Updating Index Erases Hyperlinks

[drfrank01]

I have a document in Writer. I wanted a TOC. I chose the “Insert TOC and Index” option from the INSERT menu.

I named it Table of Contents and chose the option of “table of contents” which was to be set up for the entire document to 10 levels (I only use about 4).
I then chose to create it from INDEX marks which I had installed as subject headings.
It does this very well but I want to have a TOC which is interactive so I can have the reader click on the entry and go to the subject. I accomplished this by adding BOOKMARKS to the headings and then linking the TOC entry to the proper bookmark.

Unfortunately if I update theTOC (after editing or adding to the document) from the “update index” option when I Right Click the TOC it erases ALL of the Hyperlinks to the preset bookmarks and this being a short document of 40 pages it is a pain in the BUTT to reacquire these links but it would be impossible in a larger document of 300 pages with 10 or more pages of TOC.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have reviewed several times the instructions for adding hyperlinks to the Table of Contents in a writer document (v6.304) and they make no sense to me… These are the instructions…

You can assign a cross-reference as a hyperlink to entries in a table of contents.

1. Right-click in the table of contents, and then choose Edit Index or Table of Contents. 
2. Click the Entries tab. 

3. In the Level list click the heading level that you want to assign hyperlinks to. 

4. In the Structure area, click in the ***box in front of E#***, and then click Hyperlink. 

5. Click in the box behind the E, and then click Hyperlink.

#4 why not just say which BOX to click into… Which box is IN FRONT OF E#???

#5 Why not just say which box to click into…WHICH BOX IS BEHIND THE E???

Thanks ahead of time…
This should be easier I think…Used to be simple in Word Perfect a long time ago…

(edit: fixed bad format within code-box)

[ajlittoz]

Something not really clear: do you mean you want to add items which are not Heading n paragraphs in the TOC? By definition, a TOC contains only Heading n paragraphs (more exactly paragraphs tagged to be part of the document outline, usually described as chapter headings). These items may have hyperlinks to jump back from TOC to content.

Other items not pointing to (sub)chapter headings are more commonly found in an “index” table separate from the TOC.

Please edit your question (don’t use an answer) to make clear your goal.

[ajlittoz]

There is no need to bookmark the chapter and subchapter headings as long as they are styled Heading n. This styling defined, by itself, implicit bookmarks on the heading.

If you build the TOC from the out-of-the-shelf Insert>TOC & Index>TOC, Index & Bibliography, the Entries tab already contains what is needed to embed links (from TOC to chapter) to jump to the target chapter or subchapter. This is done by the LS and LE (resp. linkk start and link end) markers. Since the link is in the TOC template, it is automatically recomputed when you update the TOC.

If you need the inverse link from chapter heading to TOC item, this is unfortunately not possible. It could be manually tweaked but any update would destroy the painfully added bookmarks in the TOC.

The best you can do is to add a link (manually) from any (sub)chapter heading to the TOC heading (or rather a bookmark immediately preceding the TOC heading). As this bookmark is external to TOC contents, it will survive TOC update.

In case you already did as above, something has gone wrong in your document. Then attach it to your question for examination. A “lorem ipsum” sample exhibiting the unexpected behaviour is enough if you deem the content confidential.

To show the community your question has been answered, click the ✓ next to the correct answer, and “upvote” by clicking on the ^ arrow of any helpful answers. These are the mechanisms for communicating the quality of the Q&A on this site. Thanks!

[keme]

…

4. In the Structure area, click in the ***box in front of E#***, and then click Hyperlink. 

5. Click in the box behind the E, and then click Hyperlink.

#4 why not just say which BOX to click into… Which box is IN FRONT OF E#???

#5 Why not just say which box to click into…WHICH BOX IS BEHIND THE E???

The E# and E boxes in the structure field are placeholders for entry number and entry, respectively.

The boxes before and after, mentioned in that guide you refer to, can also be seen as empty spaces before and after. They are marked by arrows in this image (yes you are right, drawing is not my forte, and doing it on a touchpad does not help):

The procedure indicated should add the LS and LE (Link Start and Link End) placeholders, as mentioned by @ajlittoz. This will recreate the link in the ToC taking you to the position of the entry whenever you rebuild the ToC.