How to Create a Table of Contents in FrameMaker

FrameMaker creates tables of contents for you based on the paragraph tags you specify. You can use the Paragraph Designer to format table of contents entries the way you modify other paragraph tags. To modify where the page numbers appear, edit information on the Reference Pages.

Instructions

Generate a Standalone Table of Contents for a FrameMaker File

1. Open the file for which you want to create a table of contents or TOC. FrameMaker uses TOC to distinguish files and paragraph tags that it generates from files and tags that you create.

2. Go to the "Special" menu and select "Table of Contents." A Dialog box asks you if you want to create a stand-alone Table of Contents for the document.

3. Click "Yes" in the dialog box. A dialog box appears that lets you select the paragraph tags that you want to appear in the table of contents.

4. Use the arrow buttons in the dialog box to move the tags you want in your table of contents to the "Include Paragraphs Tagged" area. Move tags you don't want to include to the "Don't Include" list.

5. Click "Set." Frame generates the table of contents in a new file that opens on your screen. The file has the same name as your original file with a ".TOC" ending to show that this table of contents is generated from your original file.

6. Notice that the formatting for each entry of the table of contents is the same. Also, all of the page numbers are immediately after the entry text. There is no distinction between heading levels. You must format the entries to make the different levels distinct.

Create a Table of Contents for a Book file

1. Open your Book file. Select "Add->Table of Contents." A dialog box appears that lets you enter the paragraph tags you want to use in the table of contents.

2. Select the "Add" button. An Update Book dialog box appears. Check only the "Update Numbering" and "Generate Table of Contents, Lists and Indexes" options. Select only the TOC file in the Generate list, if you have indexes or generated list files in the Book file.

3. Use the "Arrow" button to move the paragraph tags you want to use to the "Include Paragraphs Tagged" list. Move the tags you don't want to use to the "Don't Include" list.

4. Click "Update." FrameMaker generates the table of contents file and adds it to the Book file.

Format the Table of Contents Entries

1. Use the Paragraph Designer to format the font, alignment and tab information in the generated table of contents file. For example, you may want the main headings to be a larger font and flush left and the sub-headings a smaller font and indented an inch from the left margin to make the contents easy to scan.

2. Modify the Reference Pages to change where the page number for each entry appears. In the contents file, select "View->Reference Pages" to go the reference page section of the document.

3. Press the Page down key to move through the reference pages until you get to one that has "<$paratext><$pagenum>" entries on it. These are TOC entries created by FrameMaker, "Heading1TOC" for example.

4. Place the insertion point between the "<$paratext><$pagenum>" building blocks and press the "Tab" key. This inserts a tab character between the text and the page number. Add a flush right tab stop at the right margin to this entry. Do this for each entry on the reference page. Nothing changes in the table of contents file until you regenerate it.

5. Go to the original file or Book file and regenerate the table of contents. The table of contents document updates and the page numbers are aligned on the right side of the page.

Tips & Warnings

• FrameMaker creates a new tag for each paragraph tag that you specify for the table of contents. The new paragraph tags are the original tag names with TOC appended to them, for example "Heading1TOC" in the table of contents file corresponds to the "Heading1" paragraph tag in the original file.