Getting very frustrated with Word 2007 automatic TOC .... help pretty please?

General Questions
#1

Hello again… so I’m editing this book as a freelance job and I’ve done everything except fix the table of contents. I’ve never used Word (2007)'s automatic table of contents feature before, so I’m learning as I go…

Anyway, everything is fine except that the second chapter, for some bizarre reason, is missing the long line of periods before the page number… so it looks like this:

etc…

I’ve tried everything… Chapter 2’s heading is Heading 1 same as the rest, there is a page break exactly like every other chapter has… why is that one chapter behaving differently in the TOC? AAAAARRG!! I’ve been banging my head on the table for like an hour now trying to fix this… I’ve watched umpteen tutorials on Word’s TOC, and nothing has helped.

Anyone have any ideas? I’m completely at a loss… :frowning:

#2

The actual TOC itself does say “Chapter” not “Chatper”, right?

#3

I don’t know why, but I have a suggestion for a cure I’ve used in similar situations. Create a new section break, chapter heading, etc. between current chapter 2 and 3. Copy everything but the header for chapter 2 and paste it after the newly created heading. Create a new TOC. Hope that it now shows a bad chapter 2 and a nice new chapter 3 that works right. Delete the original chapter 2.

#4

I found a forum for getting help with MS Office stuff, and we figured out that the problem was that the chapter name (they all have names, they’re not called “Chapter 1” etc.) was too short, and wasn’t hitting the tab mark… because for some reason that matters? Anyway, changing the tab from .5 to .3 or something like that fixed it. Bizarre.

#5

Of course it would, if the TOC is being generated as text instead of actual table format. You know, type one letter, followed by a tab, then another letter or word, and watch what happens as you add letters before the tab. Tweak the tab stops in the ruler, then it might make some sense.

#6

Quick & dirty solution. Click in the left margin next to one of the TOC lines that is correct, so that the entire line is selected. Click on the format painter button. Now click in the margin next to the line that is different to highlight the entire line. If it still looks the same then type in a tab character before the page number.

This will have to be repeated if you regenerate the TOC.

#7

If there is no tab after the 2, put a tab there. Then do the format painter thing that cooking with gas recommends.

If the same thing happens when you rerun the TOC, then go to Chapter 2 in the document and reapply the style. That should fix it permanently.