Creating a Table of Contents

From NeoWiki

Contents 1 Introduction 2 What is Needed to Create a Table of Contents 3 Manipulating a Table of Contents 4 Personalized Styles 4.1 Identifying the headings of the Table of Contents 4.2 Positioning the Table of Contents

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.

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. Building/Street Address
etc.

They would appear in the table of contents as follows:

•United Kingdom (level 1)
   ••London (level 2)
      •••Bridge Street
         ••••1. Cafe Nero, 1-2 Bridge Street (niv 4)
         ••••3. Boots, 11 Bridge Street
      •••Downing Street (level 3)
   ••Cambridge(level 2)
   ••Oxford  (level 2)
      •••Mansfield Road (niv 3)
•Canada
   ••Toronto
       •••Don Valley Parkway
   ••Montreal
•United States

Personalized Styles

While you can use the default styles to specify the titles which are to be included in the table of contents, you can use any paragraph styles:

1. Create a paragraph style
2. Under the Tools menu, chose Outline Number....
3. Click on the Numbering tab
4. choose the level you want the style applied to
5. Choose the style you want applied to this level in the Paragraph Style drop down menu
6. —> Writer will add this style to the right hand column
7. You can can choose the type of numbering for this level of title from the Number drop down
8. You can also define the character style to use, the character (point, caret, etc.) that will appear between the number (or letter) and your titles, etc.
9. —> Writer reflects the changes you make in the right column, which shows you how the table of contents will be formatted.
10. Repeat these steps to define all the needed paragraph styles.

To save time, create all of the needed paragraph styles for your headings and then open the Outline Numbering... window to define the table of contents.

Note: When defining paragaph styles for headings, remember to set the Numbering Style (In the Numbering tab of the Format Paragraph window) to "None." Numbering must be set in the Outline Numbering... window to devine the table of contents.

Identifying the headings of the Table of Contents

Construct your document using these paragraph styles (either the default ones or those which you have defined), or apply these styles to your existing document.

Once you have done this, you are ready to construct the table of contents.

Positioning the Table of Contents