Table of Contents [Styles Applied] Do not save to Templates

[TrashDoveInTheCity]

I have painstakingly applied custom styles to a table of contents for a document. Now I have this style saved as both a separate document, a template file.

Regardless of which one I use, when attempting to create a brand new table of contents on a document with those template applied - it does not save the styles I used for the table of contents!

What is going on?

Even within the original document, with my custom styles applied, if I were to go down a few lines and create a new table of contents - I have to MANUALLY apply every style again and again to the table of contents.

I can’t imagine this is how it’s supposed to work?

[ajlittoz]

Remember that a TOC is dynamically created by Writer. When you update (refresh) it or create a new one, Writer starts again from “null”: it scans the whole document, collecting paragraphs intended for TOC and applies styles Contents n (n equal to level).

Consequently, if you didn’t customise Contents n paragraph style family, your user styles are simply ignored.

So, if you expect an automatic formatting for your TOC, fix built-in Contents n to your taste.

PS: when asking here, always mention OS name, exact LO version and save format. In the present case, a small sample document would hav been appreciated to better grasp your workflow.

[TrashDoveInTheCity]

Windows 11 Pro,
Version: 25.8.2.2 (X86_64)
Build ID: d401f2107ccab8f924a8e2df40f573aab7605b6f
CPU threads: 20; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26100); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-CA (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded

Here is a sample
Sample for Libre Ask.odt (34.3 KB)

I customized the upper TOC, using my own customized styles.

But if I create a new table below it, it completely resets the styles to the default.

Is there a way, of forcing Libre Office to use the presets that I customize for the TOC always?

There’s also the issue of even if I edit the built-in default styles for paragraphs, I cannot keep adjustments to the TOC customization for things like “entries”.

[bantoniof]

The best way to work with styles is to use the styles supplied with Writer and create new ones only in the case where we really need a style (because we need a custom name, a conditional style or something special).

• To customize the fonts of all the TOCs, it is best to modify the Heading Contents, and Contentss (1-10) paragraph styles

[ajlittoz]

The problem is in the association of styles to levels. This is done in the Styles tab of the TOC configuration dialog and the mapping is unique to a TOC occurrence (it cannot be saved for reuse).

The only workaround is to customise built-in Contents n which are used by default when building a new TOC.

Most beginners disregard the value of built-in styles. They can be customised any way you like. You must be aware that several usages of built-in styles are hard-coded, like here for a brand new TOC, and can’t be easily replaced, notably in a template, to give a specific “personality” to your documents.

So, instead of struggling against built-in styles (replacing the whole collection with your favourites), learn how to tame them and play with them.

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You mentioned a template in your initial post, but your sample document is not template-based, as reported by File>Properties.