Automate TOC

Hi,
I need guidence in my toc plugin project . iam not much into indesign.
we are using IDcs5 sdk and visual studio 2008.
i have to generate toc of all indesign documents (chapters)(xml workflow) given in a specified folder(Book),
upto 4 levels of root element in xml.ie, chapter may contain sections and sections may contains sub sections ...so on.
After generating toc of all documents,i have to append all toc(s) to another template document.
and i have to update toc whenever any document is changed.
the necessary paragraph styles are in the template.
I want to know proper way of doing this step by step.
also i have some questions :
where exactly to flow toc of each document ? (if in pasteboard, how to copy this formatted text and append to template).
how to update template document when other documents are changed?
thanks.

Normally books are for groups of topics so you create those just for the groups you will need. Then you can drag the topics from the topic list to under the books. The Topic Title will display as the topic name under the book.
Below I just created the books and then dragged the topics across.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Similar Messages

Automatic TOC?

A client want an e-book created with a TOC created from the headings in the original HTML file. There are some hundreds of headings!! It is going to be daunting enough to add all of the anchors I need, but I was wondering if there's a way to create an automatic TOC from anchors once they have been created. to save linking them all manually. I have googled ... All I could find was a rather old freeware add-on which didn't inspire me to trust it. Does anyone have experience of a reasonalbe way to automate this process?? I am currently using Dreamweaver CS 5.5.
Hope someone has a good suggestion ... Thanks!

Have you had a look at http://jsfiddle.net/AwRHz/?

Sections and Automatic Table of Contents

Hello there,
I have encountered a problem with InDesign while trying to make an automatic TOC for a journal I am working on. It has something to do with Sections.
So I have a book with several indd files. The very first indd file is called "frontpages" which includes the cover page, the inside cover, the leaf page, then two facing pages for the table of contents, then followed by the last page (Letter from the Editor).
This is followed by my second indd file called "newsbeats" which has 5 pages.
Now, what I wanted to do was mark the frontpages' page numbers using lower case roman numerals (i, ii, iii, etc.) Of course I do not want to include the cover page and the inside cover, so I want to start (i) with the leaf page, (ii) and (iii) marks the table of contents pages, and finally (iv) for the Editor's Letter. I did this by starting a section at the leaf page, START PAGE NUMBERNG AT: 1, and selecting the (i, ii, iii...) option. It worked, while leavingboth the cover page and and the inside cover with markers (a) and (b), which I previously set (because I do not know how to just get rid of the page number...)
Now, my book pages actually starts page (1) in the first page of the "newsbeats" document. So to do that, I made another section on the newsbeats first page, START PAGE NUMBERING AT: 1, and selected (1, 2, 3...). That works, too.
So at the moment, I have 3 sections to my page numbers: 1) the lower case letters (a, b) section for the cover page and inside cover, respectively; 2) the roman numerals section (i, ii, iii...) for the leafpage, table of contents, and Editor Letter; and lastly, 3) the arabic letters (1, 2, 3...) starting from the newsbeats document all the way to the last page of the last indd of my book.
Hope it is clear enough. Now here comes the problem:
When I try to create an automatic Table of Contents, it correctly finds my chapters (i used the style for each journal article's title) and lists them. The problem is, the page numbers do not appear correctly. Instead, it shows "a" on EACH AND EVERY table of contents ENTRY. I tried some trial and error, and found out that the pages shown (a bunch of "a") is actually the COVER PAGE'S (a) page number....
I tried for hours searching on topics like "Sections and Automatic TOC" or "How to selectively choose which pages to include in a TOC".. But I found none.
Your help would be really appreciated. I can easily manually type the page numbers (my journal only has 9 articles), but I wanted to do this in a very systematic way, so it would be a lot easier if in any case, there are more than 9 articles for next year's publication.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
- Larry
PS: I attached a file showing the generated table of contents (on the ii-iii page that I wanted it to appear on), with the frontpages page panel, which shows the page numbering as well. Also I included the Book Panel, so you see how the pages are set up.

We definitely experienced the same issue. Seems like pages just get lost. This is the approach I took:
On the groups main page we just added a link called 'View All Articles' wrapped in a h1 tag (to make it very big and visible to the user) using the following url:
search/?q=%20
The resulting page will search for every article with a space in it and return the results. Still not the most elegant solution but it works. I'd like to implement it right into the xsl file but haven't found very much documentation to aid in this.

Convert word 2010 TOC to pdf without numbering and hyperlink errors

I made an automatic TOC (Table of Contents) for my Manual of procedures using the automatic creation under the Reference tab-create a table of contents. It looks great in word. I made sure the hyperlink is clicked in word as well. When I convert this document to pdf using adobe acrobat XI, the numbering of the TOC just changes to incorrect numbering. And the hyperlinks work only for a few initial pages only. I have 22 pages. Once converted, the TOC shows that I only have 16 pages and the linking is incorrect. How can I convert this and keep the numbering correct and also allow for the hyperlinks in the pdf document? Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
-nisha

Y.J. Lee wrote:
I bought this product (Adobe XI pro) for the same purpose. After waisting many hours and digging through google and Adobe community, I learned it doesn't work, at least not for Mac. I HATE ADOBE!!!! GIVE MY MONEY BACK!
This is a 15-20 year od bug in Acrobat. That Adobe refuse to fix. In this case they blame MS Office claiming they don't have the "proper hooks" for web Links. But it’s a red herring. The Mac Version of Office has the same exact hooks as the PC version. You can take a Mac version of the word file. Unopened on a PC and Drop on AcrobatPC and the links will appear. This has been proven by MS MVP's and employees. The defect is squarely with Acrobat and acrobat alone.
You can have weblinks as long as they have been created with Office Auto-correct feature both http: 's and mailto: 's. Go to Print menu > hold down PDF key until context menu apppears. Next choose adobe PDF. Now when first screen appears choose quality of PDF and whether to have Acrobat or reader Open immediately. Click okay. Next screen browse to desired save location. And you can alter the name. Click save. Tou links will appear and will be active.
Another way which is easier for one or two page PDF's:
Save word file in .docx format.
Now Dragthe file from save location and Drop on top of the Acrobat icon in the Dock.
Wait for a few minutes while file is processed (it like using Distiller) You might be able to dring a couple of cups of tea or coffee while waiting.
The the PDF will suddenly appear
Save immediately.
Now any links created by autocorrect will appear and be active.
Both of these two methods only started working in Acrobat X, and XI so someone finally figured partially how to fix the 15 year old Problem

How to format page number layout in TOC

I am using the automatic TOC function in Pages to make a table of contents for my thesis. It looked great at first, but when I changed the page margins all the of the page numbers moved to be next to the text section headers and in some cases, bumped down to the next line. I can't seem to change this so that all the page numbers are right-justified as they were when the TOC was originally generated. I've tried removing the TOC and starting from scratch, but I still have the same problem. Just to clarify: I have set "styles" to control the text formatting and indentation for each TOC level. My question is how to designate the proper margins and orientation for the automatically-generated page numbers. Any insight would be appreciated.

Never mind! I found the solution here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/2919972#2919972

Epub TOC disappears

Can't find an ePub forum, so I'll try here.
I created a small epub file that worked fine on ipad (automatic TOC was there, video works, pictures show up, etc.)
Then I made a change in it and importing it again to ipad (via iTunes), and found that the automatic TOC was no longer there.
However, the NCX file from that ePub DID VALIDATE when tested online.
These are the step-by-step changes I made.
1. Removed one chapter (with one picture) from end of the booklet and inserted it into an earlier chapter.
2. Made no changes to the entries of the chapter that received the insert in either the NCX file or Manifest or Spine sections of the OPF file.
3. Deleted the moved chapter from the NCX file (and the changed NCX validated online).
4. Deleted the moved chapter from OPF Manifest and Spine sections.
5. Moved the Manifest "dataItem#" of the picture in the insert up, so instead of #4 it is #2 (as it's now the second pic appearing in the booklet).
6. Except for renumbering the dataItems in the Manifest, I changed no text in these moves. It was all cut and paste.
7. In the moved/inserted chapter, I changed the <h1> of its title to <p class="centerhead"> (which isn't tagged for inclusion in TOC).
8. The syntax in all chapters and cover checks in BBEdit.
Please note: All text, video and pictures still show up. Only the automatic TOC is missing.
Has anyone had similiar problems? Thanks.

Update: solved by restarting my iPad. Never expected this to be necessary on an Apple-device…

Mac Word 2008 - hyperlink message "Word cannot open the specified file"

I'm using WordMac 2008 version 12.2.5 and after following detailed instructions on how to hyperlink chapters in a Table of Contents to their respective chapters in a book, I can only get the message "Word cannot open the specified file".
Any ideas what could be wrong?
My OSX is 10.5.1.
The instructions I followed are pasted below and are copied from the Smashwords Style Guide: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52
START OF PASTE FROM SMASHWORDS STYLE GUIDE:
How to create a linked Table of Contents. Consider this feature in “beta.” My
thanks to Smashwords author Cheryl Anne Gardner for sharing these tips below,
which I have augmented based on my own experience adding a ToC to the Style
Guide (woo hoo!).
By adding a linked table of contents, you can help readers navigate your
document. This is especially useful for non-fiction. Most fiction doesn’t
need it. If you follow the instructions below, the ToC should work in your
EPUB, MOBI and PDF files, but it will not work in our other formats.
First, create your table of contents where you want it by typing it out. Make
sure the text is normalized just like the rest of your Smashwords’ Word
document. Example:
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Etc.
Next, we are going to create the BookMarks. In Word 2000, 2003 and 2007, the
Booksmark function is under the Insert tab. Go through your document, and at
each Chapter Start or Indexed item, you will highlight it and then select
Insert: bookmark. Name your bookmark corresponding to the Chapter/Indexed
item and then click add. It’s very important to use the first word of your
heading you’re linking to, because later on, when you add the hyperlinks,
Word displays the bookmark shortcuts in alphabetical order. With many
bookmarks, I found many of my bookmarks weren’t labeled properly, so it was
tough to link to the correct bookmark. If you want to link to a chapter named
How to Publish Ebooks, I’d recommend naming your bookmark
“HowToPublishEbooks” to make it easy to locate. If you instead name it,
“publishebooks,” you’ll frazzle your brain and make mistakes.
Repeat the process above for every Chapter Start as well as for other matter
in the book like index, bibliography, epilogue, prologue, etc. I didn’t link
to every section in the Style Guide, because otherwise the ToC would have
been three pages long. This is your call.
Next, return to your table of contents and highlight the word “Contents.”
Click insert, bookmark, and label this last bookmark “Contents”. Formatting
note: Bookmarks cannot have spaces or odd characters. If instead of
“Contents” you called the label in the document Table of Contents, as I did,
then when you insert the bookmark, name the bookmark “TableofContents,” one
word, or “toc.”
Next, add the hyperlinks to your Chapter Starts. In your table of contents,
if Chapter 1 is called Chapter 1, then highlight Chapter 1 and then click
insert Hyperlink. As you can see in the Style Guide, I tried to use more
descriptive labels. In Word’s Hyperlink menu on the left hand side, select
“Place in this document.” You will now see your bookmarks listed in the main
window. Select Chapter1 bookmark (or whatever you labeled it) and then click
ok. Do this procedure for every chapter and piece of matter in the table of
contents.
Final step. Now you can link back to the Table of contents. Move through your
document to each indexed item or Chapter start and highlight it. Then click
insert, hyperlink, and then select “Place in this document.” When the
bookmarks are showing in the main window, select the bookmark labeled
“Contents,” assuming that’s what you named your Table of Contents. Do this
for each and every chapter and or indexed item.
After you are done, all your links will be underlined. You will need to test
and make sure you linked everything properly. In most Word versions, you just
click on the hyperlink to test. In Word 2007, you may need to Ctrl-Click each
hyperlink and make sure it takes you where you need to go in the document.
Advice: Word has an automatic ToC generation feature under the reference tab.
Do not use this. It uses automated headings and formatting to generate the
ToC and this will un-normalize your text and cause font conversion issues in
your Smashwords files.
END OF PASTE FROM SMASHWORDS STYLE GUIDE.
I did all that as described but I still get the message "Word cannot open the specified file".
Could you help please?

This question would be better addressed to...
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx
I think the operative phrase from that article is...
*Consider this feature in “beta.”*
-mj

Different versions of Adobe Creative Suite Compatibility (CS5 and CS5.5)

Our marketing team has two different versions of Adobe Creative Suite (CS5 and CS5.5). We can save the CS5.5 down to an IDML document so users with CS5 can open/manipulate the file but it reduces the file size significantly. What I do not know is if this saving down process reduces the quality of the file?? I am relatively inexperienced with these programs as I am self-taught. Thanks for your help!

IDML is good for repairing files.
But IDML is not good to be used as exchange in a workflow because every export of IDML can change things in an unexpected way. So I would strongly recommend that everyone in the department involved in the workflow uses the very same version, anything else will let you struggle in a later point of time. When I have to exchange files with a client I use always their versions and avoid IDML in exchanging files in any case possible.
Between CS5.0 and 5.5 are also several changes possible, because some bugs related to the text engine became fixed. E.g. in CS5 if you had an automatic TOC or cross reference in a text frame with 1 or 3 round corners and 3 or 1 normal corners, automatic number got shuffled in that frame, like page 345 became 543. When this was fixed some changes in the text engine have been done.

ITunes ePub Checker

I am trying to load a book into Apple iTunes, and their checker gave me the following errors (each multiple times with different file names):
ERROR ITMS-9000: "Invalid URI in manifest OEBPS/images/Laffer curve_fmt.jpeg : Illegal character in path at index 19: OEBPS/images/Laffer curve_fmt.jpeg" at Book (MZItmspBookPackage)
ERROR ITMS-9000: "Invalid URI in NCX file OEBPS/Title Page.xhtml : Illegal character in path at index 11: OEBPS/Title Page.xhtml" at Book (MZItmspBookPackage)
Any ideas out there on how to fix the problem, or even what the problem is? Thank you!

I appreciate the responses! I got the problem fixed on one book - Just made every file one word and there by took care of the problem. However, I do have multiple books I am working on and am looking for a long term solution for the Automatic TOC. How do I create one using the Chapter Titles without any underscores. I konw to check "Suppress File Name" when exporting, but what about Title Page, Copyright Page, or other files that do not contain the same paragraph style as the chapters?. Does this make sense? i.e.
file name = title_page   - no visible title in the same font as the chapter titles -   TOC entry = Title Page
file name=copy_right   - no visible title in the same font as the chapter titles   -   TOC entry = Copyright Page
file name=the_crooked_arrow   - Chapter Title = The Crooked Arrow -                TOC entry = The Crooked Arrow
I understand that hidden layers will not work in CS4 and the hyperlink function (for the manual TOC) do not work.
THANK YOU AGAIN for all of the help!

Best Practices for importing FrameMaker books into RoboHelp?

We are getting ready to purchase RobHelp, and I'm trying to get a head start on the conversion. We have ~600 base FrameMaker (v7) files that are pieced together to create ~11 different manuals. I've got a couple of simpler books picked out for testing purposes, but if there's a white paper or anyting on the subject floating about, I would appreciate it.

I've tried to use RH8 to produce HTML help from a FM9 book. I found that it mostly worked as advertised, with the exception of automatic TOC generation from a book TOC (which can be worked around) and disappearing HTML tags when conditional text is used (no work around found yet). I've posted about both of these issues in this forum, and while many have read my posts, no-one has yet acknowledged that they have seen similar problems or pointed out incorrect usage on my part. So I might just be mad (or furious, depending).
Before purchasing and committing to an approach, I recommend that you use the 30 day eval to thoroughly exercise these products and see if they work as advertised for you. If you need more than FM9 and RH8 (which can be downloaded as full-featured trials), then you can get a DVD of a 30 day trial of TCS2 from Adobe. I ordered the DVD and it arrived in about 3-5 days (at least, it did for me, and I'm in the USA).
-Adam

How long does file conversion take to complete?

Well, I've tried saving my ditamap as a pdf and as a composite framemaker doc. So far, neither conversion has worked because it's taken over 2 hours and never completed the process.
Any ideas? Does the ditamap work better in FM if it's created in FM? I created my using XMLMind.
Thanks for any tips.

Hi Lucy...
For a large map, this can take many hours (depending on the speed of your system). This is especially the case if your files make heavy use of xrefs and conrefs or you've got a large relationship table. No, it doesn't matter that the files were authored in another XML editor, as long as they are valid DITA. You should start with a smaller set of files to test things before jumping in with a big map.
FYI .. the book-building process in DITA-FMx is significantly faster than that in default FM8 or FM9. It also provides many book-building features that aren't available in default FM, like ..
- automatic TOC and Index generation
- the ability to apply separate templates to different map element types (chapter, part, appendix, etc)
- automatically apply pagination and numbering
- lots more
For details see ..
http://www.leximation.com/dita-fmx/featurecomparison.php
Cheers,
...scott
Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com

Page Numbering, Arabic then Standard Numerical

Hi Everyone,
I am using the most recent version of pages on LION. I know that there are a few related forums but mine is very specific. I need to begin my thesis with the first few pages (abstract, acknowledgements, table of contents) as Arabic, then I need to have a table of contents after the first few pages which not only includes the Arabic numbering of the abstract and acknowledgements,but also has the rest of my thesis in there which begins with the introductions (the page after my table of contents) which should begin at page 1.
To simplify, the first few pages need to be in Arabic, the next set of pages (about 50) need to be standard (1,2,3,4...50..). Both the Arabic and standard numerical must both be listed in the table of contents which would technically be on pages 3 & 4 but should be visually listed as page iii & iv.
Thank you! Courtney
EX:
Abstract...i
Acknowledgements....ii
Table of Contents....iii & iv
Intro.....1
Lit Review....2
Etc.....3-50.

You can always add any text but it will not be part of the automatic TOC. If you are going to print the document it will probably not matter.
The page numbers in the first part can't be in the footer as it will affect all pages in the document.
I presume you will print the document? If so I would create 2 documents, one with the first part an Roman numerals and one with the second part with the Arabic numerals.
Now you can create TOC with the preferred page numbers.When you are certain that you will not change anything in the documents create the TOCs. In the Roman select the TOC so it has a blue border line and one copy the TOC and open it in TextEdit.
Copy the TOC from TextEdit (it is now plain text and has lost its connection to the the in the document) and past it before the TOC in the Arabic page number document. Now you can also copy and paste the text from the Roman.. document. The other TOC will adjust its page numbers
You will probably need a Section breakBefore or after the main TOC so you can have the first part without page numbers. Familiarise your self with the Inspector palette > Layout and download the Pages User Guide and read about page numbering, layout sections and TOCs. I find it hard do give precise instructions. The Pages User Guide is downloadable from your Pages Help menu.

Acrobat XI PRO: Create a Table of Contents (TOC) automatically in top, after I have combined several pdf.files into a single pdf.file

Hey
I have now tried for hours, but now I give up!
MY WISH -
Create a Table of Contents (TOC) automatically after I have combined several pdf.files into a single pdf.file.
I have already bookmarks, shown on the screen (see screenshot below) but I want those bookmark to be visualised in a separate TOC in the top of the combined files.
This new TOC (which I have inserted) shall be printable and serve as a cover page in a binder.
I have seen other cheap pdf.programs in the market (e.g. PDF Converter Professional 7.3) which are able to make the above things, easy, fast and nice.
Regards
Ole Bünger, Kristianstad Sweden

Somewhat roundabout way but this should work:
Is there easy way to print bookmarks Acrobat Pro 9.5

Dragging multiple pages from TOC to the topic to create automatic hyperlinks

In my project, I have few topics that contains the hyperlinks of approximately 10 topics. Now, I drag individual page from the TOC to the topic page to create automatic hyperlink. However, I want to select multiple pages in the TOC and drag them at once to create appropriate hyperlinks at once. This will save my time in creating various links.
Charudatta M.

Hi there
That's not presently possible with RoboHelp. You need to consider asking for it via the Wish Form (linked below)
Click here to open the wish form
Cheers... Rick

Is Acrobat Pro right for us. We have an Employee Handbook that needs editing. Some is current pdf, some from an older version. Want to get all into one handbook, have the table of contents automatically adjust and link to specific pages from the ToC.

Is Acrobat Pro right for us. We have an Employee Handbook that needs editing. Some is current pdf, some from an older version. Want to get all into one handbook, have the table of contents automatically adjust and link to specific pages from the ToC.

You can download the trial version (http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-downloads.html) to convert the PDF back to WORD if you do not have the original. The conversion may not be perfect, but it is typically better than starting from scratch. You may be lucky and get a good result. You might check the settings (in the save screen) to try retain format versus retain text flow. The format version can be a pain to edit since it creates a bunch of text boxes. The flow version may require you to reformat in WORD, but you likely would want to do that anyway.

Automate TOC

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for