FrameMaker 2015 no longer generating tables of contents (TOCs)

[Jason_Nichols2]

All of a sudden, some people on our team cannot generate TOCs in FrameMaker 2015, while others still can. We could all generate TOCs without a problem until this week (at least, this week is when we noticed the issue). Are there any known issues with the 3.1 update that was released in April (I believe)?

When we select Add >> Create Standalone TOC, FrameMaker creates a TOC file and adds it to the book, but the file is completely blank. When we try updating the TOC file, nothing happens. When we try to create/update TOCs with other books and templates, same thing.

Other folks are able to create/update TOCs with these same files. We haven't been able to determine what the difference is that's causing the issue.

Those of us with the problem all seem to have FrameMaker 2015 version 13.0.3.495 installed. But at least one person who has that same version installed can create/update TOCs. (We're all on Windows 7, 64-bit.)

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance,

jason nichols

[Barb Binder]

Let's get the easy stuff out of the way first...

Generate Table of Contents, Lists and Indexes is checked for Update Book?

Will you share a screen shot of your Set up Table of Contents dialog box?

[Jason_Nichols2]

Yes, thank you – please see below. What's weird is I can try unsuccessfully to generate the TOC, hand my books files to a colleague, and s/he can generate the TOC no problem with those same files.

[Barb Binder]

And if you right click the empty TOC file in the book window > Set up Table of Contents, does it show the expected para tags on the left?

The text in the file isn't white is it?

[Jason_Nichols2]

Yes, after getting the blank TOC I tried several times to update it to see if the entries would appear. The paragraph tags I selected were still properly displayed in the left pane of that dialog every time I checked.

In the blank TOC file itself, there were no empty paragraph markers – there were no paragraph markers at all. Just the "end of document" symbol at the top left corner of the main text frame.

I did notice that Frame is inserting weird lines into the TOC definition on the Reference pages. These lines are in the "Symbol" font and instead of the paragraph tag names ending in "TOC" they end in "()TOC" – please see below.

I'm not sure what's triggering this or how to prevent it but am open to any suggestions

(Like I said, this behavior is occurring for some of us but not all of us, even using the same set of files.)

Thanks for your help!

[Barb Binder]

How bizarre!

I'm guessing they come up after you delete them from the reference page and update your book?

If they do, the next thing I'd try is to delete the TOC from the book (and rename it in the project folder), and rebuild a basic TOC. It it works, you can import the formatting from this one to the new one.

[Jason_Nichols2]

Ah, hadn't tried that! Was really hopeful that would work, but alas, I'm getting the exact same result. I deleted the TOC definition/formatting from the book (as well as the TOC file itself) and tried building a new, simple TOC with just the Heading1, Heading2, and Heading3 styles.

I got the same blank TOC file as before, with the same weird TOC definition on the Reference pages:

Goodness, we've been using Frame for years now and have never run into this. So strange!

Thanks again for your help...

[Barb Binder]

I think it's time to report it

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[Jason_Nichols2]

Thank you Barb (I was afraid of that!). Appreciate all your help...

For anyone interested, it's Bug #4161074.

[AMAGARWA · Accepted solution]

Jason,

We have introduced a TOC related bug in Fm 13.0.3 update where in the unstructured books TOC is not generated in Structured mode.

As a workaround it is requested to work in the Unstructured Mode for Unstructured books:

1. Edit > Preferences > Product Interface > Select FrameMaker > Restart FM

2. Open Book > Update > Should work

We are working for an early update for the same.

[Jason_Nichols2]

Yes, this does the trick. Thanks for the workaround!

[livingtext]

This also worked for me. Any timeline on when an update will be released?

[abhi_AdobeTC]

Hi,

This issue is fixed now and will be rolled into the coming patch i.e. Update 4.

Thanks!

Abhishek