Thank you! I needed to implement multiple paragraph styles in a ToC and this video showed me how. It also showed me an alternative to using the Tabs function in the Type menu, as well as how to add spaces in the dotted lines between the ToC entries and the page numbers.
@@MichaelBullo Improvements with InDesign projects continue! Three months after first watching, I just watched again to indent "level 2" ToC entries. Thanks again!
Struggled with overriding headers / subheaders with character styles. I think it needs to be noted that if there's already a character style applied to your text, your TOC will NOT override the character styles, despite customizing the paragraph style. Other than that, I found your video to be very details and helpful! Thank you!
Thanks for the feedback Vincent. You make a good point regarding Character Styles getting picked up by the TOC. For anyone reading this it's thankfully an easy fix. Make sure that the text frame holding the TOC is selected and then from within the Character Styles panel press the None option.
Nobody anywhere, not even Adobe, have been able to clearly and properly explain how to build and format a table of contents in Indesign. UNTIL THIS VIDEO!! Thank you. Very clearly explained, and at last I have finally been able to create a table of contents in Indesign and formatted to look slick and professional.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this tutorial! Hands down the best one of found online. Thank you for including the levels & making this SO simple/easy to follow.
this video is wrong. When you open up table of contents to add styles there is no Heading or subheading to add as you didn't create them that way. you only created TOC level 1 and TOC level 2. So what can be added is different to how the video shows. I hate when this happens. Just start from actual scratch so it will be the same for all when they do a tutorial.
Hi Michael, this video is the best video on how to create a toc. I am very grateful. I learned so many things. After this video, I realized how wrong I have been working and why most things do not work as they should and despite everything there are still problems that I do not know. Please if you have time answer me the following question as I don't think anyone around has your wonderful practical experience. Here is my question. When I put the numbers on the right side and the dots as you explain, I exported the document to epub and found that the numbers were indeed on the right but the dots disappeared in the new format. Can you make a video about what we have in design format so that we can export it so that all the details appear in the new epub format? And thanks a lot again, for the best tutorial online on how to create a toc in Indesign
This video is absolutely perfect. Super clear, no unnecessary fluff, straight to the point. And after four years still applies. Thank you, Michael Bullo!
This is such a gem. Thank you so much for all the informative tips, especially how to control the dots. *Those who don't see the bookmarks in pdf, make sure to save as PDF (interactive) Not (Print).
Best TOC damn tutorial I watched on this subject and believe me I have seen a few. One of my other jobs beside graphic design, is writing interactive pdf help manuals. Michael delivers this tutorial at the right pace, right tone of voice, and with great explanations of what goes on, the tab thingy in particular. Of course it doesn't hurt that he has Aussie accent either ...LOL👍
Superb tutorial Michael! Thanks so much! (Y) :-) May I make two suggestions please: 1. Could you please offer the download files in the idml format as well - that would take it to far more people who might be using older versions of InDesign. 2. Could you please do a tutorial on paragraph, character & object styles to go along with this same tutorial? Here is wishing you the very best and look forward to more InDesign tutorials Michael!
Hi Sandeep. Thank you for the feedback and the kind words. It's most appreciated. I like your suggestion about adding an IDML version of the files and I've just created them. The link is in the description. Cheers.
Hi, thank you for the tutorial it's very good! but I have a problem , I did what you exactly did but I had some issues , I get some level 2 titles under some wrong level 1 titles , I don't what's really happening !
After a total of 24 hours, I finally found 1 person who showed how to make a table of content the proper and professional way...... It's incredible that indesign is so popular and yet there are these kind of missing things... Also I wonder where are the Book templates?? Normally in Photoshop there are 10.000s PSD files, but book templates for indesign, there are almost none..
Thanks Egzon. Hope it helps. You mentioned "book templates" for InDesign. There is a Book feature in InDesign which allows you to bring together and organise multiple InDesign files as if they were chapters in a book. Is this what you are referring to or are you thinking more along the lines of page templates which you would use to layout a book?
@@MichaelBullo I'm actually thinking more about a indesign file where everything is prepared....I think I only have found max 100 total over the whole internet..
18:52 "This is a little strange, I know." Very strange. GP-4 and I worked unsuccessfully on this for an hour with GPT saying almost continuously, "Sorry for the confusion ...". We will know that AI has truly arrived on the world stage once it can master InDesign's Table of Contents `Tabs` section.
When I create a TOC, 'Sheet numbers' and 'Page numbers' are showing up in my TOC. Page numbers are showing up after the right indent tab but sheet numers are showing up under the item. Is possible to show a screenshot? BTW, I am using InDesign 2019. I don't want the 'Sheet numbers'.
You have become my 'goto' guy for InDesign. I have InDesign 2019. The User Interface Scaling feature does not really improve the size of the workspace icons, etc. Is there a script that will allow me to increase the size like it does in the newer version with a sliding bar? Thanks.
Happy to help where I can. I don’t personally know of any such script. I recommend posting this question on the official InDesign forum. Lots of experts hang out there, including those with scripting experience. community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/ct-p/ct-indesign
I want all my titles and subtitles to be the color black in my table of contents, but some of them are white in my document. When I put my paragraph styles in my table of contents, the colors stay the same. Even though I made different paragraph styles specific for my TOC. Do you know how I can fix this? Thanks
Can someone help me? When I choose the font and the size on the "Basic Character Formats" of the TOC paragraphs I cannot see it on text (it doesn´t not change the font and the size I choose, it just keeps the same) But when I go to "Basic Character Formats" it´s set up the correct font and size. I don´t know why it´s happening!
If you are changing a Paragraph Style but the text within your document is not changing it could because... 1. Within the Paragraph Style panel you do not have the "Preview" checkbox turned on in the lower left corner. 2. You have not applied the Paragraph Style to the text. Highlight some text or click to have your cursor within some text and then click on a style within the Paragraph Style panel. When creating styles, don't forget about the "Apply Style to Selection" checkbox in the Paragraph Style panel.
How do you keep the panels from going "fly-out" instead of just opening straight down and how do you correct them if they start doing that. Photoshop CC does than annoyingly, thus taking up my screen real estate.
Assuming I understand your issue correctly… Panels are generally grouped together on the right side of the InDesign interface with a small double arrow icon in the upper right corner. When the arrows point left, the group is in a collapsed state and clicking on the panels within the group will have them "fly out". When the arrows point right, the group is in an open state with panels fully displayed and stacked vertically. To switch between the different modes of the group just single click the arrows.
Hello Michael, I want to thank you for the tutorial. Thou one thing is not clear to me, you didn't show where you select actual text of your TOC. I don't understand how to load my table of contents on click after I set everything in the table of contents tab
This is my life saving tut. I have seen many tut for this kind if issue even talk my older brother about it but there no clean idea about making such kind of help. I loved this so so so so much! You got my happy subscribe
I have tried other instructions on how to get an animated gif exported from the latest InDesign to a pdf file and have it work. I haven't been successful. Can you do a lesson on that?
Hi, Any idea how to get 2 paragraph styles on one line. I have headings and subheadings and so far when the TOC generates the table the heading and subheading are on separate lines. Thanks.
Hi Joel. I'd like to help but I think this could be a particularly difficult issue to address in a text only comments section. I recommend posting this question in the Adobe InDesign forum where screen shots can be included. Feel free to post a link to any such post back here in the RU-vid comments. Best of luck. community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/ct-p/ct-indesign
Thank you. The Table of Contents (TOC) is clickable. You can download my InDesign file along with the PDF via a link at the bottom of the Description. Clicking on a TOC entry within the PDF will jump you to that page. The very last part of this movie (from 17:26) shows how to create PDF Bookmarks and how to access and use them in Acrobat. Perhaps this is the kind of interactivity you are referring to?
Michael Bullo thank you for answering! Yes, I mean if is it clickable. Something was not working well.The TOC wasn’t clickable when I exported the file I was editing as a interactive pdf. I tried many times that’s why the question, but finally worked! 👍
@@macarenacortes2353 Good to hear it's now working. Did you change any settings or is it one of those mysterious situations where it just started working?
When to use Character Styles / Paragraph Styles? Because the way I see it. Paragraph styles is the best one to use in any form of Indesign document. I had my document made with character styles and it doesn't work with Table of Contents. Now that you think about it.. What are their difference?
Ah yes. It's a classic question in InDesign. Use Paragraph Styles whenever you want to format big blocks of text like entire paragraphs. Use Character Styles whenever you want to format small blocks of text like a few words. You can also happily use a Character Style on text that already has a Paragraph Style applied to it. You've probably noticed that there are way more options within Paragraph Styles that Character Styles don't have such as the spacing before and after paragraphs. When in doubt, use a Paragraph Style.
Select the TOC to be updated and choose "Layout > Update Table of Contents". If it helps, the following link is to the Adobe InDesign help page on Table of Contents... helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-table-contents.html
Works great for chapters. subheadings and such that have no numbering associated with them. It becomes 5x more difficult when you have, for example, Chapter 1, subchapters 1.x+, subchapter 1.x.x+. The spacing in those numbers is NEVER equal to what is in the actual headings and is NOT easily figured out on how to align them next to the titles. It also should work for figure AND table references numbered as 1.x, 2.x, etc with the first numeral being the chapter number. and the second being the figure in the chapter.
@@MichaelBullo I have seen one video that I can no longer find that shows something that yours and those from Lynda.com does. My chapters and subchapters (3 levels) are ALL numbered using paragraph style multi-level numbering. All works fine numbering in the body text but the spaces between. for example, "Chapter 1:" and the title of the chapter is huge. I want to bring the two together in TOC and only one video shows that. All others are simplistic without addressing how to do so. Also. there is not one video out there that addresses any of the errors that occur during the making of a M-L list or TOC.
@@KaptainCanuck Here's a few things that might help... Open up the Paragraph Style that you are using to format the headings within the TOC and go to the Tabs tab. You should see a downward pointing arrow above the ruler which both defines the type and position of the first tab. If you move this arrow you should see the spacing change between the number and the text within your TOC. Open up the Paragraph Style for your headings and look in the "Bullets and Numbering" tab. Within the "Numbering Style" section is the entry for Number. The "^t" represents a tab which you remove or replace with something else. The right pointing arrow next to this box is a menu that allows you to insert different characters. You can also type directly into the box. Open the Table of Contents dialog box from the Layout menu and look for the "Numbered Paragraphs" option at the very bottom. If you change the entry from the default of "Include Full Paragraph" to "Exclude Numbers" you can remove the numbers altogether.
Great tutorial - I'm writing a book with multiple Chapters in it as separate documents which I've now put together in indb book format. Will the TOC work for the whole book or do I have to do TOC's for each Chapter (document) seperately? Unfortunately, being a novice, I didn't add paragraph styles before I started each Chapter, but added them afterwards! :-) Thanks!
Thanks mate. You absolutely can add a TOC to a book. It works fantastically by default. Keep in mind that if you use some of the more advanced InDesign features you might need to better understand how TOC synchronisation works. If something isn't working let me know in detail and I should be able to point you in the right direction. And yes Paragraph Styles should ideally be added first ;) In case you didn't know, you can easily import styles from other documents... Load Paragraph and Character Styles From Another InDesign File ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TRNgq--5xMs.html
T H A N K Y O U, M I C H A E L ! - Finally I found a video that explains it all and I can now think about making a TOC without getting stress, haha! You're awesome! :D
My document has a Title page 4 pages of a table of contents and then the document pages. the TOC have their own numbering system starting with page 'i' and ending with page 'iv'. The document starts with page 1 and goes for 29 pages. When I create my TOC, I have my Chapter as level one. Nio problems there. Whe it drops down to the first item as a second level it sharts our fine. the item i idented and the page number is right justified. The page number shows correctly.On the next line,where the Item would be located is the sheet number and right justifed is the page number. When you include all the sheets counting the TOC pages that are numbered, by the time you get to the first page that is nuimbere '1', the total sheets are 8, which is correct. But I don't want to show tht, I only want the page numbering as it has been set up in my Numbering and Section. Weird thing on top of that, it is not consistent. If I could sen you a screen shot, you might get a better idea. Thanks
Really nice tutorial. Paragraph styles really are not that complicated. For the sake of this tutorial, just spening a minute on that would probably be sufficient to really make this instruction complete.
Great question and yes you can. In the Table of Contents dialog box look for the "Between Entry and Number" option. To the right of that is a "Style" option that allows you to apply a Character Style to the area that I filled with dots. Create a Character Style that makes things grey and you should be done.
@@MichaelBullo It's a 4 page TOc but it was the line of dots between the chapter title and the number that had me completely stumped. The rest was no biggie. I kept trying one thing, then another (wasted about 4 hours on it altogether)... and probably torqued the algorithm so badly I couldn't refresh or regenerate the TOC at all, and had to delete not just the text boxes for it, but the pages as well to regenerate it. And THEN I found your video. LOL. Anyhoo... thank you! :D
Great tutorial! Really helped me cut some time off a job. One question unrelated to TOC’s, how did you get the line above the headings to automatically size when you change the text from “Boroughs” to “Boroughs (Something Weird)”?
Thanks Chris. Happy to hear this helped you out. The heading you are referring to is styled with a Paragraph Style. Within the Paragraph Rules section of this style I have a Rule Above active. Within the description of this RU-vid video is a link to a ZIP file that I have on Dropbox. This contains the InDesign file if you wanted to explore it.
