Creating a Table of Contents

From NeoWiki

Introduction

What is more interesting than seeing the structure of a document when one is in the midst of writing it. What is more practical than easily finding, in a document of 100 or 1000 pages, the location of a chapter or a subsection.

It is possible to achieve that very simply with NeoOffice's Writer component, thanks to the Tables of Contents. Their manipulation is extremely simple, contrary to appearances.

It is important to keep in mind the different elements which are involved in order for NeoOffice to create this Table of Contents and keep it up-to-date.

In the first place, it is important to understand that for Writer, a Table of Contents is an index like other indexes. Thus the tools that direct the Table of Contents found in the Index tools.

The secon thing to keep in mind is that Writer doesn't use the terms "Title" or "Sub-title," but refers instead to Chapter and Level. For example, the Outline Numbering... command in the Tools menu is used in creating Tables of Contents and all the heading levels.

What is Needed to Create a Table of Contents

In order to construct a Table of Contents, Writer must know on what to base the structure of the document, that is to say which titles it is to include in the flow of the document.

Aas we have seen above, Writer calls these titles chapters.

Here, it is important to understandthat Writer, in itself, is incapable of differentiating between text and title, sub title, sub-sub title, etc. It is by using paragraph styles that we can tell Writer which is which. Without these style sheets, NeoOffice will be incapable of creating a table of contents.

In other words, it is necessary that your titles—those which will be used to create the desired table of contents—are styled correctly. Whether you use your own styles or the existing styles does not matter.

Then, NeoOfice needs to know where to place this table of contents.

Finally, NeoOffice needs to know what form to give it (what title levels to include, style of the text, columns, etc.)

We will discuss each of these tasks below.

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Manipulating a Table of Contents

By default, Writer uses the pargraph styles "Heading 1," "Heading 2," through "Heading 10" to construct a table of contents. You can see this by going to the Tools menu and choosing Outline Numbering.... If it is not already active, click on the Numbering tab. In the column on the right is a list of the 10 styles that are available for reference.

These ten styles correspond to levels: Style 1=Level 1= e.g. Country
Style 2=Level 2= e.g. Cities
Style 3=Level 3= e.g. Streets
Style 4=Level 4= e.g. Street numbers
etc.

They would appear in the table of contents as follows:

•United Kingdom (level 1)
   ••London (level 2)
      •••Rue du Bac (niv 3)
         ••••1. Immeuble rénové (niv 4)
         ••••3. Fast-food
      •••Rue du Paradis (niv 3)
   ••Marseille (niv 2)
   ••Besançon (niv 2)
      •••Rue de Montbéliard (niv 3)
•Suisse
   ••Bâle
       •••Rue du crédit balinais
   ••La Chaux-de-fond
•Angleterre