Jeffrey,

      Yes, am certain the styles match, and I did try saving/exporting IDML and using that file with the same result. If you have any other thoughts, that'd be very much appreciated!

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      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      Apr 11, 2023 4:39 PM UTC

      It's possible some combination of breaks and spacing is keeping the text from being visible in the TOC, although you seem to have it set up right.

       

      Try this: Delete any existing TOC frame. Generate an updated TOC. Drag the new TOC frame into place on its page. Now... is there an overset text marker (red plus sign) at the bottom right of the frame? If so, your TOC entries are pushing off to 'next frames' that don't exist. Hit Ctrl-A in the TOC and apply any base style to see if that makes them appear.

       

      You should not be using [Basic Paragraph] as an active style, by the way. As nonsensical as it sounds, it's a style that should be avoided. Your first styles should be based on [No Paragraph Style], and then you can create style hierarchies from those. I suspect there's a page break or a keep-with setting that's been applied to [Basic Paragraph] that's at the root of all this.

       

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      cathyb29394614Author
      Participant
      Apr 11, 2023 5:15 PM UTC

      Thanks James. I tried all suggestions with no luck. There is no overset text, no red plus sign marker, but just to be certain, I enlarged the new TOC frame beyond the page to see if anything appeared and there was nothing. I also reset the header within the TOC window to No Paragraph Style (thanks for that tip btw) with no luck. I then deleted the Header style altogether, recreated it, and tried again. Still no luck. I looked further into the style options panel, and nothing there in terms of any type of breaks. I am at a loss...ugh. 

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      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      Apr 11, 2023 5:21 PM UTC

      Boy, I don't see anything wrong with your setup other than the minor points above. Do you have a version of document you can upload here? Sometimes it's a glitch that can only be found by looking at all the details.

       

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