InDesign Table of Contents Resets to previous settings

[Jonmon_Nortek]

For some reason, I can't get the Table of Contents to keep the adjustments I make. I choose the headings, I assign a style to each, I choose OK and the TOC looks good. If I make an edit to one of the headings then select Update Table of Contents, it returns to the previous settings and I'm starting all over.

In order to dial in my TOC, I must continually choose the Headings and Styles over and over until I get the TOC right. The Update feature is worthless at this point. 

Am I missing something? I have updated to the most recent version. I've been working in InDesign for well over a decade, and this situation popped up out of nowhere in one of the recent releases.

 Is there a new setting I need to adjust?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[Steve Werner]

Does it only happen with one file, or with more than one file?

If only one file, there could be corruption in the file, and you might want to save the INDD file as IDML (File > Save As > InDesign CS4 or later [IDML]. Then reopen the IDML to possibly eliminate corruption.

If more than one file, you might want to try the troubleshooting technique of restoring your InDesign preferences:

Adobe InDesign: Rebuilding Preferences and Cache Files ...www.rockymountaintraining.com › Adobe InDe...

[Jonmon_Nortek]

It's occurred on more than one file. Corruption is definintely a possibility, because some of these files were repurposed to create another. I'll try your first suggestion and hope that it works. I'm not anxious to try the other.

Thanks. I'll let you know.

[Jonmon_Nortek · Accepted solution]

Saving to the IDML did not fix the problem, but I may have found a workaround.

I chose my TOC headings and styles, and then I saved the TOC settings as a Style. I chose OK, then I used the new TOC text box generated from that Style. I deleted the text box that housed the old TOC. I can now update the table, and the settings remain. 

I'm not sure if this was the best course, but it worked. 

If it hadn't, I had planned to create a new document, then drag the thumbnails from the old document to create a new document. That solution has worked in the past.

Thanks

[Diane Burns]

Glad it's working. And if you change the settings in that style, be sure to save it again. Click "Save Style," choose your current Style name from the menu, and say yes when asked to overwrite. 

[Kiki O]

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum. I have a similar problem in updating the Table of Content whereby I add more info on it and once i hit okay, I dont see the info i added. Its really frustrating and Adobe should do something about it like adding an UPDATE option in the Table of Reference dialogue box because it doesnt make sense creating styles upon styles for one table of content. What if i had other tables of content like List of Tables or List of Figures? So for each of them I will be creating new styles (to update a particular table of content). This is not helpful to managing time. Please how can I solve this problem, would really appreciate some assistance 

[Sarah Schweiger]

I have had a similiar problem but only files made after 2019. I can't use the Update the Table of contents button on more recent files. I have to go into the Table of Contens each time select the Style Section Header for the TOC Style and hit ok. Anyone have this same problem.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

As noted above, you absolutely MUST save any changes to a TOC 'style' before you generate a new TOC or exit the menu. If you open the TOC setup menu, make changes, and generate a new TOC, the changes will be lost the next time you open the TOC menu. It's a bug, IMHO, but one you have to be aware of as Adobe doesn't seem to consider it a fault.

You should also always create a new, named 'style' even if it's the only one in your document. Never modify the default setup and expect it to hold changes or be consistent (that's a general rule for InDesign "default" styles and settings, by the way.)

[Sarah Schweiger]

Nope, I definately made new styles. Its reallys just the difference of software upgrade. Something happened but I have not seen anyone from Adobe talk about this. Will bring this up at Max to see if anyone has a solution.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

This is a really stupid point, but you DO have to put the cursor in the existing TOC you wish to update before Update becomes active. (This becomes non-trivial if you have more than one TOC defined and placed.)

[Mike Witherell]

Always click on More Options. Always make a named style for each and any ToC. It helps ID remember how to update that particular ToC. It helps me to think of ToC styles as "presets". I have often requested the ID team to rename it as Presets to avoid the confusion of terming it styles of styles.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

And it's essential to / easy to forget to save the style each time you make any changes to it. If you tweak something, the TOC comes out fine... until the next update, in which your tweaks have been lost.

Once you define a TOC style, update the save each time you change it!

And yes, 'style' is a misleading term for this feature.

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