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Table of Contents/Index problems

Anonymous
2023-03-03T20:29:13+00:00

Hello,

So I'm using Word to create a fairly large document of almost 700 pages. To facilitate navigation I have created a table of contents and an index, but I'm facing two issues:

  1. The format of the index entries seems to be random. Some are written in Italics and in others have some (but not all) of their page numbers written in superscript. I tried to figure out what causes these inconsistencies, but there doesn't seem to be any logic. For example, none of the words, whose entries are written in italic in the index, are also written in italic in the main text body.
  2. The most important problem is, however, that, every time I update my index, the table of content disappears. Completely, as far as I can tell, it doesn't just become invisible. I can't understand what can cause this problem. Perhaps the index system has been bugged, because of the sheer size of the document?
Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | Windows

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  1. Jay Freedman 207.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-03-04T00:47:06+00:00

    There are "switches" that can be added to XE fields to make the page numbers italic or bold or both (corresponding to the check boxes in the Mark Index Entry dialog), but there is no mechanism for making the page numbers superscript, even if that's what you wanted to do. Something in the document must be damaged to make that happen.

    Additionally, there is no setting that makes the text of the index entry italic. That should happen only if the entry's text inside the XE field code is formatted as italic. Since your screen shots don't include the field codes for any of the entries shown in the index, I can't tell whether that's the case. If not, then something else is causing the unwanted italics; that something may or may not be related to the cause of the superscript numbers.

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  1. Charles Kenyon 166.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-03-04T00:06:49+00:00

    Thank you very much for your quick reply. When I click the ''field codes instead of values option'', I do see what appears to be the codes for the three contents tables I had inserted. All three are otherwise completely invisible.

    As for the index and header problems, I'm not sure how I can create this document, so I took some screenshots that illustrate the problem. The highlighted code of the third image corresponds to a bugged entry (written in Italic and with the page number in superscript.Image

    ***

    You want three identical Tables of Contents?

    If not, delete two of these fields.

    As for the Index,

    Look at the Index marking fields. There will be differences between the entries that have the Italics formatting and those that do not.

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  2. Charles Kenyon 166.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-03-03T21:22:09+00:00

    The index and the Table of Contents are both fields and they are independent of one another unless somehow you have one inside the other. In this case, it would be the Table of Contents being inside the Index.

    This may not be visible.

    What happens if you press Alt+F9? (Fn+Alt+F9 on many computers)

    What do you see?

    How to include a screenshot in your post here in the Microsoft Community

    (press the shortcut again to return to showing the ordinary text)

    Can you perhaps pare down a copy of your document with a few headings and a few index entries and save it on OneDrive or DropBox and post a link here. Make sure it still has the problem.

    Why a sample file is important for troubleshooting - - - - - - - and how to do it.

    Resources:

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-04T10:14:13+00:00

    The table of contents has been posted thrice, because I assumed it had been accidentally deleted. I then realized it just became invisible, once I updated the index. As for the entries, I tried, but I didn't find any differences between the "bugged" and the normal entries. The one I highlighted (Artaxerxes Ier) is a bugged one. It appears in Italic in the index and the reference to this specific page is in susperscript, but I can't find anything wrong. I suppose that, as the other contributor suggested, the document might be damaged.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-03T22:12:20+00:00

    Thank you very much for your quick reply. When I click the ''field codes instead of values option'', I do see what appears to be the codes for the three contents tables I had inserted. All three are otherwise completely invisible.

    As for the index and header problems, I'm not sure how I can create this document, so I took some screenshots that illustrate the problem. The highlighted code of the third image corresponds to a bugged entry (written in Italic and with the page number in superscript.

    0 comments