How to create a TOC listing only some of the text in the paragraph style.

[pArt2 Studio]

Hi,

I have only a limited experience with InD and I would like your help with a problem I have.

I need to create a TOC for an art catalogue.
The information I want to capture in the TOC is on the legends that accompany the images on the pages.

Each legend has three lines of text: 1- title; 2- artist's name; 3-medium and dimensions.
Each line of text uses a different character style, and I have created a paragraph style for the legend that has three nested styles, one for each of the lines.

Question: how can I create a TOC listing only the first two lines of text of the legend (title and artist name) and not the whole legend?

 I do not want the "dimension" to appear in the TOC.

Thank you for your help.

[Eugene Tyson]

The TOC feature includes the entire paragraph.

You can do it with Cross References 

This is a general workflow

https://creativepro.com/creating-cross-references-text-anchors/

And you can customise it to how you want it to appear.

If you need further help let us know.

[pArt2 Studio]

Thank you Eugene and all the others that have replied to my post!
Your suggestions have been very helpful and I'm sure that They would have saved me from hours of  frantic searching and reading and trying different methods.

I even considered to manually deleting the 180 lines of (extra) text from my TOC!

I found one way that fixed my problem:

- I used a "hard return" to separate the third line of text in my legend from the first two line which were separated by a soft return

- I assigned a paragraph style reconnized by my TOC to the whole legend. 

- I selected the text of the third line and assigned a "default" ( e.g. none) paragraph style to it

-  I selected the third line and applied to it the same character style that was originally specified by the nested style of my "paragraph style". This made my legend look just as I had designed it.

- last I updated my TOC and only the first two lines were grabbed!

Thank you to you Eugene, Uwe and Creamer for all the suggestions you provided!

My inexperience caused me so much extra work this time! "retrofitting" all those text boxes... However, it also gave me the opportunity to find this forum, interact with  nice peolpe like you, and to learn so many ways I now have to tackle this situation FROM THE BEGINNING of my next project!

Francesca

[Eugene Tyson]

There is a learning curve, and once  you figure it out and learn from it - the next time it's much easier.

We've all been there, get to the end of a project and then have to go through the entire project by hand retrofitting things to suit.

The more you do - the more you learn.

If you need anything else we are here to help.

[Laubender]

Hi pArt2 Studio,

I would run a Find/Replace GREP action to remove unwanted dimensions from the ToC.

Of course you have to do that every time after you updated your ToC.

No suggestion for a GREP pattern right now.

For that we should know how your dimensions are done in the text of the legend.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[pArt2 Studio]

Thank you Uwe!

I wrote what I adopted as solution to the post by Eugene, and maybe it will help others.

I truly appreciate you help! Thank you.

Francesca

[Peter Spier · Accepted solution]

Alternatively, sincwe you say these are separate lines, you could easily break them into separate paragraphs.

[pArt2 Studio]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the suggestion. I was so tired last night that did not see your reply, and did not include you in my thanks. My fault.
I ended up in a applying the solution described above. It is very similar, even the same- what you suggested!

Thank you,

Francesca

[Creamer Training]

I've done this a couple of ways in the past...

• I've put a non-printing text frame at the top of the page with the actual TOC entries. The chapter title was fairly long but the text in the TOC entry was an abbreviated version.
• I also put the abbreviated version under the long text, styling it with a small type size and paper color. (I had it magenta color during production to make it easier to see, then made it paper before output.)

[pArt2 Studio]

Hi Creamer,

Thank you for your suggestion. Writing a copy of the legend without the third " unwanted" line of text in an hidden layer would have done the trick! 
I read this too late, after hours of trial and error and, finally, ending up implementing the solution I explain in my reply to Eugene.

Thank you again,

Francesca

[FRIdNGE]

"Each legend has three lines of text: 1- title; 2- artist's name; 3-medium and dimensions.
Each line of text uses a different character style, and I have created a paragraph style for the legend that has three nested styles, one for each of the lines."

Just for curiosity, could you post a screenshot (including the invisible chars) of a legend and what you want to have as result in the TOC?

(^/)  The Jedi