TOC help, please?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ed
  • Start date Start date
E

Ed

I've never used a TOC before, and probably wouldn't now if it hadn't already
been in the document I was given to work on. As I've added sections and
adjusted things, I've Updated Entire Table (this is in Word XP, by the way).
Now it overflows onto the next page. I can't seem to adjust the line
spacing, and I can't seem to break this so I can put "Table of Contents
(continued)" at the top of the next page - the next Update clears it out.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Ed
 
Hi Ed,

The TOC is actually just one field (right-click it and choose Toggle Field
Codes to see that), so updating it is always going to remove any direct
changes you make inside it.

One way to get what you want is to wait until the document is completely
finished, update the TOC one last time, and then unlink the TOC field
(select it and Ctrl+Shift+F9) to change it into plain text. Now you can
format and alter it all you want, but you can't update it again unless you
delete all that text and insert a new TOC field.

My preferred solution is not to put "Table of Contents (continued)" at the
top of the next page at all; if the reader can't see that it's a TOC, maybe
they should "step away from the book so no one gets hurt". :-) At most, I'd
make the TOC a section of its own and put "Table of Contents" in the header
of that section -- see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NumberingFrontMatter.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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Hi, Jay.

As a matter of fact, the TOC is already in its own section. So I adjusted
the header and footer dimensions to break the list in an appropriate place
and set my TOC column headings in the header. Then I tried to add an IF
filed after "TABLE OF CONTENTS" and things got real screwy! I tried to
insert:
{IF {PAGE}>1 "(continued)" ""}
(braces entered with Ctrl+F9), but got the result:
Error! Unknown op code for conditional.Error! Unknown op code for
conditional.Error! Unknown op code for conditional.Error! Unknown op code
for conditional.Error! Unknown op code for conditional.Error! Unknown op
code for conditional.Error! Unknown op code for conditional.Error! Unknown
op code for conditional.Error! Unknown op code for conditional.Error!
Unknown op code for conditional.

I thought I was going by the Help file syntax, but obviously Word doesn't
agree! Any help?

Ed
 
I solved the problem by using a Different First Page header, and putting
"Continued" in the second page header.

I'd still like to know what I did wrong with that IF field, though, if you
can see anything.
Ed
 
It's one of those screwy things you learn to look for... you need a space
before and after the greater-than sign. I don't know why it's so picky.

The Different First Page solution is, if not "better", at least more
reliable.

Jay
 
It's one of those screwy things you learn to look for... you need a space
before and after the greater-than sign. I don't know why it's so picky.
Click to expand...
Okay - it worked. Let's file that one away, right alongside the time I
learned about left-hand threading by spending 2 hours trying to get a bolt
off the car!

Thanks once again, Jay.
Ed
 
The only thing I've ever had to remove that was reverse-threaded was one of
those plastic caps that hold fan blades on. Because the fan blade turns
counter-clockwise (presumably as a result of something mechanical to do with
the motor), the (as it were) nut has to be turned clockwise to remove it.
Rather hard to get your head around after having spent 50 years or so with
righty-tighty, lefty-loosy. <g>

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.
 
The brake fluid cap on an XJ40 Jag also has a left hand thread, and, from
memory wasn't the pedal bar on a push-bike?
 
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