TABLE OF CONTENTS

Add page listings to your Pages documents

IT WILL TAKE

20 minutes

YOU WILL LEARN

How to generate and insert a table of contents in a Pages document

YOU’LL NEED

iOS 12, Pages A table of contents (TOC) itemises the parts of a document so the reader can jump to the page they want.

It could just be a list of chapters, or might include several levels, from sections to individual subheadings.

Pages for Mac can generate a TOC automatically, and the iWork update in March brought this to the iPad. The TOC is based on paragraph styles: apply the same style to each chapter title, heading and so on, and they’re collated. You can then choose which to include; the list is limited, so delete unused styles to avoid confusion. If you want some headings to have a different appearance but take the same role in the TOC, vary their character (not paragraph) styles.

À la mode

As usual, matters are complicated by Pages’ two modes. In a Word Processing document, having set up your TOC you can insert it into your text to appear on a page. You can then adjust this instance of the TOC, choosing whether it lists everything in the document or only up to the next section break or the next TOC you insert. When you edit the document, the TOC will update.

In a Page Layout document, the TOC exists as a feature that readers can access on screen; it’s included when you export a PDF. You can’t insert the TOC into a page for printing, although there is a workaround…

When your Page Layout document is finished, long-tap its thumbnail in Pages’ Browse screen and choose Duplicate. Open the copy and convert it to Word Processing mode (see Genius Tip, top right) then create and insert one or more TOCs. Double-tap below the TOC on the page to select it and choose Copy from the contextual menu. Open your original Page Layout doc and paste the TOC into a text box. It appears as plain text formatted with tabs, which you can format. The ‘master’ TOC will continue to update as you make changes, but those changes won’t propagate to the ‘print’ TOC.

In a Page Layout doc, the TOC exists as a feature that readers can access