How to Create a Table of Contents in InDesign

Would you like to learn how to create a table of contents in InDesignCatalogs, magazines or periodicals often have a large number of pages. To give the reader a good overview, a summary is placed on the first three pages of the document.

This software includes a convenient feature for this to automatically create a table of contents. This saves a lot of time during design. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use this feature and what are the prerequisites for creating a table of contents in InDesign.

Summary in Adobe InDesign

The more pages a catalog or chapter book contains, the longer the summary will be. If you manually enter the topics covered with page numbers in the content, this may take some time. But, to save you this tedious work, Adobe InDesign offers the function "Summary" to automatically generate the summary from paragraph formats.

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Prerequisites for creating a table of contents in InDesign

Two conditions are required for InDesign to include the desired content in the brief.

1. First, each page to be included in the abstract must be in the same document as the abstract itself. In the case of a 60-page paper, your document must include all 60 pages.
2. The second condition is that the text must be formatted correctly. This means that all content, such as headings or body text, must have its own paragraph format and be created accordingly.

Examples for creating a table of contents in InDesign

Now, let's look at the examples for creating a table of contents in InDesign. In this example, an outline will be created for a three-page golf article. The outline should include the following: subtitles.

• Step 1:: In InDesign, first click on Page Setup in the toolbar and then in Content.
• Step 2:: As soon as the toolbar opens, you can use the button More options to display more formatting options.

Table of Contents Title in InDesign

In the input box Title, you can now enter a title for your summary. By default, this field contains “Content«. However, you also have the option to leave this field blank, as in this example, since the term "Summary" already appears in the summary design.

Summary formats in the table of contents in InDesign

You can now select from the list on the right via Formats en Content one of the paragraph formats you have previously created and transfer it to the list Include formats of paragraph through the button Add.

In this example, the paragraph format "Qualification" and then "Caption" are transferred first. For this table of contents in InDesign, this means that all texts that have been assigned the paragraph format "Qualification" o "Caption" will be included in the table of contents regardless of which page they are on.

Assign a new format to the table of contents in InDesign

The title you want to transfer to the content will first be saved exactly as you specify it in the paragraph format "Qualification"The same goes for the subtitle.

Paragraph formats

• Step 1:: To make the summary a little clearer, first click on the title paragraph format in Include paragraph formats and then select the paragraph format in which the title should be formatted from the drop-down menu Input format.

In this example, the paragraph format is assigned "Caption" to the title included in the abstract and the paragraph format "Text" to the title included in the abstract. In Input format, you can also specify whether the page number should appear before or after the text.

Place the summary in the table of contents in InDesign

• Step 1:: To place the summary, confirm in the toolbar by clicking on Accept.
• Step 2:: Then you will see that the summary is attached to the mouse pointer.
• Step 3:: Now you can place it by clicking anywhere in the document.

NOTE: : If your paragraph formats have been created correctly, you should now see your respective subheadings listed with the corresponding page number.

Formatting a Summary in the Table of Contents in InDesign

The next step is to format the generated summary so that the text is aligned to the left and the page number to the right. As is usual in summaries, these two elements should be connected by a dotted line.

• Step 1:: First draw the text block with the summary as you want to define it and then copy the value of the width of the text block.

Hide Title Page Number in Table of Contents in InDesign

• Step 1:: Then reopen the toolbar Content through Designer and click on the title.
• Step 2:: The title page number is not mandatory, so you can open the drop-down menu in Page number and select No page number.

Align the page number with the dotted line on the right

• Step 1:: Click on its title in the toolbar Content and select New paragraph format in the drop-down menu in Input format.
• Step 2:: In this toolbar, first enter a logical name for your paragraph format, for example, "Content".

• Step 3:: Then click on Basic character formats and restores the subtitle to the original format, if it was not taken into account automatically.

• Step 4 Define withdrawals: The summary in this example should be indented on the left side. To do this, click on the tab Sangría and spaces and defines a 7 mm left indent.

• Step 5 Using the tab key: Then click on the tab Tabs and select the arrow pointing to the right. By clicking anywhere on the displayed ruler, you can now set an alignment point.
• Step 6:: Next, select the value in the X field and replace it with the value of your text block width that you copied. In this example, the value is 98 mm.
• Step 7 Insert a guide line: In Fill character, you can now define what will be displayed between the text and the page number. Since a dotted line should appear here, but not too narrow, you will be inserting a space and a period here.

NOTE: : This means that at the end of the text, a space and a period will be inserted alternately. This sequence is repeated until the number of right-aligned pages is reached.

• Step 8:: Then confirm by pressing Ok.

Insert a tab for right alignment

About in the middle of the toolbar Content The field is located between text and number, which contains a circumflex and a “T” by default.

For InDesign, this designation is the abbreviation for the program used to insert a tab. However, since the page number must be right-aligned, you must do the following:

• Step 1:: Delete the contents of this field, then open the adjacent drop-down menu and select Tab for right alignment.
• Step 2:: A caret and a y should now appear in the field. As soon as you click on Accept in the toolbar, your formatting will be updated and the table of contents in InDesign will appear clearer and better organized.

Update an outline for the table of contents in InDesign

If you subsequently modify your subtitles, the modification will not be automatically made to the summary.

• Step 1:: To update it, select the summary text block, click Page setup and then in Update summary.

NOTE: : Subheadings will be taken into account again and your InDesign summary will be updated again.

Tips for creating a unique table of contents with Adobe InDesign

Now let’s look at some tips for creating with stylesheets and creating a unique and highly editable table of contents in InDesign.

Setting up your document to create a table of contents in InDesign

• Step 1:: Create a new document, the default settings should work.
• Step 2:: Create a text box, then make the text in the following format: page number, page title, new paragraph and repeat the operation.

NOTE: : You should have something like the following:

Place capital letter styles in the table of contents in InDesign

To create numbers, use uppercase. This way, we don't have to try to align columns or multiple text boxes.

• Create a new character style: In this example it was named “Drop Caps”. Then select a font, size and color as shown below:

Create vertical rules for table of contents in InDesign

You need to create a new line style. In the line options, select «Line styles», then click "New?" To create a new style. The options that have been selected are below.

• Length: determine how you think the line is; the one in this example is quite thick so we can easily see it
• Pattern length: determines how often the stroke repeats. Since you don't want this to repeat, use an extremely high value.
• Corners: In this example the corners are not required, so the option was selected "None".

Paragraph styles for table of contents in InDesign

Next, in the next step, the style will be added to the text associated with the numbers:

• Step 1 Add the basic paragraph style: First, create a new paragraph style: in this example it will be called Table of Contents.
• Step 2: Basic character formats are then added: those in this example are visible below.

• Step 3 Add the vertical rule: To do this, if you still want to change the paragraph style options and go to the tab «Paragraph rules». Make sure that the «rule over» is marked for «previous rule». These are the options:
  • Weight:will change the height of the vertical ruler. In this case, you want the ruler to match the numbers.
  • Displacement:This is the vertical offset. Here you want the ruler to extend slightly above the text, so you enter a negative value.
  • Left Indent:This will move the line from the left edge, in this case you want to insert the ruler so that it is closer to the text than the numbers.
• Step 4:: Then, in the drop-down menu "Guy", select the line style created previously.

• Step 5 Add the capital letters: Now you need to add the capital letter: in the paragraph style, you need to go to the tab "Capital letters".
  • Lines:determines how many lines your number will take up.
  • Characters:determines how many characters will be capital letters; here three have been selected, and that will be explained shortly.

• Step 6:: Add a character color.

Apply styles to the table of contents in InDesign

As you may have noticed, nothing has been done yet. Follow these steps below:

• Step 1:: So now select all your text (numbers included) and apply your paragraph style to "Table of Contents". You should now have something pretty ugly like this:

• Step 2:: Then add some columns to make it make a little more sense.

Cleanup time for table of contents in InDesign

To solve this problem, you just need to put returns after each item. You will notice that it still seems to be off. If you remember the paragraph style, a drop cap has been added that affects the first three characters. Well, this was done so that numbers could be aligned. You can align them left or right; tabs or spaces should be added where appropriate.

• Justified:To make all numbers right-justified, simply add tabs after each number. For single digits, you must add a single space between the number and the tab. (# + space + tab = 3). Then, adjust your tabs on the paragraphs, so that everything is aligned.

• Left justified:To make numbers left-justified, use the exact same process for single-digit numbers, just add a tab before the number instead of a space after. (tab + # + tab = 3). Then, align the numbers using the tab settings in your paragraph style.

Final adjustments and variations for the table of contents in InDesign

At this point you'll have something that might work, but there are only two things to make it a little cleaner:

• Limit vertical rule: adjust the length in the “Line Style” menu.
• Add a vertical aspect between each element: In paragraph style, add a small space before each element (.2 in.).
• Broken ruler (so not a continuous vertical ruler): after each element, use a soft return instead of a hard return.

Adding numbers in the table of contents in InDesign

That's all well and good, but what can you do if there are more numbers? In fact, it's pretty easy too. Just add another number to the drop cap in the paragraph style and then add the appropriate tabs or spaces. You'll most likely need to adjust the vertical rule insertion as well as the tab settings.

• E.g.: for three digits: uppercase = 4, single digit number format (tab + tab + # + tab = 4), two digits (tab + ## + tab = 4) and triple digits (### + tab = 4).

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Conclusion:

What makes this technique so powerful is that the entire table of contents in InDesign is controlled by a single paragraph, character, and line style; changes to the table of contents are therefore extremely effective. We hope that this tutorial has been helpful for your future projects.