Creating a Table of Contents in WordPerfect 8

Creating a table of contents in WordPerfect involves three steps:

1. Mark the headings that you want to include in the table of contents.  This is normally done only once for each heading.
2. Define the position and style of the table of contents.  This is normally done only once for the whole document.
3. Generate the table of contents to incorporate the marked headings with their correct page numbers.  This step is normally done each time you edit the document and print a new copy, in order to update the table of contents to show the current page numbers.

Mark the Headings

Click Tools/Reference/Table of Contents to bring up the Table of Contents toolbar.

Highlight the text entry (usually a heading) that you want to appear in the table of contents, by using the mouse or arrow keys. Keep in mind that any formatting codes included in the marked text are also included in the table of contents entry, so be careful not to include unwanted formatting codes. Avoid including any tabs or indents at the beginning of subheadings. Indentation is handled automatically when the table of contents is generated. It's easiest to avoid including formatting codes by having Reveal Codes on and double checking exactly what you have selected.

Click Mark X on the Table of Contents toolbar, where X is the number corresponding to the level you want for the entry. (e.g., chapter headings might be level 1; major sections level 2; sub-sections level 3). You can define up to 5 levels.

Repeat steps b and c for each entry in your text that you want to appear in the table of contents.

You may leave the Table of Contents toolbar open while you work on editing other parts of the document or you may close it by clicking on the close button on the toolbar. Refer to step a above when you wish to reopen the toolbar.

Define the Table of Contents

Determine the maximum number of levels you used in marking entries for the table of contents.

Place the cursor at the location where you want the table of contents to appear. In most cases you will want the table of contents to appear on a separate page, so you should press Ctrl-Enter to create page breaks both before and after the location, and then place the cursor on the newly created blank page.

If you don't have the Table of Contents toolbar visible, Click Tools/Reference/Table of Contents.

Click Define on the Table of Contents toolbar

Specify the Number of Levels (from 1 to 5) you have determined you want in the table of contents.

Specify a position for the page numbers for each level of the table of contents, then click OK. In most cases you will want to use the default choice which places the page number at the end of the line following dot leaders.

Do not check Display Last Level in Wrapped Format.

Click on OK.

Generate the Table of Contents

If you don't have the Table of Contents toolbar visible, Click Tools/Reference/Table of Contents.

Click Generate on the Table of Contents toolbar.

The Generate Table of Contents dialog box opens. You do not need to have Save Subdocuments checked unless you used a master document to create the paper you are working on. Build Hypertext links does not need to be checked for a standard paper. It is generally for documents that are being published in html format.

Click on OK.

Troubleshooting

Unwanted Formatting

If you see unwanted formatting in the generated table of contents, it is usually caused by extraneous formatting codes that were included in the text that you marked.

Special Formatting

After the table of contents is generated, you can modify its appearance using standard WordPerfect formatting commands.  However, each time you generate the table of contents, the old one is deleted completely, along with any special formatting you may have applied.  Avoid adding special formatting until you are sure you have generated your table of contents for the final time.

Page Numbering Problems

If creating your table of contents changed the page numbering of your document and you want to make the first page of the report to be page 1, click in the page you want to be numbered one. Click Format/Page Numbering/Set Value. Type 1 as the page number and select Always keep number the same.

If you delete or add text to the document that causes the text to move to a different page, the page numbers in the table of contents will be wrong. Click Tools/Reference/Generate to regenerate the table of contents.

Multiple Tables of Contents

Use Generate to update your table of contents when necessary. When you generate, the old table is deleted and replaced with the new one. If you generate and end up with two tables of contents, you may have accidentally deleted the table of contents definition code (leaving the text of the table of contents in the document), and then inserted a new definition code. Then, when you generated again, another copy of the text was created. To correct, delete the unwanted set of Gen Txt codes and table of contents text. Regenerate if necessary.