Learn to troubleshoot TOCs and lists in Adobe FrameMaker.
Minor problems in the source document may cause corresponding problems in the list. For example, an incorrectly tagged paragraph may cause an extra entry to appear in the list or to be missing from it. Or an empty paragraph may cause an extra line to appear in the list.
Incorrect formatting in the source document can cause extra paragraphs to appear in a list such as a table of contents. To correct this, do the following:
If the list contains an entry that doesn’t belong there, check the corresponding paragraph style or marker type in the source document and either apply a different format to the paragraph or change the marker type.
If the list contains an extra line with only a page number, delete the corresponding empty paragraph in the source document. If you need extra space between paragraphs in the source document, use the spacing properties of the paragraphs’ formats rather than insert an empty paragraph.
To include entries that appear in the source document, but not in the list, do one of the following:
If all entries with a particular paragraph style or marker type are missing, make sure the Include scroll list in the Set Up dialog box contains the correct items.
If an occasional entry is missing, check the style of the corresponding paragraph or element, or the type of the corresponding marker in the source document. If any of these are incorrect, the information won’t be included in the list.
A multiline heading in the source document can be a problem if the line breaks were created by pressing Return so that each line is a separate paragraph. The list will contain an entry for each paragraph in the heading. Fixing the list requires using only one paragraph for the heading in the source document.
Avoid using forced returns in a heading; forced returns appear in the generated TOC. Instead, to force a heading to break into two lines where you want, change the right indent of the heading paragraph in the source document. If the heading is centered, you may want to change both the left and right indents. You can also use nonbreaking spaces to force a heading to break acceptably.
When an element contains more than one paragraph, the list includes an entry for only the first paragraph. A multiline heading in the source document can be a problem if each line is a separate paragraph.
Avoid using forced returns in a heading; forced returns appear in the generated TOC. Instead, to break a heading into two lines (while still including all of its text in the list), use nonbreaking spaces to force a break. Or you can adjust the right indent for the heading to force a break, or the right and left indents if the heading is centered, though this will be a format rule override.
If you have a mix of structured XML and unstructured files in a book, sometimes the page numbers are incorrect when you generate a PDF. This problem could be because the pagination information for XML files is obtained from the template and the template could have a dual pagination setting.
To avoid this problem, always open the XML files and then update the book. This way all the components in the book have correct pagination information and the PDF that you then generate also has correct page numbers.
Bad line breaks in the list or its source document may separate information that belongs together in the list. To correct this, do one of the following:
Change the characters after which FrameMaker allows line breaks. For example, FrameMaker normally allows a line break after an en dash (–). To disallow breaks after an en dash, use .
In the special text flow on the reference page, use nonbreaking spaces between the text and page number for each entry so that a page number does not appear on a line by itself. See Edit special text flow for a list or index.
A title you entered may disappear when you regenerate, unless you give the title a paragraph style.
If your formatting changes aren’t retained when you regenerate (see Formatting lists and indexes), do the following:
If you changed the filename or location of the list, change the name and location back. FrameMaker won’t find any formatting changes unless you save the list in the same folder as the source document and use the filename that FrameMaker assigns.
To retain paragraph and character style changes, store them in the list’s Paragraph Catalog or Character Catalog, making them available the next time you generate the list.
To retain other changes, make them in the special text flow, as described in Edit special text flow for a list or index.