inDesign Table of Contents auto grabbing character style

Question

I'm just learning the Table of Contents feature in inDesign, and have learned a lot from tutorials but can't figure this one out.

When I create a TOC or update the current TOC, it always defaults to having a character style applied, even though there are none being used through the TOC menu, including the page numbers (thought this was my problem, but no).

I have to update the TOC and then go to the Character Style menu and select none in order for the paragraph formatting for each item to work properly.

Any ideas why it's doing this every time a TOC is applied?

Thanks!

Answer 1

That probably happens because the paragraphs you are listing in the TOC has a Character Style assigned in the text. When the TOC lists them, it grabs not only the textual content but also the character style.

Answer 2

It seems that I can't determine the style of the table. Each time I do "Update the TOC" or even enters the TOC menu, the style inherited from the content of the text is back. The TOC window lacks a specific style to the table, to override the inherited style. What I do is each time, assign the style I want. Boring but it seems ther's a better way, but I can't make it work:

InDesign TOC character styles grabbed from body text Any of these methods, I can't make it work.

Answer 3

You should be able to fix this by specifying a paragraph style for your TOC