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neilp58610967
Participant
December 14, 2017
Question

Stop repeating entries in table of contents

  • December 14, 2017
  • 6 replies
  • 10850 views

Hello

I am creating a TOC on a document I am working on.

I have set everything up correctly – style sheets for the page headings which links to the table of contents and it all works fine.

On every page in the document the page heading is repeated, and obviously this gives me multiple entries in the TOC which I don't want.

For example:

Introduction          1

About us               2

About us               3

About us               4

About us               5

Our experience     6

I would prefer:

Introduction          1

About us               2

Our experience     6

The only solution I can think of is to create a new paragraph style for all the page headings I don't want to appear in the TOC, so first instance Style A, every instance after that Style B. The only problem with that is this seems a real work around rather than a solution. The problem is this is a manual solution, so if the pages move around, then the TOC becomes incorrect also if the style sheets are applied incorrectly, this also creates a problem.

Does anyone know a way to make the first instance of a page heading appear automatically in the TOC without a manual workaround?

Many thanks in advance.

Neil

This topic has been closed for replies.

6 replies

monkeyblood
Participant
January 30, 2023

I found a way to do this relatively easily, and wanted to just drop a note here so that others might find it.

  1. Place your ToC text frame(s) in a seperate layer.
  2. Hide that layer.
  3. Generate your Index ensuring you have the 'Include Entries on Hidden Layers' tickbox unchecked.
  4. Switch your ToC text frame(s) layer back on.

For info, I am using Adobe InDesign 2023.

Community Expert
October 18, 2021

Hi milliocreative,

did you try the GREP solution Obi-wan offered?

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Sasha Pavsic
Participant
September 16, 2020

Hi neilp58610967

did you ever solve this TOC issue?

I have a struggle with it right now and I belive there is a simple solution that you came across by now

 

Thanks!

Participant
October 15, 2021

I had the same issue. Turns out I had multiple copies of the subheading saved under the top/final designed version. They were invisible for some reason during an earlier phase of the design process. I simple deleted to invisible versions and refreshed the TOC. Solved for me.

Inspiring
March 16, 2023

I have the same subcategory name on multiple pages but they really should have included somekind of checkbox for this by now. 

Obi-wan Kenobi
Legend
December 15, 2017

Hi,

We talk about "TOC"!

A simple regex could be enough! … just one click! … 

(^/)

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 14, 2017

I would use these two options.

For either option, create a style for the repeating header ("About Us").

Do NOT include this style in the TOC settings.

1: Override master page text object on the first page and apply and identical, based-on style that IS included in the TOC settings.

2: Create a small text object at the top of the first page of each section, enter your TOC heading, and apply a style that IS included in the TOC. Set the attributes to non-printing the the Attributes panel. Leave the master page header (not included in the TOC) alone. (Put the text box in a library to use it on other sections.)

Option 2 is a great technique to add text to the TOC that is not on the actual page, such as content descriptions.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
vinny38
Legend
December 14, 2017

Hi

I would recommend placing the repeating heading on the Master Page using a running-header variable.

neilp58610967
Participant
December 14, 2017

Thanks Vinny. That sounds interesting, how would I do that exactly?

I've never come across running headers before.

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 14, 2017

Create a variable that points to the style (Type menu).

Insert the variable (first instance) in the header or footer.

Create and edit text variables in InDesign