My LibreOffice refuses to save TOC as 2 column

English
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#1

Hi all.
I wrote my first novel in Libre office writer. I am uploading to KDP as a kindle ebook. (It is formatted for KDP Kindle viewer)
There are 30 Chapters, (each Chapter heading is set as Heading 1)
Table of contents is single column, over 1 page in LibreOffice writer and Hyperlinks function perfectly.
However it runs over 2 pages once uploaded to Amazon KDP. I don’t want it split over 2 pages. I want it in 2 columns.
OK. so back in writer, I left click on the TOC, and choose edit Table of contents.

  1. I removed the tick from [Protect against manual changes]
  2. I deleted [#] as I don’t want page numbers.
  3. I converted to 2 columns.
  4. in [columns] tab, I lowered spacing to 0.3cm
    5 In [Background] tab I changed [colour] to white.
    I clicked [ok].
    everything looks and works fine (Within Libre Office Writer).
    I then click [file] [save] to save the updates.
    But when I next open the document, it has always reverted the TOC to single column, spread over 2 pages again!
    I must be missing a step somewhere.
    i tied leaving the tick in, taking the tick out, I even removed the tick from [autowidth] to no avail. it’s driving me mad !
    Please treat me as having zero previous experience with this particular function. it is my first attempt. I am a 63 years old engineer, fairly PC savvy in general, but not as yet fully conversant with these finer points. So please be kind.
    any ‘step by step’ would be greatly appreciated.
    Thank you in advance
    Very best regards,
    Gary
#2

Is it the Writer document?


OS name, LO version and, most important, save format (.odt or .doc(x)?

There is no necessity to removed TOC change protection to display 2 columns.

Regarding differences between “Writer” and KDP formatting, this can come from differences in specifications between ODF and KDP. Have you the same glitch if you export to PDF?

#3

Hi ajlittoz. Thanks for the prompt reply.
I’m on windows 10, running LO writer.
LO is V 24,8,42 (X86_64)
Save is as .docx
(My editor says she can’t open .odt files, but she runs ms Word).
I have not tried to save as PDF yet, but it’s worth a shot.
thanks for that.
I should add (This has just occurred to me) I just saved another copy in .odt format. and that DOES save the file with 2 column TOC. No idea why it wont in word format though, but I’ll take it from here and see how this version will upload. Many thanks.

#4

It is likely this is the cause. There are huge differences in page handling between ODF and DOCX standards. Saving now as .odt could possibly not solve the issue because the repeated open-save cycles have messed the clean initial structure of the document.

However, since this is a novel, its general structure is certainly relatively simple: a cover page, a TOC, several identically looking chapters and perhaps back cover. Regarding text, you have narrative and dialogue paragraphs. So, a maximum of 5 paragraph styles are needed (and perhaps only 3). Add to that a maximum of 5 character styles (again, perhaps Emphasis = italic and Strong Emphasis = bold are enough). Three page styles should meet your needs: First Page for cover, Default Paragraph Style for chapters and one custom style to create for the TOC (unless it looks like a chapter).

Considering this is quite quickly done, you could copy your whole text and paste it as unformatted in a blank document. Create or customise styles and apply them. This should be fast and much more reliable and stable than trying to fix the existing mess.

M$ Word has been able to read .odt documents for ages but this is not advertised (to keep users locked in a proprietary market). Eventually, you can export to .docx before sending the document to your publisher, but never edit it. Avoid working in a mixed environment. No existing application really appreciate this; support is extremely variable, particularly when the standard is not available publicly (like DOCX). If corrections are requested, make them manually on your native .odt copy.

1 Like
#5

Wow ! I never knew that.
Many thanks for the input.
Very much appreciated.
Im on it now.

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