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cindyh23311374
Known Participant
October 25, 2023
Answered

How can I include the table of contents as an entry in the table of contents?

  • October 25, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 414 views

I tried adding the words "table of contents" with a style I included and put it on the table of contents page, I also tried putting the words in a hidden layer, nothing works. It's strange to not be able to include this in the list of items for the table of contents. Am I missing something? Help most appreciated.   

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Correct answer Barb Binder

I don't recall seeing this question before. The reason for a table of contents is to help the user navigate to a specific page. If they are already on the table of contents, I'm unclear why we would want to tell them how to get there.

 

That conundrum aside, InDesign can't add the Contents title to the generated file. If you really feel you need it, you could add the title to the page and assign it a heading style, and then drag it to the pasteboard so that just the text frame is overlapping, not the actual text.

 

~Barb

 

2 replies

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 26, 2023

Hi Cindy:

 

You can set the page numbers individually for each paragraph style. For example, to disable the page numbers on the Title paragraphs, see screenshot below. This would remove the page numbers from the Titles, but leave them on the Head1s and Head2s. 

 

As for your question about manual edits: ideally, you do not want to do anything manually in a table of contents. If you can automate everything, then you can just update the table of contents after a book update, and all the page numbers will be correct. The more manual edits we add to a table of contents the more resistant we are to updating the table of contents, because we have to put them all back in again. And that's how TOCs are published with the wrong page numbers. 

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    October 25, 2023

    I don't recall seeing this question before. The reason for a table of contents is to help the user navigate to a specific page. If they are already on the table of contents, I'm unclear why we would want to tell them how to get there.

     

    That conundrum aside, InDesign can't add the Contents title to the generated file. If you really feel you need it, you could add the title to the page and assign it a heading style, and then drag it to the pasteboard so that just the text frame is overlapping, not the actual text.

     

    ~Barb

     

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
      C
      cindyh23311374Author
      Known Participant
      October 26, 2023

      Thank you for this. Your suggestion works great. The reason for including the TOC in the TOC is before the TOC we also list title page, dedication, copyright page which come before the TOC, so it seems odd to skip it, especially when using the TOC in the side panel with the Epub. 

        James Gifford—NitroPress
        James Gifford—NitroPress
        Legend
        October 26, 2023

        I've seen very few books that list the minutiae of the front material in a TOC. For e-books, there is sometimes a link to the cover or first page, since readers tend to default to the start of the main text.

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