Problem: resized margins not reflected in Table of Contents

[NisusUser]

I inserted a Table of Contents when my margins were wider than I really want them. I changed the margins and then went to Tools > Table of Contents > Rebuild TOC and the width of the TOC is still the same as it was, i.e. it doesn't move out to fill the entire new width of the page. Even with "Update all content" selected, the result is the same. So I decided to delete the TOC and re-insert it. Same thing. Now what should I do? Thanks!

[NisusUser]

There was a mistake in my first post: the first TOC was entered when the margins were narrower than I wanted, not wider.

[martin]

I think I understand, but to make sure: are you saying that the page numbers in the generated TOC aren't appearing where you'd want them? If so, that's controlled by the leader tabs enforced by the TOC paragraph styles. You'll want to switch to NWP's stylesheet view, select a TOC paragraph style (eg: "TOC 1") and adjust the leader tab position as you please.

I hope that helps. Let me know if I'm missing something.

[martin]

One additional tip: if you select all the TOC paragraph styles (using the list of styles on the left side of the stylesheet), you can modify the leader tab position for all the styles at once.

[NisusUser]

Thanks, Martin. That gets me going in the right direction. I've attached a screenshot of what I see when I select all three currently used TOC styles. However, it seems to me the default settings for the "leader tab" should be the right margin. Is there a way to do that? As it is now, apparently NWP ships (is downloaded) with a given default margin for a new document, and the TOC styles have leader tabs that match that. But, unless I misunderstand something here, if I change the margins, I need to manually change the TOC styles. Is NWP unintuitive here, or is it I who gets that label? I mean no offense, of course; I'm just trying to get my mind around this.

[martin]

However, it seems to me the default settings for the "leader tab" should be the right margin.

This is actually how NWP configures your TOC paragraph styles. The trouble is that those distances are fixed at the right margin when the TOC is first inserted, and do not update automatically if you later adjust your margins. Here's how the process works:

1. You create a new document. If you go to the stylesheet, you'll notice that there are no TOC paragraph styles (eg: "TOC 1", "TOC 2", etc).
2. When you first generate a TOC in the document, NWP will add the missing TOC paragraph styles automatically. When it does this, the styles have their leader tab set to the right margin location.
3. If you now adjust the right margin, the TOC paragraph styles (added in step 2) are not automatically updated.

I hope that explains the situation.

But, unless I misunderstand something here, if I change the margins, I need to manually change the TOC styles

You understand correctly. Perhaps you're right that NWP should automatically adjust the TOC paragraph style leader tabs if the user adjusts the margins; maybe that would be more intuitive. There are some sticky situations, like if the user has multiple sections with different paper margins, or if the user manually changed the tab stops of each TOC paragraph style, but perhaps it's something we could consider.

[exegete77]

Martin, just a question. Would it help to have a separate section for the TOC, which would allow independent page margins for each section? Would the TOC still update properly (apart from page margin conditions)? That might be asolution.

[NisusUser]

Thank you, Martin, once again.

As far as improving intuitiveness, it seems to me an easier workaround for Nisus would be to make it so that if the user deletes the TOC, Nisus would ask it he also wants to delete the TOC styles (with a warning that all manual changes that were made to TOC styles would in such a case be lost). Thus, if the TOC styles are gone, the user can again add the TOC and the TOC styles that NWP will create will conform to the new margins. Would that work? Does it make sense? As it is now, it appears that if I delete the TOC and then re-add it, I still get the old TOC style settings, unless I manually delete the TOC styles (which I haven't tried yet).

[Hamid]

After inserting TOC for the first time, set the TOC style to be based on your Normal style (instead of 'none').
Then switch to Page view and place the cursor anywhere in TOC 1 style and adjust the leader tab to the desired location.
Then from the Statusbar apply 'Redefine From Selection'

TOCRedefine.gif (10.95 KiB) Viewed 9111 times

This will redefine your TOC 1 style and the rest of the TOC will assume the new style defined at cursor location.
Any subsequent rebuilding of TOC will follow the new defined TOC style.

Redefining any style is much easier in Page view where you can see the result of your changes to a style before redefining that style.

[NisusUser]

Excellent idea, Hamid! Thank you.