Table of contents, missing entries and blank pages

Report · Mar 03, 2024

I had an old TOC that I deleted and now when I'm trying to create a new one I'm getting weird results.

- first paragraphs that should be included, are not

- when I paste it with shift, it overlaps the first pages (that are not included in TOC)

- when I tried to add it before, it generated a lot of empty pages after the TOC that overwrote the ones that are not even visible in the TOC

I'm adding new pages but the text doesn't seem to flow to them, does that matter?

I'm not really familiar with this software and looking for hints to figure it out.

Report · Mar 04, 2024

Note that teh TOC should not be part of your text flow, since it would then affect the flow that it is trying to index. You need to prepare pages and text frames, don't auto flow but budget how many text frames you need for TOC linking them if more than one. Tip is to add pages in pairs so you don't mess up right and left pages. Your screenshot has two text frames but they are not threaded to flow from the one to the next. (It is hard to evaluate your problem from this screenshot since it does not show the problem or the structure of your document)

If you are missing first paragraph it's likely you dind not "Apply style to selection" when creating the style, set the text marker in the paragraph that is not included and confirm that it is the right paragraph style (irrespective of if it looks like it is)

Report · Mar 04, 2024

Thanks for the tips? Is it possible to separate the TOC somehow?

I saw this on some video and it seems like a nice structure, could you tell me how is this window called and how I can open it?

Report · Mar 04, 2024

That looks like the book Panel. An indb is a "binder" when you have each chapter as a separate file. Normally the TOC would go in the "Front Mayter". You may want to check out the bookmarks, I sometimes generate a TOC and place next to the document just to get bookmarks.

There are lots of great features for long documents in InDesign, but they do need to invest in training.