Customizing a table of contents

OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Chapter 12: Tables of Contents, Indexes, and Bibliographies

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• Tables of contents
• Customizing a table of contents
• Using the Index/Table page
• Using the Entries page
• Using the Styles, Columns, and Background pages
• Maintaining a table of contents
• Alphabetic indexes
• Customizing index entries
• Customizing the appearance of an index
• Maintaining an index
• Other types of indexes
• Bibliographies
• Creating a bibliographic database
• Adding a reference (citation) into a document
• Formatting the bibliography
• Defining the paragraph style for the bibliography
• Updating and editing an existing bibliography

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Almost every aspect of the table of contents can be customized to suit the style and requirements of your document. However, with the flexibility also comes some complexity and it is good to have in mind the desired end result.

Start by clicking in the document where you want the table of contents to appear and choose Insert > Indexes and Tables > Indexes and Tables to open the Insert Index/Table dialog box shown in below.

You can also access this dialog box at any time by right-clicking anywhere in an existing table of contents and choosing Modify from the pop-up menu.

Index/Table page of Insert Index/Table dialog box.

The Insert Index/Table dialog box has five pages. Each of them covers a different aspect of the TOC structure and appearance:

• Use the Index/Table page to set the attributes of the TOC, most importantly the type of index.
• Use the Entries and Styles pages to format the entries in the TOC.
• Use the Columns page to put the TOC into more than one column.
• Use the Background page to add color or a graphic to the background of the TOC.

You can display a preview box, located on the left-hand side of each page, to show as you work how the TOC will look. (If you do not see the preview box, select the Preview option in the lower right-hand corner of the dialog box.) The illustrations in this chapter show the dialog box as it appears with the preview box hidden.

After making all your changes, click OK to apply them. If you need to revert to the default settings, click the Reset button.