WD: Only the First Letter Appears in Table of Contents Entry

ID: Q168809

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
Microsoft Word for Windows NT, version 6.0
Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, versions 5.0, 5.1, 5.1a, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.1a
Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

In the table of contents, only the first letter of a long entry is shown.

For example, the incorrect table of contents shows as the following:

   Setting up a printer on a system....................53
   S...................................................54

However, the correct table of contents should show as the following:

   Setting up a printer on a system....................53
   Setting up a printer in Trend.......................54

CAUSE

You may experience this problem when the Table of Contents (TOC) field references the same heading text as an Index Entry (XE) field, and when the text referenced contains more than 255 characters.

WORKAROUND

Move the Index Entry (XE) fields before the text that is used to build the Table of Contents.

NOTE: In the following examples, the text "Setting up a printer in Trend" is the text that should be shown in the Table of Contents.

Normally the XE fields would follow the table of contents text as in the following example:

   Setting up a printer in Trend { XE "printer:setting up on Trend" }{ XE
   "Trend:setting printers" }{ XE "System Administrator:Printers Setup
   (SASP):using Trend to set up printers" }{ XE "Printers Setup, System
   Administrator:using Trend to set up printers" }{ XE "Setup, System
   Administrator:Printers:using Trend to set up printers" }

Move the XE fields to the left of the table of contents text as in this example:

   { XE "printer:setting up on Trend" }{ XE "Trend:setting printers" }{ XE
   "System Administrator:Printers Setup (SASP):using Trend to set up
   printers" }{ XE "Printers Setup, System Administrator:using Trend to set
   up printers" }{ XE "Setup, System Administrator:Printers:using Trend to
   set up printers" } Setting up a printer in Trend

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about table of contents and index entries, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q143301
   TITLE     : Entries Missing from Table of Contents

   ARTICLE-ID: Q154025
   TITLE     : WD: How to Have More Than One Index in a Document

   ARTICLE-ID: Q125937
   TITLE     : WD: How to Create a Table of Contents and Index with Field
               Codes

Additional query words: lost missing gone one letter character line item

Keywords          : kbui kbfield 
Version           : 5.0 5.1 5.1a 6.0 6.0.1 6.0.1a 98 | 6.0 6.0a 6.0c 7.0 7.0a 97
Platform          : MACINTOSH WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: April 9, 1998