TOC Hyperlinks Not Working in Exported PDF and Unexpected Text Color Changes

Hi Elizabeth:

Setting up a correctly generated table of contents with formatting is complicated, as you are learning. My suggestion is to separate the hyperlinks from the formatting as you get up to speed::

1. Generate the TOC without specifying formatting. Yes, it will look awful, but pause, export to PDF and test the hyperlinks. If they work, the TOC itself is set up correctly, as are your export settings. The rest is just formatting. If not, stop and let us know.
2. Next, create paragraph styles to format the various TOC levels. For example, for a Head 1, you might make a TOC Head 1 and set the size, spacing, tab stop, etc. Repeat for any other levels. Assign them manually to test.
3. Once they look good, following Dave’s advice, go back to Layout > Table of Contents and map the document styles to the TOC styles. For example, tell InDesign that Head 1 should map to TOC Head1. Repeat for the other levels.
    

As we troubleshoot TOC formatting, it is helpful to save the Preset (Save Style button, right column) each time we make a step forward, and of course, Replace the Existing TOC should be enabled. 

Once all this is working, come back and show us what you have and we can help with the “hyperlink formatting”. Just a note, we typically don't add any special formatting to a table of contents because most people recognize a table of contents will have hyperlinks. Every place else in a document we do use hyperlink formatting as a visual aid, but if you decide you still want it, we can definitely help.

I’ve never had a problem with links in my TOC.

If this is using an InDesign Book file, did you export the entire book?

What are your PDF export settings?