Right aligning TOC page numbers (Word 2003)

[jmt356]

Hello all,

Sometimes, when I update my TOCs, which are always set to realign the page numbers with a tab leader consisting of a series of dots, the numbers shift to the left and the tab leader disappears. It gives the appearance of the numbers appearing just to the right of the last letter of the item in the TOC, although I suspect it is right aligned according to some kind of tab function that allows the last character to appear only so far to the right.

Does anyone know why Word does this? It is quite arbitrary. Sometimes, when I update the TOC, the problem disappears, and the numbers flush to the right as is normal. At other times, they stay crunched up next to the TOC entries. Do I have to clear the tab stops?

Sincerely,

JMT

[macropod]

Hi JMT,

Yes, you need to make sure you've got the tab stops set correctly, especially if some TOC entries occupy more than one line and the second line is offset from the first.

[HansV]

TOCs are rather finicky. One of the causes is that Word sets the right-aligned tabs in the TOC as direct formatting instead of as part of the style definition for the TOC1, TOC2 etc. styles. Another one is that the TOC styles are set to update automatically, so that an accidental change to a paragraph in the TOC will update the style.

Accordingly, there are some steps you can take to make the TOC behave more consistently.
- Activate the Styles and Formatting task pane.
- Click near the page number near a level 1 TOC entry. You should see TOC1 in the box at the top of the task pane.
- Right-click TOC1 and select Modify... from the popup menu.
- Clear the check box "Automatically update".
- Select Tabs from the Format dropdown.
- Set a right-aligned tab with tab position corresponding to the right margin (with Letter paper and 1" margins, the tab position would be 6.5")
- Don't forget to specify dots as tab leader.
- OK your way out.
- Repeat for the other TOC levels you use.

[jmt356]

Thank you!