Leader dots won't generate correctly in TOC

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
September 9, 2023
4 replies
1101 views

Have multiple TOCs in a large book. All of them work fine except this one. Have set a right tab with a leader dot in the paragraph style options. In the TOC setup, I have pulled in the right style "trigger" from the book chapter. Have chosen the right style to apply to the entry. Have chosen a character style for the leader dot.

If I put two tabs in the style options (because there is a tab in the document style), the first tab generates dots between words, but the second one doesn't. If I remove the leader dot from the first tab (leaving the right-aligned tab with a dot), there is blank space throughout the TOC. So I changed the tab in the document text to an em space. Still no dots before the page number. This is driving me nuts. Help is greatly appreciated at this point.

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

The TOC can have it's own Paragraph Style

Setup your new paragraph style for the TOC entries

Then setup a new leader tab for the TOC paragraph style.

L

leannz30751615Author

Inspiring

Sometimes it's the dumbest thing. Somehow the leader dots font color got changed to Paper and so were not visible. Changed them to black and there they were. Sorry to trouble you all.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

I'm not seeing the same issue on a test file here. Can you share an example?

Peter Spier

Community Expert

I have a different perspective on this. I never use leader dots defined as part of the tab. Instead I use a character style that underlines the tab and define a dotted or dashed line for the underline. Maybe that will work better for you.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Both methods work well, just differently, and you might be right about working in this case.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

It sounds like you're on the right track. Leader tabs have to have enough "trigger space" from the end of the item text, and can be fussy about triggering if things are close. I don't know of an automated solution except to shorten the item text or move the tab over. You can, of course, fix it manually after generation; I have any number of TOCs where it was easier just to Fix One Thing than kill myself trying to get it to be auto.

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