Generated TOC and master pages

[C_Sarelius]

Hi guys,

I'm building a book and have a generated TOC. My question is 'when generating the TOC does FM reference anything in the master pages of files, e.g. subject/chapter headings, to help populate the TOC list?'

The reason I'm asking is that I may have built my template incorrectly. I can't get my TOC to pull out subject headings and the like.

Advice appreciated.

Carl

[AxialInfo]

When you add a TOC to a book, FM gathers the list of paragraph tags to be used and puts them on a special reference page in the TOC file, the reference page is named "TOC". (In FM8, the name of the reference page is shown at the bottom of the TOC window when the Reference pages are viewed).

If you've created the TOC correctly, by adding a generated TOC file to the book, FM should give you the opportunity to choose which paragraph styles are to be included in the TOC before the TOC is first created.  You can then generate the TOC file, save it and save the book, then go into the reference page to look at the entries.

If your TOC isn't working correctly, I'd strongly suggest deleting it from the book, save the book, and add a new one, rather than messing with the Reference page, until you're comfortable with how the paratags are added and so on.

One thing that folks often get mixed up about is that the paragraph styles in the regular chapter, e.g. Heading1, gets added to the TOC file and the corresponding paragraph style in the TOC would be "Heading1TOC". Because FM does this all automatically when the TOC is first created, it's much, much better to let FM do the heavy lifting rather than edit the Ref. page.

[C_Sarelius]

Hi Sheila,

thanks for that. I undestand what you're saying - maybe I didn't explain myself properly.

I have 'myBook.fm' at the top level. Files that make up 'myBook' include 'sect1.fm', 'sect2.fm' and 'sect3chap1.fm'; and of course I have my generated file 'TOC.fm'. I'm using FM7.0 so when I'm in my book and I go Add/Table of Contents, I select my elements and paragraph tags from the dialog box that appears. The template that 'sect1', 'sect2' and 'sect3chap1' are based on have on one of their Master pages the section heading i.e 'Section 1 General Overview' and this has a para format of Heading:Section; on the Body page of the same file I have a chapter heading. What I need to confirm is that when FM generates the TOC, the generator doesn't look at para formats on the Master page, concentrating on para formats on the Body pages only. (That will then explain why my section headings are not getting generated in my TOC, because my section heads are all on the Master pages).

I hope I haven't confused you. Thanks

Carl

[Seanb_us]

FrameMaker will ignore background text on master pages when generating the TOC; you should also have trouble setting up cross references to those paragraphs.

Cheers,

Sean

[Arnis Gubins]

Technical correction: FM will happily cross-reference any paragraph tag on any Master or Reference page in any valid text frame (including background).

FM will not add paragraphs from Master or Reference pages to generated lists, e.g. TOC, LOF, LOT, etc.

[Seanb_us]

Ah-ha. Grazie.

[C_Sarelius]

Thanks Sean, thanks Arnis,

that's the confirmation I was looking for.

Cheers

Carl