Table of contents

A table of contents is an ordinary story that InDesign generated; a TOCStyle records the recipe it was generated from.

In short The recipe is a TOCStyle in Resources/Styles.xml: a title, the paragraph style for the title, and one TOCStyleEntry per paragraph style to collect. Each entry names the style to collect (IncludeStyle), the style to format the entry with (FormatStyle), an outline Level, and how to place the page number. The result is a normal story of styled paragraphs with the page numbers typed out, and the story names the recipe in its AppliedTOCStyle attribute. Nothing in the file updates the list when pages move; regenerating it is the application's job.

The recipe: TOCStyle

A TOCStyle is a direct child of the idPkg:Styles root, with no group element around it. InDesign writes a default one into every document: 271 documents in the census carry one, almost all of them without entries. A document that has a real table of contents adds a style with entries.

• Title is the heading text, and TitleStyle the paragraph style it is set in.
• IncludeHidden decides whether paragraphs on hidden layers count; IncludeBookDocuments extends the collection to the other documents of a book.
• RunIn sets all entries of a level in one paragraph instead of one per line.
• CreateBookmarks turns the entries into PDF bookmarks on export, and MakeAnchor places a text anchor at each source paragraph.
• RemoveForcedLineBreak strips forced line breaks from the collected text, and NumberedParagraphs decides whether a list number is kept.

Attribute · TOCStyle	Values	Paged	paged.set
Name	enum / text	read
Self	TOCStyle reference	read
Title	enum / text	read
TitleStyle	ParagraphStyle reference	read
CreateBookmarks	true	not read
IncludeBookDocuments	false	read
IncludeHidden	false	read
NumberedParagraphs	IncludeFullParagraph	not read
RunIn	false	read
SetStoryDirection	Horizontal	not read

The entries: TOCStyleEntry

Each TOCStyleEntry child of a TOCStyle collects the paragraphs in one paragraph style:

• IncludeStyle is the paragraph style to collect, for example a "Heading 1".
• FormatStyle is the paragraph style the entry is set in. InDesign writes it as an attribute or as a typed Properties child.
• Level is the outline depth, 1 for the top level.
• PageNumber and PageNumberPosition say whether the entry carries a page number and where; Separator is the text between the entry and the number, and SeparatorStyle and PageNumberStyle are the character styles for the two.
• SortAlphabet sorts the entries of a level alphabetically instead of in page order.

Entries are rare in real files: only three documents in the census have any.

Attribute · TOCStyleEntry	Values	Paged	paged.set
FormatStyle	reference	read
Level	integer	read
Name	builtin / enum / text	read
Separator	builtin / text	read
PageNumberPosition	enum	not read
PageNumberStyle in Properties	—	not read
Self	text	not read
SeparatorStyle in Properties	—	not read
SortAlphabet	boolean	not read
IncludeStyle	reference	read

The result: a generated story

Generating a table of contents walks the document's pages, picks every paragraph whose style is an entry's IncludeStyle, and writes one paragraph per match, set in the entry's FormatStyle, followed by the separator and the page number. The title comes first, in TitleStyle. The output is placed in a text frame like any other story.

In the file, that story is ordinary text: ParagraphStyleRanges and CharacterStyleRanges with the entries and page numbers as Content. What marks it as a table of contents is the Story element's AppliedTOCStyle attribute, which names the TOCStyle it came from. Every other story says AppliedTOCStyle="n". In the census, 91 documents write the attribute and one of them points it at a TOC style.

Because the page numbers are typed out, a table of contents goes stale when text moves to other pages, until it is regenerated.

In Paged: a text frame whose AppliedTOCStyle names a TOC style has its story replaced by a fresh list: entries in story order, each with the label of the page its story starts on (section numbering included), set in the entry's FormatStyle. The title paragraph and RunIn are not applied yet. Paged does not yet read the attribute on Story, where InDesign writes it, so a table of contents made in InDesign shows its saved text. Supported · verified

Frequently asked questions

Where is a table of contents defined in IDML? The recipe is a TOCStyle with TOCStyleEntry children in Resources/Styles.xml. The table itself is an ordinary story elsewhere in the package.

How do I find the table-of-contents story in a package? Look for a Story whose AppliedTOCStyle names a TOCStyle. Other stories carry AppliedTOCStyle="n".

Are the page numbers in a table of contents live? No. They are saved as text when the table is generated and are only correct until the pages change.

What does IncludeStyle mean? It names the paragraph style whose paragraphs the entry collects. FormatStyle names the style the collected entry is then set in.

Why does every document have a TOCStyle? InDesign writes a default TOC style into every document, whether or not it contains a table of contents.