Wrapping TOC, extra tabs not quite solving all problems

[Shlomo Perets]

Randall,

You wrote:

>I am interested in a real "auto" solution to this issue. It crops up now
>and then and "now" it has cropped up again. None of the tips others have
>left for you work for me either.
>
>I tried the plugin...but for me I might as well just remember to stick in
>manual breaks at the end of the process. Not much difference for me. It's
>not graceful, but it needs to be done.


As far as I know, there is no "auto" solution that covers all aspects, but 
just workarounds with limited success (and some side effects).
Generated files always require inspection upon re-generation, and (at the 
very least) adjustment of page breaks as needed.

Even if all TOC items are just one line long, there is no built-in way to 
prevent a page break after a chapter title followed by one heading, with 
all the other headings placed on the following page. "Keep with next" can 
be applied to ChapterTitleTOC, but is not normally applied to Heading1TOC, 
as otherwise all Heading1 items will be one block (which may be fine in 
certain cases but not as a general rule).

Accessible sample TOCs demonstrating undesirable page breaks can be found 
in the FM7.2 User Guide supplement (where the last item of Chapter 5 is 
placed by itself on page 4), or the FM7.2 Structure Application Developer's 
Guide (where Chapter 21 starts at the bottom of page 10, with one line 
following it).

The TOC in the Structure Application Developer's Guide, set in a 2-column 
format, also demonstrates the problems of longer items split into two lines 
(several items in page 10 have a page number at the beginning of the second 
line).

With respect to the workaround of adding non-breaking spaces to the source 
headings to control their line breaks in the TOC, I would like to note the 
potential side effect on line breaks when these headings are used as the 
source of cross-references (as cross-references retrieve the non-breaking 
spaces, and may themselves be split between lines).
And even when a setup of multiple tab stops is helpful with some 2-line 
entries, it does not prevent the placement of text in the right side in the 
first line (above the page number).

I find CudSpan's TOCBreaker plug-in very useful when the content is stable, 
and Generate/Update is needed frequently.
Even though it is named TOCBreaker, it is equally useful with other types 
of generated files.

Additional notes:
-- There are some additional issues with generated files requiring 
post-processing or manual fixes, such as index-specific issues as well 
character formats retrieved by TOCs and affecting the hypertext active 
area,  see http://www.microtype.com/hmmms.html#0305 ]
-- A different design for the TOC, where entries start with page numbers on 
the left side, may help with the two-line items as well as offer other 
benefits


Shlomo Perets

MicroType, http://www.microtype.com
Training, consulting & add-ons: FrameMaker, Structured FM and Acrobat