Auto Create Table of Contents in OpenOffice

I recently finished my college and had a lot of irritation in the last semester while working on my project report. As the size of the report grew and more and more content flew in, keeping track of where each point was mentioned and then adding it manually to the table of contents at the beginning was a daunting task.

I was looking for a way out of all the hassles. I even thought about exporting the whole document as HTML and writing a script for generating the table of contents. Before venturing on that adventure however, I decided to give OpenOffice a shot. It turns out that OpenOffice can generate the table of contents on fly. Here is a little preview of what this process actually does.

Contents as in Original Document

Table of Contents Generated by OpenOffice

Just follow these simple steps to create one for your document.

1. Make sure you have a unified structure for the titles. I had all the chapter titles as Heading-1, sub headings as Heading-2 and points and sub-points as Heading-3.
2. Place the cursor in appropriate position. The table will be added after the cursor.
3. Select Insert > Indexes and Tables > Indexes and Tables.
4. Do not change anything in the Insert Index/Table dialog. Click OK.
5. You can always modify the settings and create more complex or peculiar structures as per your wish, but for most of us, the default settings get the job done.

This feature saved a considerable amount of time for me. What is more important is, just like automatic creation, the table can also update itself. Many times you will revise your content, add more points or chapters. The capability to update the contents is a must. Though not in real time, you can update the table of contents, to do so,

1. Place the cursor anywhere in the table of contents.
2. Right-click and select Update Index/Table from the pop-up menu.

and the table will be updated with the new contents and new page numbers. Sometimes you might not be able to place the cursor inside the table of contents. OpenOffice does this to avoid accidental changes in the automatically generated table. It is a protected area. To enable the cursor inside the table, go to Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Formatting Aids, and then select Enable in the Cursor in protected areas section. Happy Writing and do send me a complimentary copy of your new book