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L
lisak98197174
Participant
July 3, 2017
Answered

How to add section/chapter numbering in TOC

  • July 3, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 6927 views

Hi,

So I managed to set up a table of contents for my book. But I want to add numbering in front of the chapter names, but I can't figure out how.

I read that chapter numbering isn't possible in a book, but section numbering is. How do I add the numbers to the TOC, when the headers themselves do not include a number?

I googled (a lot) but I can't seem to find instructions on how to do it, so maybe someone over here can help. I would really appreciate it!

Here's my set-up at the moment. As you can see my sub-chapters do have numbering, because it is included in their style and doesn't have to go on through multiple sections.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Randy Hagan

Sorry, I misunderstood what you were looking to accomplish. If the section numbering is used as headings/subheds in your document, it's pretty easy:

1) Make the Section prefix numbering (Roman numerals I.,II., Arabic numbers 1.,2.,3., etc.) part of the headers, just as you have made the 2.1, 2.2 sub-headers part of them. Highlight them and make them consistent Paragraph Style(s) throughout your document. You'd likely want that consistency between the headers in the body of your book and the Table of Contents. If that's not aesthetically pleasing to you, you can "opaque" them by making the numbers [Paper] colored in the headers within your document and use Tab alignment to line up the headers the way you want them with "invisible" characters hanging off the design. don't be thrown off by the + showing up in your Paragraph Styles panel when you hide the numbering.

This works because InDesign reads the text characters in the header-paragraph, not the color or font of them.

2) When you generate your ToC, It will pick up all the characters in each "paragraph" labeled with the respective paragraph styles you use. If you choose to have "invisible" section numbering, it will still create visible numbering when the ToC is generated in the default TOC Body Text style. Generate your ToC and marvel at the results.

Does this work better for you? If you give this a shot, I think you'll be happy with the results. The other result, of course, is to add the numbering manually when you complete the book and create the final Table of Contents.

Good luck,

Randy

1 reply

Randy Hagan
Community Expert
Randy HaganCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 3, 2017

There are two ways to do that:

1) Using that Section Prefix edit box you can enter something like (Roman#)-(pg. no.) and when you place your numbering on the master page(s) you'll get the Section/Chapter notations you were looking for. Or ...

2) You can manually type the prefix you want before the page number character on your master page(s). I personally use this option because it keeps the page numbering functions simple for InDesign and makes it easy to edit if I get discrepancies/problems as I compile InDesign books.

Hope this helps,

Randy Hagan

L
lisak98197174Author
Participant
July 3, 2017

To be clear, I'm not talking about page numbering (I've got that working in my book at the moment). I want chapter numbering shown in the table of contents, without having the chapter number prefix in front of my actual chapter headings.

I want to keep the header style as shown above the TOC, but in the TOC itself I want it like this:

I. Table of Contents                   1

II. Abstract                             2

1. Introduction                         3

2. Theoretical Background     4

     2.1 Hypothesis 1               4

     2.2 Hypothesis 2               5

3. Method                              6

(Chapter number - chapter name - page number)

And so on.

But, right now it's like this:

Table of Contents                   1

Abstract                             2

Introduction                         3

Theoretical Background     4

     2.1 Hypothesis 1               4

     2.2 Hypothesis 2               5

Method                              6

(chapter name - page number)

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my question

L
lisak98197174Author
Participant
July 4, 2017

Sorry, I misunderstood what you were looking to accomplish. If the section numbering is used as headings/subheds in your document, it's pretty easy:

1) Make the Section prefix numbering (Roman numerals I.,II., Arabic numbers 1.,2.,3., etc.) part of the headers, just as you have made the 2.1, 2.2 sub-headers part of them. Highlight them and make them consistent Paragraph Style(s) throughout your document. You'd likely want that consistency between the headers in the body of your book and the Table of Contents. If that's not aesthetically pleasing to you, you can "opaque" them by making the numbers [Paper] colored in the headers within your document and use Tab alignment to line up the headers the way you want them with "invisible" characters hanging off the design. don't be thrown off by the + showing up in your Paragraph Styles panel when you hide the numbering.

This works because InDesign reads the text characters in the header-paragraph, not the color or font of them.

2) When you generate your ToC, It will pick up all the characters in each "paragraph" labeled with the respective paragraph styles you use. If you choose to have "invisible" section numbering, it will still create visible numbering when the ToC is generated in the default TOC Body Text style. Generate your ToC and marvel at the results.

Does this work better for you? If you give this a shot, I think you'll be happy with the results. The other result, of course, is to add the numbering manually when you complete the book and create the final Table of Contents.

Good luck,

Randy


No problem! I was writing it around nighttime so I probably wasn't as clear as I'd hoped to be, haha.

Yes the paragraph numbering did it! (I've honestly tried that before but I must've did something different as the chapters would not add up, haha). Thanks!

Is there any difference between making the text 'paper' and hiding the text object by the way?

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