Create a table of contents

A table of contents (TOC) can list the contents of a book, magazine, or other publication; display a list of illustrations, advertisers, or photo credits; or include other information to help readers find information in a document or book file. One document may contain multiple tables of contents—for example, a list of chapters and a list of illustrations.

Each table of contents is a separate story consisting of a heading and a list of entries sorted either by page number or alphabetically. Entries, including page numbers, are pulled directly from content in your document and can be updated at any time—even across multiple documents in a book file.

The process for creating a table of contents requires three main steps. First, create and apply the paragraph styles you’ll use as the basis for the TOC. Second, specify which styles are used in the TOC and how the TOC is formatted. Third, flow the TOC into your document.

Table of contents entries can be automatically added to the Bookmarks panel for use in documents exported as Adobe PDF.

Tips for planning a table of contents

Consider the following when planning a table of contents:

• Some tables of contents are built from content that does not actually appear in the published document, such as a list of advertisers in a magazine. To do this in InDesign, enter content on a hidden layer and include it when generating a TOC.

• You can load TOC styles from other documents or books to build new tables of contents with the same settings and formatting. (You might need to edit an imported TOC style if the names of paragraph styles in the document do not match those in the source document.)

• You can create paragraph styles for the table of contents’ title and entries, including tab stops and leaders, if desired. You can then apply these paragraph styles when you generate the table of contents.

• You can create character styles to format the page numbers and the characters separating them from the entries. For example, if you want the page numbers to be in bold, create a character style that includes the bold attribute, and then select that character style when you create the table of contents.

Create tables of contents in books

For best results, be sure to do the following before creating a table of contents for a book:

• Before you create a table of contents, verify that the book list is complete, that all documents are listed in the correct order, and that all headings have been formatted with the appropriate paragraph styles.

• Be sure to use paragraph styles consistently throughout the book. Avoid creating documents with styles that have identical names but different definitions. If multiple styles have the same name but different style definitions, InDesign uses the style definition in the current document (if a definition exists there), or the first occurrence of the style in the book.

• If the necessary styles do not appear in the pop‑up menus in the Table of Contents dialog box, you may need to synchronize the book so that the styles are copied to the document containing the table of contents.

• If you want number prefixes (such as 1-1, 1-3, and so on) to appear in your table of contents, use section numbering rather than chapter numbering. Section number prefixes can be included in a table of contents.

Generate a table of contents

Before you generate a table of contents, decide which paragraphs should be included (such as chapter titles and section headings), and then define paragraph styles for each. Make sure that these styles are applied to all appropriate paragraphs in the document or booked documents.

When you generate the table of contents, you can also use paragraph and character styles to format the table of contents.

If paragraphs that are to be included in the table of contents appear in different stories on the same page, their order in the TOC is determined by their position on the page.

Create TOC styles for multiple lists

Use TOC styles if you need to create different tables of contents in your document or book. For example, you can use one TOC style for a list of contents and another for a list of advertisers, illustrations, or photo credits. Create a TOC style for each type of list.

Creating TOC styles are also useful if you want to use the same TOC formatting in another document.

Create a TOC style

Import TOC styles from another document

Options for formatting a table of contents

When generating or editing a table of contents, use these options to determine the appearance of the generated table of contents text. Some of these options are available only when you click More Options in the dialog box.

Choose a TOC Style, if you’ve defined a TOC style that has the appropriate settings for your TOC.

Type a title for your TOC. This title appears at the top of the table of contents.

Choose a style from the Style menu to format the Title.

Determine which content you want to include in the table of contents by double-clicking paragraph styles in the Other Styles list to add them to the Include Paragraph Styles list.

For each style in Include Paragraph Styles, choose a paragraph style to apply to the associated table of contents entries.

You might want to create a character style that formats the page number. You can then select this style in the Style pop‑up list to the right of Page Number. (See Add paragraph and character styles.)

If you want the page numbers of the TOC to include prefixes, or to use a different numbering convention, see Define section numbering.

Between Entry And Number Specify which characters you want between the table of contents entry and its page number. The default is ^t, which tells InDesign to insert a tab. You can choose other special characters, such as Right Indent Tab or Em Space, in the pop‑up list.

You might want to create a character style that formats the space between the entry and the page number. You can then select this style in the Style pop‑up list to the right of Between Entry And Number. (See Add paragraph and character styles.)

If the entry’s paragraph style includes a tab leader setting, and if the tab character (^t) is selected, a tab leader appears in the generated table of contents.

Select this option to sort table of contents entries in the selected style alphabetically. This option is useful for creating simple lists, such as lists of advertisers. Nested entries (Level 2 or 3) sort alphabetically within their group (Level 1 or 2, respectively).

By default, each item added to the Include Paragraph Styles box is set one level lower than the item immediately above it. You can change this hierarchy by specifying a new level number for the selected paragraph style. This option adjusts only the display in the dialog box. It has no effect on the final table of contents unless the list is alphabetized, in which case the entries are sorted by level.

Select this option if you want the table of contents entries to appear in the Bookmarks panel of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader® when the document is exported to PDF.

Select this option if you want all TOC entries to be run into a single paragraph. A semicolon followed by a space (; ) separates the entries.

Select this option to replace all existing table of contents stories in the document. Deselect this option if you want to generate a new table of contents, such as a list of figures.

Select this option only if you want the paragraphs on hidden layers to be included in your table of contents. This is useful when creating a list of advertisers or illustrations that may not appear as visible text in the document itself. Deselect this option when you’ve used layers to store various versions or translations of the same text.

Select this option to to create a single table of contents for all documents in the book list, and to re-number the book's pages.  

Select this option to remove the forced line break used to make lines and pages break at certain points.

If your table of contents includes a paragraph style that uses numbering, specify whether the TOC entry includes the full paragraph (both number and text), only the numbers, or only the paragraph.

Create TOC entries with tab leaders

Entries in a table of contents are often formatted with dots or tab leaders separating the entry from its associated page number.

Create a paragraph style with a tab leader

Update and edit a table of contents

The table of contents is like a snapshot of content in your document. If page numbers in your document change, or if you edit headings or other elements associated with table of contents entries, you’ll need to regenerate the table of contents to update it.

Update a table of contents

Editing a table of contents

If your table of contents requires editing, edit the actual paragraphs in the document—not the table of contents story—and then generate a new table of contents. If you edit the table of contents story, you’ll lose your revisions when you generate a new table of contents. For the same reason, you should edit the styles used to format the table of contents entries, rather than formatting the table of contents directly.