Headers as TOC Entries

[LizPf]

I'm a fairly new NWP user, though I used the original Nisus for quite some time.

I have a set of pages I've formatted for a planner book. Each page is a different section, with the section name in the header area, followed by a line, then the text for that section in the main text area. Because of this graphic formatting, I need my section titles in the header.

I would like to create a table of Contents (though an index would work as well) using my section Headers as my TOC items. But I can't seem to use the "Include in TOC" command in the header area — all the levels are greyed out.

Does anyone know how I can use a header as a table of contents entry?

--Liz

[Groucho]

Hi, Liz.

I guess this is something that has to do with logics. Normally (that is, not in your case), items in a header are repeated on each page in a section. So if you have a section spanning from page 20 to page 50, and “Chapter One” is the header text, there will be thirty-one “Chapter One” and a table of contents wouldn’t know which one to point to. If you want to create a table of contents, you had better use a heading style, like Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. Like this:

Chapter One
Bla bla… This is some text about chapter one.

But in the main area, not in the header.

Henry.

[rmark]

Hi Liz and Groucho,

If Liz still wants the chapter name in the header she has to do a few additional things.

1. insert a new section break at the beginning of each chapter.

2. Bookmark the chapter name, which appears at the beginning of each chapter.

3. Set the Header/Footer palette for each section to have "Different Headers".

4. Insert a cross reference to the appropriate bookmarked chapter name in the header portion of each successive section.

I hope that helps. If you need any additional assistance, please let me know.

[LizPf]

Mark, I'm a bit confused. Here's how I'm interpreting your instructions:

1. insert a new section break at the beginning of each chapter.
I have my document set up this way already. Each "chapter" is a single page.

2. Bookmark the chapter name, which appears at the beginning of each chapter.
The page/chapter name is typed in the header, and I can't bookmark text in the header.

3. Set the Header/Footer palette for each section to have "Different Headers".
I've already done this, so each page/chapter has its own title

4. Insert a cross reference to the appropriate bookmarked chapter name in the header portion of each successive section.
Since I can't make a header bookmark, I can't do this step. And. wouldn't this give me my page/chapter name twice on the page?


Maybe I'm off in putting my page headings in the header section. I'm using a format similar to the very top of:
( Image courtsey of http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official, linked to without permission)
where there is a page title, then a heavy black bar. After that, my pages have a plain area for text. All this is on a 5.5" x 8.5" sheet, so the margins are very small.

I assumed the best way to set this up would be to put the page title line in the header, but now that I want to create a Contents page, this setup isn't working. If there's a better way to format this, I'd be happy to change and use that.

Thanks.

[Hamid]

TOC styles can be used in the Header and this should allow TOC to be created from text in the Header, but I think there is a bug.
When TOC is thus created, I get:
[No entries for this table of contents.]

[Groucho]

Mark,

I think what Liz is trying to do is not putting the chapter’s title into the header, so that the header changes dynamically to reflect the title. If I got it right, Liz is trying to use the text in the header (header, not heading) as a marked-up text to be included in a Table of Contents. In other words, she writes, e.g., Chapter One in a header, then selects it and goes to Insert>Table of Contents>Include in TOC, and that’s where she finds the menu all grayed out. Hence my advice that she should use a regular heading, like Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. in the main body, not in the header space.

Cheers, Henry.

[rmark]

Henry (and Liz),

Exactly. And that's the step I left out of my instructions for Liz.

Liz needs to have the "Heading" text in the document itself in order for it to appear in the table of contents. The "automatic" and other text that appears in the header and/or footer cannot be marked for the table of contents. This is either a programming logical impossibility or a design "flaw" that only Martin can explain.

The "problem" from Liz's point of view is that now she'll have the heading twice on each page: in the document's text area at the top and in the header. With each page as a different section, I can imagine that this would be a pain. Though I do not know what tool can do what Liz wants, perhaps Nisus Writer Pro is not the best one for accomplishing this particular task.

[xiamenese]

As a kludge for Liz, I wondered about putting the 'chapter name' as a heading at the top of the page in a small point size, say 6 point and making the font colour white, so that there it will just look like a blank bit of padding, then cross-reference that in the header and include it in the TOC, setting the font parameters in those places the way she wants. I don't know if it'll work, but perhaps worth a try?

Mark

[martin]

TOC styles can be used in the Header and this should allow TOC to be created from text in the Header, but I think there is a bug.
When TOC is thus created, I get:
[No entries for this table of contents.]

One can apply paragraph styles with an "include in TOC" attribute in the header, but as you've discovered, the text will not actually be included in the TOC. This is a limitation that we could remove were it desired enough, though other software (eg: MS Word) won't let you use headers/footers for the TOC either.

But back to the original problem: why doesn't Liz just minimize (or hide) the header completely, and put each section heading in the main document body? Since each section is only a single page, I don't see the need to use the header. The horizontal line she wants can be put in place using a single table cell or a leader tab.