Table of contents, how do I add a space after indenting the entries?

[arkadian]

Hi there,

I really don’t understand what I am supposed to do… I am trying to indent my table of contents, but I cannot find a way to do it.

I have three levels.
First off I try to indent from the left of the chapter number, and that works fine. All three levels end up indented slightly staggered
Then I try to add a tab (i.e. a space) between the chapter/paragraph number and the title of that section, but that messes everything up and I have to start afresh as I cannot fix it in any way.

I have been studying Chapter 12 of the guide (BTW, I would like a table of content that looks just like the one you have in your manual…), but I THINK I am doing everything right…

Any idea where I might be going wrong?

I am using OSX 10.9.2 and the latest version of LO.
I haven’t defined any styles and I am using the default ones.

[oweng]

I am making a few assumptions about what you require, however it seem these are key:

• Outline numbering on headings (and corresponding ToC entries).
• Separation of the identifier (“1.”, “1.1.”, etc.) from the text (“Heading A”) with a tab.
• Indentation of lower levels of entries in the ToC.

Here is a basic example (ODT) along with screenshots of the ToC detail for level 2 and the indentation of the Contents 2 paragraph style|attachment. The indentation of lower level entries is handled via the corresponding paragraph style, while the separation / alignment of identifiers and text is handled by inserting a tab into the ToC level (Style tab). It is important to ensure the tab position is large enough to cater for the largest expect identifier at the entry level and point size e.g., “1.1.” at 12pt requires less space than “10.10.” at 12pt and similarly “10.” at 24pt requires more space than “1.1.1.” at 12pt.

[arkadian]

Hi oweng,

thanks for your reply. I’ll try to answer to your message the best I can.

The outline numbering on headings is fine.
Separation of the identifiers from the text is not… I cannot separate in any meaningful way the two (as in your example)
Indentation of lower levels is fine.

Interesting that you suggest to indent the entries using “Edit paragraph style”, but that seems to work only for the first two levels. The third level is aligned with the first, so it looks like this (ignore the extra lines in between):

1. heading 1

   1.1 heading 1.1

1.1.1 heading 1.1.1

2 Heading 1

[arkadian]

If I try to add a tab using edit ToC/Entries I get this:

You will see that the first level is fine, but the second level is not… In both cases I have added a tab between E# and E, but I cannot make it work…
Now the structure looks like this:
LS E# T E …

[arkadian]

AAARRRGGGHHH… this is driving me demented… The paragraph styles doesn’t seem to be workoing any more. I apply a change, then I cannot reverse it.
I think I am going to have a cup of tea now!!!

[oweng]

@arkadian, the right-alignment of the heading text in the ToC entry (in your screenshot) is likely occurring because the tab position (in the Content 2 paragraph style) is not large enough. It needs to be further in than the combination of the indent + the leading identifier. If it is not, then the next tab position (aligned to right margin) will be used. Each subsequent level using a greater indent will need to correspondingly have an even greater tab position.

[arkadian]

OK, I think I got it…

For clarity, I am using the tabs (T) in the entries section of the “edit index/tables” and described in the “Entries page”, Chapter 12 of the “Writer Guide”, “Tables of Contents, Indexes, and Bibliographies”.

The key point is that all tabs are being measured from the left hand margin, so if I want two tabs I need to have the first one at, say, 1.50 cm and the other at, say, 3.50 cm, which means they are going to be 2.00 cm apart. Once I understood this basic principle, I have managed to space my index the way I wanted (more or less).
If you don’t do it like that, i.e. you make the second tab too small, compared to the first one, it gets all messed up. So, for example, if in the first tab you enter 1,50 cm, but in the second one 1,00 cm, then it’s NOT going to work.