WD97: Tabs in Heading Styles Look Wrong in Table of Contents

ID: Q171982

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

Page numbers in the table of contents may wrap to the next line if the text that has been designated to be included in the table of contents contains tabs.

CAUSE

By default, the TOC style used to create table of contents entries contains two tab stops: one at .5-inch and another at the right margin. If the text that the TOC entry is being created from contains more than .5-inches of text before it reaches the tab, then the first tab in the text will cause the text after the tab to appear at the right margin in the table of contents, and the page number will wrap to the next line.

WORKAROUND

To correct this problem, in the table of contents entry, drag the .5-inch tab marker to the desired location. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Position the insertion point on the line in the table of contents that

   is incorrectly formatted.

2. On the ruler, click on the .5-inch tab marker and drag it to the

   right until it is slightly beyond the text that is on the left side of
   the table of contents entry.

For example, if the document text that was tagged for a table of contents entry is "INTRODUCTION <tab> DAY 1," drag the .5-inch tab to just beyond the word INTRODUCTION (about 1.25 inches on the ruler). This should correct the table of contents entry so that it resembles the following:

              tab                                                 tab
               |                                                   |
               |                                                   |
              \ /                                                 \ / 
               V                                                   V
 0----------1----------2----------3----------4----------5----------6

 INTRODUCTION->DAY 1...............................................1

Because the TOC styles of the table of contents entries are defined by default to have "Automatically Update" enabled, changing one occurrence of the TOC style will automatically change all occurrences of this style.

STATUS

This functionality is by design of Microsoft Word 97 and is different from functionality in Microsoft Word 6.x and 7.x. In Microsoft Word 6.x and 7.x, tabs in table of contents entries are replaced with a single space.

Microsoft Word 97 will retain the space in the table of contents entry, but it may cause formatting problems in certain situations.

MORE INFORMATION

The following example illustrates how this may happen.

Correct Formatting

If you enter the following text and format it with a style that you will base a table of contents on (for example, Heading 1)

   INTRO <tab> DAY 1

and you then create a table of contents based on that (Heading 1 in this example), the following may occur:

   The TOC style of the table of contents will be formatted with a tab stop
   at .5-inch and one at the right margin. If you formatted your document
   on 8.5-by-11-inch paper with 1.25-inch left and right margins, the ruler
   settings will resemble the following example.

      tab                                                         tab
       |                                                           |
       |                                                           |
      \ /                                                         \ / 
       V                                                           V
 0----------1----------2----------3----------4----------5----------6

 INTRO->Day 1......................................................1

Incorrect Formatting

If you enter the following text and format it with a style that you will base a table of contents on (for example, Heading 1)

   INTRODUCTION <tab> DAY 1

and you then create a table of contents based on the style you used for the text, the following may occur:

   The TOC style of the table of contents will be formatted with a tab stop
   at .5-inch and one at the right margin. If you format your document as
   8.5-by-11 inches with 1.25 inch left and right margins, the ruler
   settings will look like this:

      tab                                                         tab
       |                                                           |
       |                                                           |
      \ /                                                         \ / 
       V                                                           V
 0----------1----------2----------3----------4----------5----------6

 INTRODUCTION           -->                                    DAY 1
 ......1

NOTE: Because the word "INTRODUCTION" is longer than .5-inch, the tab between INTRODUCTION and DAY is moved to the next tab stop (at 6.0 inches), and the page number wraps to the next line.

REFERENCES

For more information about automatically updating styles, click the Office Assistant, type "automatically updating styles," click Search, and then click "Have Word automatically update styles."

For more information about tabs in a table of contents, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q110418
   TITLE     : Tabs Not Included in Table of Contents or Index

   ARTICLE-ID: Q167620
   TITLE     : WD97: TOC Styles Don't Have Tab Stop When Applied Manually

For more information about creating and formatting a table of contents, click the Office Assistant, type "table of contents," click Search, and then click one of the topics.

NOTE: If the Assistant is hidden, click the Office Assistant button on the Standard toolbar. If Word Help is not installed on your computer, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q120802
   TITLE     : Office: How to Add/Remove a Single Office
               Program or Component

Additional query words: tc fields figures authorities

Keywords          : word97 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: December 18, 1998