InDesign Refresher · Page 7 of 8

Table of contents & final files

Generate a table of contents from your styles, then check, export and package your files.

Table of contents

If every article title uses your Headline style, InDesign can build the table of contents and its page numbers for you.

  1. Make a TOC Entry paragraph style with a right-aligned tab at the right edge of the frame and a leader (a period followed by a space makes a dot leader). Make a TOC Title style too.
  2. Layout > Table of Contents. Type a title and choose TOC Title for its style.
  3. Under Other Styles, add Headline (and Byline if you want authors listed). For each one, set Entry Style to TOC Entry.
  4. Click More Options. Set Page Number to After Entry and the separator to ^t (a tab).
  5. Click OK and click on the contents page to place it.
  6. After you move pages around, choose Layout > Update Table of Contents.
A table of contents generated from the Headline styleThree article spreads whose titles use the Headline paragraph style on pages 4, 10 and 16. An arrow labelled Layout, Table of Contents leads to a contents page listing the three titles with dot leaders and their page numbers.4Headline: The Quiet Witnesspage 410Headline: Field Notespage 1016Headline: Night Swimpage 16Layout >Table ofContentsContentsThe Quiet Witness4Field Notes10Night Swim16TOC Entry style: right tab + dot leader
InDesign finds every paragraph styled as Headline and lists it with its page number.
Try it: the Pulse magazine

The magazine’s contents page must list every title with its page number in order. A generated table of contents keeps those numbers right even after a late change to your page order.

Preflight, export & package

  1. Preflight: watch the dot at the bottom of the document window. Green is good. Red means errors: double-click it to open the Preflight panel and see overset text, missing links or missing fonts.
  2. Export a PDF: File > Export (Cmd+E) > Adobe PDF (Print) > preset [High Quality Print]. Under Marks and Bleeds, check Use Document Bleed Settings (and Crop Marks if your brief asks for them).
  3. Print a booklet (the Pulse magazine): File > Print Booklet > Booklet Type 2-up Saddle Stitch. Check the Preview before you print. This puts the pages in the right order for folding and stapling.
  4. Package: File > Package (Opt+Shift+Cmd+P). Check Copy Fonts, Copy Linked Graphics, Update Graphic Links and Include PDF (Print). Name the folder as your brief says, for example GRPH 340_LastNameFirst_Exercise1_vf.

What your package folder should contain

GRPH 340_LastNameFirst_Exercise1_vf/ ├── Document fonts/ copied by Package ├── Links/ every placed image ├── GRPH 340_LastNameFirst_Exercise1_vf.indd ├── GRPH 340_LastNameFirst_Exercise1_vf.pdf High Quality Print └── Instructions.txt made by InDesign; fine to leave

© Created by Sara Rosenstock, Marietta College Graphic Design.