Select TOC levels when inserting a TOC?

[Sascha Erni]

Hi there,

is there a way to tell Nisus what levels should be included in a TOC? I. e. select, say, only level 8 for the TOC you insert, or levels 1-4, ignore the rest?

That would be a handy feature. E. g. you could use TOC level 8 for figures and later just create a TOC with level 8 only to have a table of figures … Or have the first TOC show only levels 1 and 2 (for an overview) and add a deeper TOC later in the book for all the detail stuff.

If this is not possible yet, count this as a feature request, please.

Cheers,
-Sascha

[martin]

There isn't any such feature in NWP, however, you can have multiple TOC styles in a single document. So you could for instance have one TOC style for your main headings (eg: levels 1-2), another for all heading levels, and yet another style for your figures.

[Sascha Erni]

Hi Martin,

this is useful, thanks. One question though: Are there any plans to upgrade TOC creation in NWP as outlined in my first post, or are you working on other ways to enable tables of figures, tables of tables and suchlike? Just out of interest; I personally hardly ever need it (but am asked often about word processors by different people and hence wonder whether I should suggest NWP or not).

Cheers,
-Sascha

[martin]

Probably we are not too interested in adding such a feature. Personally I feel the existing multiple TOC styles system is a cleaner and more straight forward way to accomplish table of figures, etc. If you configure your document it can be very easy to work with.

For example, anyone working with many tables (or figures, etc) probably already has a "table caption" paragraph style. You could create a "tables" TOC style and apply it to the "table caption" paragraph style. Then whenever you format a table caption with the appropriate paragraph style it will automatically be included in the TOC for tables.

[mrennie]

For example, anyone working with many tables (or figures, etc) probably already has a "table caption" paragraph style. You could create a "tables" TOC style and apply it to the "table caption" paragraph style. Then whenever you format a table caption with the appropriate paragraph style it will automatically be included in the TOC for tables.

Indeed. The only thing that is bothering me about the current implementation is the fact that a tab is automatically inserted after the number, which gives the caption text a very odd appearance. If there was an option to replace the tab with a simple space, table/figure captions would look much better, in my opinion.

[Sascha Erni]

Thanks for the info, you two! I’ll give it an (extended) shot to see how well it works.

Cheers,
-Sascha

[ptram]

Martin,

It wouldn't hurt, also, if NWP comes with a set of TOC styles, in addition to the default one. This way, there wouldn't be any need to figure out how to build the most common types of TOCs (figures, tables, equations...)

But I admit I would personally end up using my own custom styles...

Paolo

[martin]

Indeed. The only thing that is bothering me about the current implementation is the fact that a tab is automatically inserted after the number, which gives the caption text a very odd appearance. If there was an option to replace the tab with a simple space, table/figure captions would look much better, in my opinion.

I'm not sure when this became the case, but in the current version of NWP any tab characters should be converted to spaces in the generated TOC.

[mrennie]

I'm not sure when this became the case, but in the current version of NWP any tab characters should be converted to spaces in the generated TOC.

In the TOC, yes, but not in a custom Caption style used in the regular text body. I have set up a caption style that is centre-aligned and meant to give a description of a picture/table; in this case, the automatic number is followed by a tab, and as far as I can tell, there's no way to control this using tabs in the ruler (because it is aligned in the centre).

[martin]

In the TOC, yes, but not in a custom Caption style used in the regular text body. I have set up a caption style that is centre-aligned and meant to give a description of a picture/table; in this case, the automatic number is followed by a tab, and as far as I can tell, there's no way to control this using tabs in the ruler (because it is aligned in the centre).

I understand, sorry for my confusion. You're right of course, and allowing the tab to be optional is on our list of features to add.

[mrennie]

Good to hear! Thanks, Martin!