Live Table of Contents

[kalimeyerdesign@gmail.com]

Hello all,

I have a complicated InDesign question... Does anyone know if there is a way to create a table of contents that automatically updates? For instance, when I move a page in the document, the page location/title of the page will update in the TOC, without having to do it manually. I haven't found a good step by step process or resource for this. I assume this exists for long documents like books and catalogs.

Please help!

Thank you so much!

[David Popham]

Are you using InDesign's TOC feature (Layout>Table of Contents)? If you're using that, it will update automatically after invoking the Update Table of Contents command. You can assign a shortcut key to that command.

If you're looking for a resource, this is a good place to start: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-table-contents.html.

[Creamer Training]

...it will update automatically after invoking the Update Table of Contents command.

In my classes, I call that SEMI-automatic!

[kalimeyerdesign@gmail.com]

Do you know of a good video that could be used for reference?

[Creamer Training]

Did you try YouTube? A quick search on YouTube brought up lots of videos. 

Lynda.com has an InDesign Long Document series and a 30-day free trial.

[Lukas Engqvist]

What David said. It does require your document to be structured so that the titles/headings you want in the table of contents is using a paragraph style that is not used for other things. 

[TᴀW]

The only way to get the numbers to change automatically is by turning the page numbers in the TOC into cross-references. Use a simple "page number" building block for your cross-ref format.

You would then need to plant cross-reference (hyperlink) destinations at the beginning of each chapter in the book, and then select each page number in the TOC and replace it with a cross-reference source to the appropriate destination.

At this point, your page numbers would update automatically if anything moves around.

A script that automates this process is my (not free) LiveTOC: https://www.id-extras.com/products/livetoc/

[Creamer Training]

ID's TOC page numbers and text update when the TOC is updated through a simple menu selection. (TaW's post comes across as if they don't but I don't think that was the intent of Taw's post.) There are some downsides however--character style formats carry over to the TOC and any edits in the TOC are lost (such as line breaks for long entries). Nothing serious, but something to be aware of. 

That said, the script looks very interesting but I think the OP is looking how to use the built-in TOC feature.

[TᴀW]

Right, the main problem with ID's built-in TOC is that when page numbers are updated any manual formatting that was done to the TOC is lost and has to be redone. Sometimes this is "nothing serious," but many times a lot of work can go into perfecting the layout of the TOC.

But yes, if we're sticking to built-in features, it's either ID's TOC generator with the above risk, or manually converting all the page numbers in the TOC to cross-references.

[Creamer Training]

That's how most TOCs update--manual edits/formatting is lost.

What formatting are you losing?