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Is there a way to load a table of contents into an actual table? I laid everything out manually in a table, but have to add page numbers and would like to not have to do it manually.

Alternatively, is there a way to load only page numbers into table cells based on paragraph styles that the content appears on?

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  • Wait but the TOC dialog box allows you to automatically add page numbers without the need of a table. Are we missing something? – Lucian Jun 28 '17 at 19:30
  • yeah, I laid out the TOC manually from copy / paste from word into a pretty table in indesign. I'm looking for a way to generate a TOC that loads into a table - or some way to just auto load only the page numbers into the table based on the content's paragraph styles. – roybatty Jun 28 '17 at 19:33
  • I don't think there is any way to use Indd's TOC function to populate a table. As @lucian has answered below, you can create a TOC using the TOC function and then convert that text into a table, but each time you renew the TOC you will need to redo that formatting. Alternatively, you can create hyperlink destinations at the location of each item that you want included in the TOC, and then add a cross-reference in your TOC table. But I think it is much more efficient to create a paragraph style that will format your TOC text outside of a table, and then use the built-in TOC feature. – magerber Jun 28 '17 at 20:29
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Use the built-in TOC tool

  • set 'Page number' to 'After Entry'
  • set a 'Tab' (^t) in the next field called 'Between Entry and Number'
  • this will generate the full TOC with page numbers extracted from your 'chapter name' paragraph style (or whatever it is called)

Then, tranform this text box which contains page numbering separated by tabs from the actual titles to a table via 'Table → Convert Text to Table'. What you'll probably get is a 2-column table which you can then format as needed.

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