Section 21. Create a Table of Contents


21. Create a Table of Contents

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

5 Edit Text

17 Use a Style


SEE ALSO

22 Create an Index


When you write for others, a table of contents provides easy access for your readers. They can quickly go to whatever subject, or chapter, they want to go to. Making a table of contents used to be tedious , but Writer makes it easy. If you make changes to your document, such as adding new chapters, you can easily regenerate the table of contents to keep it fresh.

KEY TERM

Table of contents A table in the front of many books that lists the page number on which a book's chapters and other elements appear.


21. Create a Table of Contents


Generally , paragraphs to which you apply the Heading 1 style will end up in your table of contents. With 10 heading styles, Heading 1 through Heading 10 , you have plenty of title, heading, and subheading styles with which to format your text. If any or all of these styles do not format paragraphs exactly the way you want them to, you can modify the styles. The important thing to note is that if you do use the Heading 1 style, whether or not you've modified the style, Writer considers each of those paragraphs to be part of the table of contents. All the contents should appear in the currently open document; otherwise , Writer won't be able to locate the entries. The only exception would be for a Master Document (see 130 About Master Documents ).

NOTE

Writer doesn't continually update a table of contents even when you use the Heading 1 style. When you're ready for a table of contents, you'll request the Insert Index/Table dialog box, and at that point Writer generates the table.


You may request that Writer use paragraph styles other than the Heading 1 style by clicking the Additional Styles option in the Insert Index/Table dialog box and selecting more styles by clicking the ... button.

1.
Find Text for the Table

Select one or more paragraphs that you want to include in your table of contents. If you're writing a book, generally such a paragraph will consist of the introduction, chapter titles, and appendixes (if any).

NOTE

If you formatted your introduction, chapter titles, and appendixes with the Heading 1 style, you don't need to reapply the style.

2.
Request the Heading 1 Style

If you've selected paragraphs to apply the Heading 1 style to, select Styles and Formatting from the Format menu to display the Styles and Formatting window. You'll see a list of styles from which you can choose. (Click the Paragraph Styles button from the drop-down box if it's not already selected.)

3.
Select Heading 1

Select Heading 1 from the style list and click OK . Continue applying the Heading 1 style to all paragraphs in your document that you want to include in the table of contents. As you apply the Heading 1 style, the format of those paragraphs typically changes to become boldface.

TIP

Add chapter numbers in front of chapter titles so the chapter numbers automatically appear in the table of contents.

4.
Determine the Style

Once you've applied the Heading 1 style to all the paragraphs you want to include in your table of contents, you can generate the table of contents. Move the text cursor to the beginning of your document ( assuming you want the table of contents to appear there).

Select Insert, Indexes and Tables to display the Insert Index/Table dialog box. You can change various aspects of your table of contents, such as the title. As you change various options, the preview image of your table will update to the left of the dialog box. Deselect the option labeled Protected against manual changes if you want the ability to modify the actual table of contents after Writer generates it.

Once you're ready to generate the table of contents, click OK . Writer generates the table from your selected styles.

5.
Make the Final Table Edits

You now must make final edits to the table of contents. You can format the table, put page breaks around it (using Control+Enter ), and add spacing between the lines if you wish. If you find that Writer doesn't let you change the table, you didn't uncheck Protected against manual changes when you generated the table in the Insert Index/Table dialog box. You can regenerate the table with the option unchecked and then make any edits you wish.



OpenOffice.org 2, Firefox, and Thunderbird for Windows All in One
Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org 2, Firefox and Thunderbird for Windows All in One
ISBN: 0672328089
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 232
Authors: Greg Perry

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