Multiple TOCs in One Doc, Without Using Sections?

Question

I'm compiling about 1600 pages worth of checklists. In addition to the main TOC (alphabetical), I need to create a TOC that organizes the checklists by topic. Some of the checklists apply to multiple topics. As a random example, a "basketball" checklist would appear in the topical categories for "team sports," "things to do outside," and "gym activities." Can I do this in Word? I don't think it works to use sections because the checklists that relate to the same topics aren't necessarily grouped together.

Answer 1

For each special TOC topic that you need, choose a single letter as an identifier. For your examples, you might choose "s" for sports, "o" for outside, and "g" for gym. That letter needs to be placed in an \f switch in the field code for that topic's TOC. (For more about field codes and switches, see http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/TOCSwitches.htm#BehindCurtain and https://support.office.com/en-us/article/field-codes-toc-table-of-contents-field.) 

To limit the items in these TOCs to just the ones in TC fields, remove the \o switch that's the default for including headings. If you use the Custom Table of Contents dialog to create the tables, you can do this by clicking the Options button, checking the "Table entry fields" box, and clearing the "Styles" and "Outline levels" boxes.

Then you need to create TC fields for each checklist -- one field for each topic into which that checklist fits. So the basketball checklist would need three TC fields, each with one of the identifier letters, again in an \f switch (see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/field-codes-tc-table-of-contents-entry-field.)

Answer 2

You might also consider using an Index. Whereas Tables of Contents sort their entries by content order, Indexes sort them alphabetically, with indexed entries for the same topic grouped together.

Answer 3

For another reference on TC fields, see http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/TOCTips.htm#TCFields.

Answer 4

That is some great thinking Jay.

My understanding is that this is to deal with a situation where there are multiple checklists, some of which help with multiple subjects and being able to do a TOC for each subject that includes only the checklists for that subject.

My thought was that this was how indices work, but your solution is ingenious.

I've added a link to my page on tables of contents to this thread. In some ways it is similar to how you would have to approach the problem of a figure or illustration that needs to go in a Table of Figures and a Table of Tables.