Maintaining 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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This section shows you how to:

• Edit an existing table of contents
• Update a table of contents when changes are made to the document
• Delete a table of content

Editing a table of contents

To edit an existing table of contents:

1. Right-click anywhere in the TOC.
2. From the pop-up menu, choose Edit Index/Table. The Insert Index/Table dialog box opens and you can edit and save the table as described in the previous section.

If you cannot click in the table of contents, it is probably because it is protected. To disable this protection, choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Formatting Aids, and then select Enable in the Cursor in protected areas section. If you wish to edit the table of contents without enabling the cursor, you can access it from the Navigator.


You can also access the Index/Table dialog box from the Navigator.

1. Open the Navigator (press F5).
2. Click the + sign next to Indexes.
3. Right-click on the desired index and choose Index > Edit.


Access an index from the Navigator.

Updating a table of contents

Writer does not update the table of contents automatically, so after any changes to the headings, you must update it manually. To update a table of contents when changes are made to the document:

1. Right-click anywhere in the TOC.
2. From the pop-up menu, choose Update Index/Table. Writer updates the table of contents to reflect the changes in the document.

You can also update the index from the Navigator by right-clicking on Indexes > Table of Contents1 and choosing Index > Update from the pop-up menu.



Updating a Table of Contents using Navigator.

Deleting a table of contents

To delete the table of contents from a document:

1. Right-click anywhere in the TOC.
2. From the pop-up menu, choose Delete Index/Table. Writer deletes the table of contents.

Writer will not prompt you to confirm the delete! Use caution when deleting a table of contents.

You can also delete the index from the Navigator by selecting Index > Delete from the menu.