TOC Page Number Alignment

[paulb22558018]

Hello fellow inDesign users,

I'm having a bit of trouble setting up a List of Effective Pages (LEP) for a multi-document Book file. I'm using the Table of Contents (TOC) tool with a specific style coupled with specific paragraph styles to accomplish what I need. It's worked out for me pretty well so far, there's just one minor thing that I would like to change. First let me draw you a picture of what the LEP looks like.

The LEP consists of 3 columns; Column 1 is the section number, Column 2 is the page number, and column 3 is the change date. So, it looks something like this:

SECTION NUMBER                              PAGE                          DATE

01-01-01                                              1                                Nov 7/2016

                                                             2                                Nov 7/2016

01-01-02                                              201                            Nov 7/2016

                                                            202                            Nov 7/2016         

As you can see, some of my page numbers are 3-digit numbers. Currently, they're lining up at the first digit. I want them to line up at the last digit. Like this:

               Instead of:                                                                                     I want:

                                             1                                                                                                    1

                                             2                                                                                                    2

                                             201                                                                                            201

                                             202                                                                                            202

The method I used to get to where I am is to have the section number paragraph style with no page number followed by the date paragraph style with the page number listed before. It's a minor thing, but it will irritate me if I can't figure it out.  Any help you can provide would be most appreciated. Thanks.

[Willi Adelberger]

Use a right aligned tabulator stop or a numeric comma stop.

[Barb Binder]

Begin by turning on text symbols. Set the alignment to Left and remove all but a single tab between the columns. For your table you want a total of two tab characters per line. Don't worry how messy it looks.

Select the body of the LEP and open Type > Tabs. Add a Right align tab where you want the second column to go, and a left align tab where you want the third column to go. Add a tab by clicking, change the alignment in the Tab Well at the far left. Drag tabs left/right to reposition, and drag extra tabs out of the ruler to remove them. (Two total!)

I used center tabs for the heading.

[paulb22558018]

Thanks Barb. What you did looks awesome. Unfortunately, my set up is a little bit different. Instead of trying to draw you a picture, I just took a snapshot of the actual file. For this example, we'll just call the "Ch-Se-Su" section "Section Number".

Because of the way I have my chapter files set up, I had to bring in the Section Number and Date as their own entities in the Table of Contents Style tool. I set the Page Number option for the Section Number to "No Page Number". I set the Page Number option for the Change Date to "Before Entry", as seen here:

All of this gets me the correct information in the correct columns. The only issue I'm having is the alignment of the numbers. I want them to align on the decimal instead of on the first digit.

I've tried a Right Indent Tab (^y) instead of a Tab Character (^t) in the "Between Entry and Number" field, but it doesn't change the alignment. I've also played with the Paragraph Style listed in the "Entry Style" field, but I just can't seem to get it to work.

Also, I want to make sure that I'm not going to have to redo the formatting for this every time I update the TOC/LEP. I'm trying to create a baseline template for my entire department. I'm one of the smart ones here. If I can't figure it out, I really don't want to let them loose on it.  LOL

Thank you for any help you can provide. I really appreciate it.

[Simply Astute]

Can you provide the file that you have so far? It is difficult to provide a solution without the formatting that you have in place already. I have been tinkering around with this and think that I have the solution but I have no good way to test it without your file.

William

[paulb22558018]

Modelbaseguy,

Unfortunately, the information in these files is proprietary. So I can't share the original files. I can build some dummy files for testing. However, as the TOC and LEP are their own separate files in a book which interrogate the other files in the book, that would be about 6 separate files. Is there a way to share all of that on here?

[Simply Astute]

Paulb22558018,

     My apologies but I have been distracted with a major project. I am deeply sorry that I have not responded sooner. I know what it is like when you cannot find or receive the help that you need when you need it.

I completely understand about the proprietary nature of your work. The solution I was working on would work on a single InDesign file or book with separate files. I do not know of how or if you could share files here. If you still require assistance you could email me the files at everhartw@astute-digital.com and I will be happy to investigate the situation and apply my possible solution.

Once again, my sincerest of apologies for not responding to you sooner.

[Barb Binder]

How are you getting the two paragraphs on the first line to appear on the same line? a baseline shift?

In any case, you need a tab in front of the numbers to give them a right alignment. That isn't a feature in the table of contents set up dialog box, but you could add a tab automatically using bullets and numbering. Use it to automatically add a tab in front of the page numbers but not the bullet or a number.