19. Creating Tables of Contents and Indexes

Creating a Table of Contents

A table of contents (TOC) is a listing at the beginning of a document (usually) that shows all the headings of a certain level and higher and their page numbers. This book has one, and so does almost every other technical book. Don’t confuse a TOC with an index, covered later in the chapter; an index appears at the end of the document (again, usually) and shows an alphabetical list of topics and their page numbers. Figure 19.1 shows a typical TOC. It contains multiple levels and uses dot leaders to align the entries with the right-aligned page numbers.

Figure 19.1 A typical TOC.

Checking Style Outline Levels

The key to generating an accurate TOC is making sure the document ...

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