Table of Contents-Why does using the right indent suddenly indent my page number?

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Table of Contents-Why does using the right indent suddenly indent my page number?

Anonymous

Let me just say that I do Tables of Contents a lot. To keep the multi-line headings from sitting on top of the page number on the right, I usually use the right indent to adjust this - and which looks so much better - and the page number stays put at the designated margin. For some reason, sometimes this does not work, and when I adjust the right indent it then indents the page number instead, despite the fact that the right tab stop is aligned at the right margin, so is set to further out, and there are no intervening tab stops.

Basically I am following these directions: https://www.officetooltips.com/word_365/tips/how_to_customize_table_of_contents.html#overlapping

but for some reason it then indents the page number, even though that is not the designated tab stop for the page number.

Why is it doing this and how can I fix it?

Thanks you.

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Answer 1

Ok, I figured out what the problem is, and let's just say it was user error...

Apparently I had the right align tab set to 6.5" when it should have been set to 5.5". As soon as I corrected that and set the indent at 0.3" everything works as it should.

My apologies, and thank you all so very much for your help and input!

Answer 2

Stefan is correct. However, you cannot move a right tab outside the right indent using the Ruler in recent versions of Word. To do that you need to use the tabs dialog.

http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/SettingTabs.htm

This is a link to a trusted Word MVP website or blog. It contains accurate safe information that I think will help you.

Answer 3

Stefan Blom 339.3K MVP Volunteer Moderator

Which version of Office are you running?

You should be able to set a right-aligned tab stop at the margin location and also apply a right indent to the text, as illustrated below.

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Answer 4

Hello Sabine,

You are following good instructions but may need a bit of tweaking.

This forum is a user-to-user support forum. My name is Charles and I am a fellow user with decades of experience using Microsoft Word. I have written extensively on using Word and have authored help articles on the Microsoft site.

There is both a right-tab and a right-indent there. You need to move the right-indent without moving the right-tab. Probably the best way to do this is to use the paragraph formatting dialog rather than the Ruler.

The formatting is contained in the various TOC styles, TOC 1-9. By default, these styles automatically update so that when you change one entry, it changes the formatting for all entries of the same level.

I hope this information helps.

Please let me know if you have any more questions or require further help.

You can ask for more help by replying to this post (Reply button below).

Stay well

Answer 5

I'm running Office 365 which updates automatically.

The tab is set to right align with dots at 6.5".

But when I use the paragraph formatting box (I don't use the indent symbol on the ruler) to add an indent of 0.3" so that the text doesn't go over the page number, then it moves the page number to where I specified the indent to be - even though the tab is still set at 6.5". This is why I am stumped.

Also, it only does it with some of the TOCs, not all of them. Some of them work properly and indent properly; some of them when indented instead indent the page number. But tab is still set at 6.5" even though the page number indents to the Paragraph formatting indent set.

I'm also a long time and advanced Word user. Which is why this makes no sense. Only started doing this recently.

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Table of Contents-Why does using the right indent suddenly indent my page number?

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