Table of Contents (TOC) problem

[Brandon Little]

Update.

Still not sure WHY it’s doing this, but I can add a chapter heading above the existing one and it accepts it, though editing it seems to kill the workaround.

Looking at hidden characters doesn’t reveal anything, but I suspect it’s there on the chapter headings themselves.

WORKAROUND:
I can just hit a Tab after the name and it pops that pesky number out where it belongs, but if I update the table, the issue will return and I’ll have to fix the TOC again.

I wonder why it’s just doing that on a few chapter headings?

[Dwayne Smith]

G’day Brandon

Without actually seeing your setup, it sounds like something to do with the way you have your tabs set in your TOC style. Did you set a specific tab placement or just leave it as the defaults?
If it’s the latter, I’ll bet the ones that aren’t working correctly are the shorter chapter names.

d.

[Brandon Little]

Thanks for the reply. No override on the styles and all the headers are fine, except for one or two at random. It seems to be related to the number of characters in the title.

If I make it a longer title, it’s fine. Making it shorter, say less than 9 characters, and it’s not.

A BETTER WORKAROUND: Add a few spaces to the end of a short chapter heading. It adds a few blanks in the TOC as well, but who notices?

[Dwayne Smith]

G’day again

Overrides have nothing to do with it. I asked if you set the tab placement. And from what you’ve just described, I’d say not.

Highlight your TOC and hit Cmnd-Shift-T. That will bring up your tab bar where you can place and edit tab stops. Like this :

d.

[Brandon Little]

Oh, yes. Sorry I misunderstood.

Tabs at .5″ and 6.75″ for the page numbering. Periods for leaders
Indent is at .5 for subhead items

[PS, I’m proficient at page layout with InDesign, but have never had cause to use TOC before.]

Here you can see the issue with short Chapter headings

[Dwayne Smith]

Aah — gotcha — now it’s clearer (and, I’m happy to say, I got it wrong)

Do you have any reason for that first tab at .5? Because that’s where your problem is.
Your second screen grab shows it quite clearly — the page number for “payday” aligns perfectly with your indents for your subheads — both of which are set to .5.

d.

[Brandon Little]

Ah! That’s it. The pesky little .5″ tab. I think that the shorter chapter headings came in within that .5″ line and it threw the page number to the tab, just like it’s supposed to. It just didn’t know WHICH tab.

Thanks, that fixed it…finally.