Are your ToC entries all or part of a heading/paragraph?

[CrisB]

Since the Navigator/ToC panel on the left of the window is usually far too narrow to show any more than a couple of words, see attached image, my ToC entries are mostly only a few words from a heading or paragraph. I very rarely print documents or use Tools/Table of Contents/Insert TOC, I mostly use ToC entries in the Navigator panel as a superb way to navigate around a document.

If you use Navigator/ToC entries, please post to say which you use as a TOC entry more frequently:

1) an entire paragraph or
2) just several words from a heading or paragraph

Why do I ask? To gain support to reverse a rather unusual default option in NWP.

Usually when you select something, your next action applies to the selected text - but NOT with ToC entries. If you position the cursor at the end of an existing ToC entry (selecting nothing) and then go remove ToC, instead of just applying no ToC to any text you then insert, NWP by default removes ToC from the WHOLE entry.

This unusual behavior is because most users are believed to use entire paragraphs - rather than selected words in a paragraph - for most ToC entries. But are most documents actually printed nowadays? Is a full Insert ToC in the document the main use of a ToC , or are ToC entries now more often being used for intra-document navigation as in the screen-shot below?

So please post your response to show whether or not Nisus need to reconsider this unusual NWP behavior here.

Thanks a million for your help.
Warm regards, Cris

[Þorvarður]

Since the Navigator/ToC panel on the left of the window is usually far too narrow to show any more than a couple of words, see attached image, my ToC entries are mostly only a few words from a heading or paragraph.

To enlarge the Navigator Pane, drag the vertical line to the right (see the 2 screen shots below).

[CrisB]

Thanks, Bovardur. Yes, I've known I can widen the Navigator pane for many years now. But the wider you make it, the less space you have for the content. That's why I said it's "usually" far too narrow...

But it would be great to know If you use TOC entries in the Navigator pane to navigate around a long document, and if so which do you use as a TOC entry more frequently:

1) an entire paragraph [NOT just the heading] or

2) just several words from a heading or paragraph

I appreciate your response here.
Cris

[Þorvarður]

Hi Cris,

Sorry if I misunderstood. -- I use TOC entries in the Navigator pane extensively in documents longer than two pages. If the document was not created by me, for example text documents downloaded from Gutenberg, I use the original structure in the document. I would then use Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, etc. as TOC entries. I see no reason why I should use "just several words from a heading" and not the whole heading. However, if the document was created by myself, I might use a few meaningful words from a paragraph as a TOC entry, as long as I am not going to insert a TOC in the text body.

You wrote:
"If you position the cursor at the end of an existing ToC entry (selecting nothing) and then go remove ToC, instead of just applying no ToC to any text you then insert, NWP by default removes ToC from the WHOLE entry."

I'm sure it's my fault, but I find it hard to understand your problem. Do you perhaps *first* assign the TOC property and THEN start writing? If yes, then do it the other way around: Write the text first, then highlight the few words you want to include in the TOC. There is no need to "go remove TOC". That does not make any sense.

As far as using a whole, long paragraph as a TOC entry …, well you can do that, of course, as long as you are just creating means to navigate in a long document. Clicking on the TOC entry in the Navigator pane would then select the whole paragraph in the text body. Some people might like that, others might not like it.

Kind regards,
Þorvarður

[phspaelti]

Cris,
I believe the problem is that TOC is in fact a paragraph feature, and therefore can't "really" be applied to a limited subset of characters. Notice for example that Nisus does not allow TOC be applied to a a character style (only to paragraph styles).
I wonder if there is an issue with the RTF specification that doesn't allow for that, or perhaps Nisus could in fact make it a real character feature. You should probably send this as a feature request.

[Hamid]

You can also apply TOC to any contiguous selection only within a paragraph. To do that you have to use the Reference Tools palette:

TOCselectionOnly.gif (19.71 KiB) Viewed 8755 times

[martin]

Yes, NWP will allow you to just mark part of a paragraph's text for TOC inclusion, so long as that part is contiguous.

The behavior that Cris dislikes is how if you do not have an explicit selection (ie: you have just an insertion point) then NWP assumes you want the whole paragraph either added or removed from the TOC. We presume that most users prefer to have entire paragraphs in the TOC, so this is designed as a convenience, which you can override using an explicit selection.