How to control Table of Contents?

[mowence]

I used LibreOffice to write a 300 page book with 17 chapters. I now want to create a Table of Contents, showing the headlines I used, and the program picks those up fine. I do not understand what the parameters mean that are to be chosen for the program, and I find nowhere, where I can control the width of the 5 column it is making of any input data over 3 pages. That’s NOT working! Can anybody show some light over this for me? I think some specific definition of the parameters would help - the Help-section does not give any information on this, but uses some outdated references and definitions that are hopeless for guesswork.

Editing as requested: I follow all the instructions, so I did not realize I also had go describe those. I use headline 2 and 4 throughout the text. Then I click on insert. There, the Help instructions are no longer possible to follow, as the only links containing the words Table of Content is different from what the Help section says it should be… But there are no other options.

When I click on it, I looks as if I need to set up my table, There are several fan pages referred to. On the first, named Index or Table of Index, I Name my Table of Content, but don’t understand the rest of that page.On the fan page “Entries”, I choose “Level” to 5 and have no clue what “Structure and formatting” and “Format” means, so I leave those untouched. I understand that I need to name my table. The remaining three pages, "Styles, “background” and “columns” are beyond what I understand, but on the last I cannot change anything unless I choose more than the one column I want. I simply do not understand, as they use definitions I do not understand, and the whole thing makes little sense to me.

I use Ubuntu 16.04 and .odt. I installed the system last time here in May but use former version for 12 years.

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I have no clue what “marking” means, in terms of specific action needed to be taken, but from the fact that I can generate a TOC with the correct data in it, I assume I do this OK.

And HOW do I “fiddle” with the setting? This is obviously where my problem lies. I have no problem generating a standard TOC, but I cannot use what is created, and I do not know how to modify it.

“Heading” and “headline” is the same to me. I applied “Heading 2” and “Heading 4” to all the entries I want in the TOC - and I get these presented as wanted in the TOC. I know how to generate “custom style” and how to use them, so that’s not a problem.

“Tabs” or “pages” are the same to me.

I do not understand what the programs does with me specifying “Entries”.

Why would I want a different “Structure”? I want the TOC to find my "headings 2 and 4, and nothing more, and it does.

Why would I want to change “Style” - and to what?

I don’t want columns, but I want the TOC to stretch out over the probably 4 pages it will fill, when done right.

A specific “Background” is not wanted, so let’s leave that out.

My main question is to get the TOC to have same width as the pages.

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As suggested, I attach some more screenshot to show what I have done and what result I get:

(/upfiles/15904183299976252.png)

!

Uploaded document

(ajlittoz changed caption “image description” above to “Uploaded document” to make clear a file was attached)

[ajlittoz]

If you expect any reasonable answer, describe accurately what you’re doing, what you’re expecting and what you really get. Remember we aren’t behind you watching your hand and your screen.

What is this “5 column thing”?

A TOC is made from paragraphs styled Heading n. Do you use built-in paragraph styles as they are supposed to be? (at least for the Heading n family as far as the TOC is concerned)

How do you create your TOC?

What is you LO version, and eventually your OS? Do you save as .docx or .odt?

Provide this additional information by editing your question. Make the addition separate from your question by leaving at least a blank line after it. Don’t use an answer which is reserved for solutions.

[mowence]

I follow all the instructions, so I did not realize I also had go describe those. I use headline 2 and 4 throughout the text. Then I click on insert. There, the Help instructions are no longer possible to follow, as the only links containing the words Table of Content is different from what the Help section says it should be… But there are no other options.

When I click on it, I looks as if I need to set up my table, There are several fan pages referred to. On the first, named Index or Table of Index, I Name my Table of Content, but don’t understand the rest of that page.On the fan page “Entries”, I choose “Level” to 5 and have no clue what “Structure and formatting” and “Format” means, so I leave those untouched.
I understand that I need to name my table. The remaining three pages, "Styles, “background” and “columns” are beyond what I understand, but on the last I cannot change anything unless I choose more than the one column I want. I simply do not understand, as they use

[mowence]

I use Ubuntu 16.04 and .odt

[ajlittoz]

From your edit, you’re on track: you prepared your document correctly and you got a standard TOC. Don’t change Entries, nor Styles. These are advanced features and you really need to predict what will be happening.

The TOC is formatted by the Contents n family of styles. This is what you customise, should you want to change its appearance.

As shipped, they all have a tab stop at the right margin. Consequently the page number will be flushed there and there is a dotted leader line between the entry (heading) and the page number. The TOC is as wide as the page.

As many lines are allocated as needed to hold the TOC. Usually, authors want their TOC on separate pages. For that, you need a page break before the top and another one after the TOC (or rather, this is easier, before the first paragraph following the TOC).

So, what is the remaining problem?

[mowence]

HOW DO I CONTROL THE WIDTH OF THE TOC??? It does NOT fill out a page.

What does “as shipped” mean?

[ajlittoz]

“As shipped” = out-of-the-box = built-in = default configured, i.e. until you customise it.

The TOC is styled with Contents n style. Therefore, they are laid out inside the page margins. The paragraph style may itself add left and right indents, reducing the usable area between the margins (by default, indents are 0).

Unless you changed something (perhaps inadvertently), the TOC extends from margin to margin, one entry per line.

If this is not the case, attach a screenshot, so that I try to diagnose the issue.

[mowence]

That’s NOT the case. The width of the TOC is NOT the same as the page width. And I have no clue how to attach a screenshot - I can make one, but how to attach it?

[mowence]

OK - I can attach a pic to the original question - can you get that?

[mowence]

I have no idea what this means: “The TOC is styled with Contents n style. Therefore, they are laid out inside the page margins. The paragraph style may itself add left and right indents, reducing the usable area between the margins (by default, indents are 0).”

[ajlittoz]

Writer is intended to be controlled by “formatting instructions” grouped in so-called styles (paragraph, character, frame, page, list). They control all aspects of formatting. Buttons in the toolbar, keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+B for bold and commands from the Format menus are weak substitutes for full-fledged styles and should be used only for experimenting.

If styles sound gibberish to you, I recommend you read the Writer Guide first, notably the chapters on styles, to discover what can be done. This will give you a common vocabulary to discuss aspects of formatting and styles you seem to stumble upon.

Meanwhile, go ahead with a screenshot.

[mowence]

Screenshot attached to the original question.

The Writer Guide is written for programmers, not for users like me. I understand very little of it, as it throughout assumes I know stuff I don’t know and which is explained nowhere, certainly not in the Help-section. But I understand how to insert and use a new page style, when I want a new chapter with new settings for headers and footers.

[ajlittoz]

From your screenshot, your TOC is build as a 2-column table of contents within a 2-column page.

Is your book formatted everywhere else as 2-column?

Have you changed some setting in the Columns tab of the TOC dialog? To revert to a 1-column TOC, right-click in the TOC and Edit>Index, go to Columns tab and restore number of columns to 1.

Do you want your TOC to have only one column in the page? This has an interrelation with mys first question.

[mowence]

My last comment appears to be deleted… as least it is not showing. Did you get the screenshot?

[mowence]

Wow, now more comments are showing, including your response to the screenshot. Let me answer your questions.

NO, I deliberately set the number of columns to be ONE per page, which also is the default. I followed your instructions and it changed NOTHING.

[ajlittoz]

The only way to find a solution is forensics analysis. Attach to your question (this can’t be done on a comment) a 2-3 page sample with a TOC still exhibiting the issue.

[mowence]

I have no clue what to do - I think I already did what you suggest I changed to width of the TOC to 2-colomns, just to see the difference, and yes, it does indeed present the TOC differently, but still in way that is completely useless. And reverting to 1 column gives me the same result, so the width is stored SOMEWHERE in the settings - but WHERE?

[ajlittoz]

As I told you, diagnosing with only a screenshot is not possible. Make a sample from your document, reducing it to 2-3 pages plus TOC, provided it still exhibits the problem and attach this file to your question. For that, edit your question and use the paperclip tool. You can’t attach a file to a comment.

[mowence]

I made the changes you suggested, but I fail to see what difference it makes…

[ajlittoz]

Your screenshots show your document is formatted 2-column. But screenshots are simply useless to correctly diagnose what’s going wrong. If you really want a fix for your problem, attach a small 2-3 pages + TOC document to the question.

If you feel your document is confidential, replace paragraph content by “lorem ipsum”. This is easy: type “lorem” (without quotes) and immediately hit F3. Remove excess content.