Problems with PDF exporting: bookmarks not aligning properly

[rickl10198951]

I’ve been running into an issue with PDF-based bookmarks on a software manual (built as an ID book), and it’s driving me a bit crazy. I’ve had the problem with every new version of this manual over the past five years, but my OCD-copy editor/managing editor mind has just about had it.

The book is comprised of seven documents - one for each part, with an opener that includes the cover/TOC. It uses a traditional hed structure, with a Title style for each part and three subhed levels (H1-H3).

When I’m done with the text, I generate the TOC and export the book file as a PDF. The TOC is generated properly for the book, but the Bookmarks get a bit messed up in the final PDF. What happens is that the second H1 in each chapter (and all subsequent H1s) gets embedded inside the first H1, as follows:

Title

    >H1

        >H2

        >H1

            >H2

            >H2

                >H3

            >H2

        >H1

            >H2

                >H3

                >H3

            >H2

        >H1

[etc. to the completion of the chapter, where it starts all over again.]

What I would expect to see is each H1 level as a peer of every other H1 (and it does that after the first one), like this:

Title

    >H1

        >H2

    >H1

        >H2

        >H2

            >H3

        >H2

    >H1

        >H2

            >H3

            >H3

        >H2

     >H1

[etc.]

This happens with new ID files, or older ones that I modify (for a .5 update to the software, for example), and it has worked this way for the last few revisions of ID, including the current one. As noted, the TOC generates properly, with each TOC style (which corresponds to the Title-Hed structure) in its expected level. I tried creting an entirely new TOC style from scratch, but it didn't make a difference. (and I did go through to make sure I had everything represented at the proper level in the TOC dialog.)

Last fall, when I did the new version of the manual, I spent some time trying to fix the bookmarks in the PDF, but I had no luck there, and I'm not finding any help here in the support forums. Does anyone have any experience with this, or any ideas about how I might fix it?

Thanks,

Rick

[Eric Dumas]

Hi,

Can you confirm the version of the software and operating system you are using?

I tested it and it worked ok for me, I think.

Can you include a screenshot of the TOC panel you set up?

[rickl10198951]

Sorry -- I should know better... I'm running macOS 10.14, but this was the same on 10.13. Current version of ID is 14.03, but it also happened with the previous two major revs (and dot updates).

The screen is of the panel in Acrobat. The fourth item in the list, Installation, is an H1, on the same level in the TOC as Using the Help System (under the Title hed style for Part 1).

If you were asking about the Bookmarks panel in ID, it looks the same:

System Requirements is an H2, and Installation is an H1, as are all of the items in the list below that, to Part 2, which is a new file, and it starts all over again.

[David Popham]

Have you checked to confirm that the paragraph styles in your TOC style are set to the correct levels in the Edit Table of Contents Style dialog? Is there more than one H1 level paragraph style that could possibly be set to Level 3 instead of Level 2?

[rickl10198951]

Yeah, I went through and did that before I even posted here. There was a video in the support area about that issue.

I'm going to start fresh and rebuild the TOC document and the styles, and go style by style, rebuildiung the TOC. There might just be some stupid thing that I'm not doing properly, and I'm not seeing it.

I appreciate the feedback, and if I find the problem (and it's not user error, which I'm pretty sure it is), I'll post it here.

Thanks,

Rick