Create an InDesign Table of Contents

[@gregupton6188]

Nobody anywhere, not even Adobe, have been able to clearly and properly explain how to build and format a table of contents in Indesign. UNTIL THIS VIDEO!! Thank you. Very clearly explained, and at last I have finally been able to create a table of contents in Indesign and formatted to look slick and professional.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Greg. That's very kind of you to say. Great to hear you've created an awesome design. Cheers.

[@joannleger]

This video is absolutely perfect. Super clear, no unnecessary fluff, straight to the point. And after four years still applies. Thank you, Michael Bullo!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Joann. That's very nice of you to say. Best of luck with all those InDesign docs.

[@DanielNevesBL]

This video is pure perfection. Thank you so so much, Michael. I was having a lot of trouble doing the TOC and now I think I can do it.

[@MichaelBullo]

Hey that's great to hear mate. Thank you. If you get stuck with anything let me know.

[@NatashaVelisha]

Wonderful teaching! Just lovely. Clearly spoken, clearly demonstrated, clearly explained, clearly presented. Five Stars!!!

[@MichaelBullo]

Now that's a comment. Thank you very much and have a great day.

[@lisasizemore9928]

I've been reading and researching every place I know to learn how to generate an ID TOC. You are the BEST. Thank you, thank you!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Lisa. Happy to hear this helped. There certainly are a lot of elements to know when building a TOC. Cheers.

[@timlizaverbunt-littlefield1134]

I've watched many InDesign tutorials, and this one is EXACTLY what I needed. Thanks Michael, keep doing what you do! 🙏

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you very much for the support. I really appreciate it. Best of luck with your InDesign projects.

[@JimCooperVO]

By far the best step by step video on creating a TOC in inDesign.

[@MichaelBullo]

Now that's a compliment. Thank you and best of luck with your InDesign documents.

[@BENJCOTE]

Best TOC damn tutorial I watched on this subject and believe me I have seen a few. One of my other jobs beside graphic design, is writing interactive pdf help manuals. Michael delivers this tutorial at the right pace, right tone of voice, and with great explanations of what goes on, the tab thingy in particular. Of course it doesn't hurt that he has Aussie accent either ...LOL👍

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. I really appreciate you taking the time to write this endorsement. Good to hear the "tab thingy" now makes sense ;)

[@LillianKZ123]

I've watched this more times than I care to say. I use InDesign sporatically and have retrain myself. This video is one of my goto's

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Lillian. Good to hear this has helped you out a few times. Have a great day :)

[@iainlindsay3032]

You are the only person who has been able to explain TOC's to me! THANK YOU!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. Best of luck with all those long documents.

[@teenstrucksvideos]

This is EXACTLY what I needed! Logically put together, you can tell Michael thought through this tutorial step-by-step. I'm subscribing now.

[@MichaelBullo]

That's great to hear this helped. Thank you for appreciating the work put into this video and welcome to the channel.

[@brucekolinski8824]

Mr. Bullo - you Sir are an excellent instructor. Thank you so much. Clear, concise, yet thorough. Very helpful.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Bruce. I appreciate your detailed comment and I'm happy to hear it helped. Best of luck with all your designs.

[@JKYLEM1000]

By far the best and most up-to-date tutorial for the table of contents feature. Thank you Sir!

[@MichaelBullo]

Much appreciated. Cheers.

[@gabrielbenitez8194]

And also the most complete and effective.

[@mauriciocebada2863]

Yours is the BEST video out of 10 I've seen already, I love that you made it logical and perfectly detail for newbies like me.

[@MichaelBullo]

I genuinely appreciate that feedback. Thank you and best of luck with those long documents.

[@Chillybat]

One of the most informative tutorials I've seen so far on InDesign. Keep up the levels!

[@MichaelBullo]

That's very kind of you to say. Thank you.

[@alexdarcy413]

There are few tutorials available on TOC, but this is one of the clearest and simple. Thank you! you got one more subscriber :)

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Alex. I appreciate the feedback and the sub. Cheers.

[@chenchrissie1266]

This video should be called EVERYTHING you need yo know about TOC! thorough and detailed! Great for my first TOC of ID. Many thanks!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you so much. Best of luck with your designs.

[@keyos27]

This is such a gem. Thank you so much for all the informative tips, especially how to control the dots. *Those who don't see the bookmarks in pdf, make sure to save as PDF (interactive) Not (Print).

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. I appreciate the feedback. Good call on how best to export out a PDF. Cheers.

[@Aravindselvaraj]

Thank you so much! I tried and had several errors, with this great tutorial, I could easily find a solution. Kudos. 😀

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you very much. That's great to hear this helped you out.

[@kevothedj]

I have been here for reference twice now because of how it is easily and well done

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks for coming back and best of luck with all your InDesign documents.

[@aathirapillai2999]

This is one of the most comprehensive and easy demonstrations. will save it for an eternity!! Thank you Michael its brilliant

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you so much. Very kind of you to say. Hope it proves useful.

[@cyberlizardcouk]

brilliantly straightforward. explanation without extra fluff..... now to see if it works the same in CS6

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. I don't think you'll have any problems but let me know if you do.

[@cyberlizardcouk]

@@MichaelBullo thank you.

[@MichaelBullo]

@@cyberlizardcouk Cheers

[@peterkabiru5144]

Best tutorial on working on TOC with indesign

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Peter

[@dougieladd]

This is the best description of how to create a TOC in InDesign... Awesome work mate. Thanks. Very clearly taught.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. Hope it proves useful. Cheers.

[@pmtvs]

Thanks Michael, if I watch it 3 times, I might even remember it!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. Might I recommend you watch it 4 times ;)

[@jeanettemitchell6357]

Perfect tutorial! I've tried several others, but couldn't follow them. Your tutorial is very easy to follow and understand. You explain things very well. I was about to give up when I found yours. Thanks so much! Your an excellent teacher.

[@MichaelBullo]

Hi Jeanette. Thank you for those very kind words. Much appreciated.

[@gisele-grenier]

I struggled for hours doing this until I landed on your video. Your instructions are crystal clear and was able to follow along to create my own styled toc. Thank you! new subscriber here!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Gisele. Very kind of you to say. Best of luck with all those beautifully structured future long documents ;)

[@sarak3995]

probably the best tutorial i've come across for InDesign TOC - well done!!! Thank you so much

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. That's very kind of you to say.

[@alhassanjamal6303]

I loved the way you simplified the explanation of creating a table of contents ... thanks a zillion for this beneficial tutorial!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you for the comment. That's very kind of you.

[@mohonaakhi4915]

This is my life saving tut. I have seen many tut for this kind if issue even talk my older brother about it but there no clean idea about making such kind of help. I loved this so so so so much! You got my happy subscribe

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you so much. That's very kind of you to say. Welcome to the channel.

[@markfindlater4197]

Outstanding. Clear & concise!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Mark. I wish you well with your long documents.

[@Aaron_Lesse]

Thank you! I needed to implement multiple paragraph styles in a ToC and this video showed me how. It also showed me an alternative to using the Tabs function in the Type menu, as well as how to add spaces in the dotted lines between the ToC entries and the page numbers.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Aaron. I hope your InDesign projects are going well.

[@Aaron_Lesse]

@@MichaelBullo Improvements with InDesign projects continue! Three months after first watching, I just watched again to indent "level 2" ToC entries. Thanks again!

[@MichaelBullo]

@@Aaron_Lesse Welcome back. Happy to have helped you out again.

[@marcokothe480]

I've been having a hard time to figure this out, but you saved my day! Thank you so much, great tutorial!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks Marco.

[@nikkicanale2013]

THANK YOU! I've been trying to figure out how to do this for ages. This is the best explanation I've found!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Nikki. I appreciate that.

[@rebfm1494]

Couldn't for the life of me remember how to do this, helped so much thank you! Loved the way you explained it, clear and concise!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. I'm happy to hear this helped you out.

[@EgzonNikqiFB]

After a total of 24 hours, I finally found 1 person who showed how to make a table of content the proper and professional way...... It's incredible that indesign is so popular and yet there are these kind of missing things... Also I wonder where are the Book templates?? Normally in Photoshop there are 10.000s PSD files, but book templates for indesign, there are almost none..

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks Egzon. Hope it helps. You mentioned "book templates" for InDesign. There is a Book feature in InDesign which allows you to bring together and organise multiple InDesign files as if they were chapters in a book. Is this what you are referring to or are you thinking more along the lines of page templates which you would use to layout a book?

[@EgzonNikqiFB]

@@MichaelBullo I'm actually thinking more about a indesign file where everything is prepared....I think I only have found max 100 total over the whole internet..

[@MichaelBullo]

@@EgzonNikqiFB I hear ya. There's definitely far more Photoshop templates out there than for InDesign.

[@EgzonNikqiFB]

Aaa

[@EgzonNikqiFB]

No worries, I created brand new styles from scratch and it worked..

[@ruth413]

This is fantastic! I will share it with my classmates on school!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. I hope it helps.

[@StephanieLarsen123]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! This made it all so clear. I've been messing around on my own and couldn't quite get it right!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you for saying that. Creating a TOC can be pretty involved. Best of luck with all those long docs.

[@StephanieLarsen123]

@@MichaelBullo It's a 4 page TOc but it was the line of dots between the chapter title and the number that had me completely stumped. The rest was no biggie. I kept trying one thing, then another (wasted about 4 hours on it altogether)... and probably torqued the algorithm so badly I couldn't refresh or regenerate the TOC at all, and had to delete not just the text boxes for it, but the pages as well to regenerate it. And THEN I found your video. LOL. Anyhoo... thank you! :D

[@MichaelBullo]

@@StephanieLarsen123 Thank you very much. Great to hear you got there in the end. 4 page TOC you say? Damn!!!

[@tayyababano6247]

A perfect way to explain TOC settings.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. Best of luck with all those long documents :)

[@TreyRights23]

Very helpful as I'm formatting a TOC for my thesis!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. Best of luck with the thesis.

[@fxvytalize]

Struggled with overriding headers / subheaders with character styles. I think it needs to be noted that if there's already a character style applied to your text, your TOC will NOT override the character styles, despite customizing the paragraph style. Other than that, I found your video to be very details and helpful! Thank you!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks for the feedback Vincent. You make a good point regarding Character Styles getting picked up by the TOC. For anyone reading this it's thankfully an easy fix. Make sure that the text frame holding the TOC is selected and then from within the Character Styles panel press the None option.

[@nikitafu]

@@MichaelBullo Thank you!! I was struggling with the for WAY too long and was about to give up. Luckily went to read the comments

[@manamedia]

You described this clearer than Terry White, the official Adobe Products Evangelist. Cheers mate.

[@MichaelBullo]

Now that's high praise :) Thanks mate.

[@Ladygrace7]

Super! Really clear and easy to understand. Well done 👏🏻

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you for the feedback and I'm happy to hear this helped you out.

[@priscillabandy3452]

This was my 4th ToC video and I wish I had found it first! Thank you this was so perfect!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Priscilla. That's very kind of you to say. Happy InDesigning :)

[@thenoilkitchen]

Thank you so much! Very good tutorial. I appreciate you including the TOC level 2 part.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. Much appreciated.

[@FRXGFA]

Idk what i would've without you

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. That's very nice of you to say.

[@natalia-viteri-art]

Excellent video that goes in depth about all the right things in a friendly, concise manner. Thank you!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you very much Natalia

[@hosunkang6704]

That’s exactly what I want to know. Thank you very much.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks Hosun. Much appreciated.

[@mytinylagunakitchen]

THANK YOU SO MUCH for this tutorial! Hands down the best one of found online. Thank you for including the levels & making this SO simple/easy to follow.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. Good to hear the different levels were helpful. Best of luck with all your designs.

[@martamarczewska9486]

Love this tutorial, today I have test on Indesign and you're a life saver!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you and best of luck with the test.

[@joos1966]

Very helpful - I could pause underway and jump to my own and try it out.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. A link to the demo files can be found in the description if it helps.

[@zebracreative52]

You are AWESOME! thanks for the thorough walk-through, all worked

[@MichaelBullo]

Fantastic and thank you. Congrats on the new TOC.

[@jameshagger6182]

Hi Michael, Thanks for the tutorial. It's the clearest and most succinctly presented I have seen after trawling the internet for days! Brilliant. Cheers, James

[@MichaelBullo]

Hi James, Thank you for the great feedback. It's most appreciated. Happy designing. Cheers, Michael

[@madhveedeb]

I agree. This is the best multilevel TOC tutorial. Many other videos are misleading, as their titles are about layered TOC but they only end up showing how to generate simple TOC. Whereas this video in a very to the point manner explains and breaks the process to a logical, most simple to understand steps. Thanks, Michael Bullo.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. Great to hear you found the tutorial helpful.

[@EgzonNikqiFB]

ME2!!! It's incredible that nobody is telling you how to make these adjustments.. except this guy here

[@acmtsing]

the most detailed TOC tutorial, thanks, Michael.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks for that. Hope it helps.

[@valeriebourdain]

This is an outstanding tutorial...Thank you so much for all the help!

[@MichaelBullo]

That's very kind of you to say Valerie. Thank you and best of luck with all those InDesign docs.

[@tabathumachimuka5554]

Thank you so much that's the best explanatory video ever

[@MichaelBullo]

Wow. That's very kind of you to say. Thank you and best of luck with your long documents.

[@sygad1]

exceptionally clear and informative, thank you, helped enormously

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. I appreciate that and I'm happy to hear this helped.

[@sygad1]

@@MichaelBullo any chance of a follow up video explaining how to start the contents from a section. I have some pages at the beginning of an instruction manual that I have in a section that I don't wish to be part of the contents

[@MichaelBullo]

@@sygad1 That's a good question and a great video idea. Unfortunately I'm busy with work at the moment. I recommend posting this question on the Adobe InDesign forum where some experts should be able to guide you through the process. Best of luck.

[@loublazquez2903]

Michael, thank you so much for this entire series. What a contribution to us! Would love to join as a follower. Lou, Munds Park, AZ

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Lou. That's very kind of you to say. I don't offer any kind of membership at the moment. Have a great day mate.

[@mitch625]

Very helpful and nicely put together. Rear a few articles and it was going straight over me, everything perfect after watching this.

[@MichaelBullo]

Hey thank you. Great to hear this helped you out. Happy designing :)

[@adhamhmad91]

Really helpful. thank you, dear Mr.Michael

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Adham. Happy to hear this helped you out.

[@brockwalker3136]

An excellent, clear tutorial!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you mate. Happy to have helped.

[@mohsinjamal3593]

this is wonderful Micheal... a big brave heart! so many kind regards

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Mohsin. That's very kind of you to say.

[@jaylinhorta5367]

Saved me tones of time. Thank you very much!!

[@MichaelBullo]

Hey that's great to hear. Thanks for letting me know.

[@sunilkapadiasurat]

Wow.....Thanks for the video Michael..... love it

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Sunil. Have fun creating all those TOCs :)

[@innovativediy8726]

absolutly fantastic... very well explained

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you very much. Best of luck with all your documents.

[@anniemack9936]

Exactly what I needed. Thanks!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Annie. Great to hear.

[@genevievemunden]

Great tutorial. I might add that if you want the bookmarks to show in the .pdf so the viewer does not have to look for them, you have the option to set that view as the default view in the .pdf. I did this recently when I combined 5 documents in a .pdf and booked mark each document so it could be located easily and set the initial view to show the bookmarks so it was obvious where to go.

[@MichaelBullo]

That's a fantastic comment Genevieve. Thanks for sharing. For anyone else reading this you might find this other video useful... How to Display PDF Bookmarks in Adobe Acrobat (Turn on by Default for File) kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHzXp6Cdpp1rhZo

[@NobbyBinks]

You legend... Easy to follow and clear

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. Appreciate it.

[@denhamk]

Worked like a charm! Thank you so much!!

[@MichaelBullo]

Great to hear. Thank you.

[@JaZyLY]

Finally a practical guide !! Great tutorial Thank you 😊

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. I appreciate that and I hope it helps.

[@rudavidaltube]

this is what i was looking for thank you so much!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. Best of luck with those long documents.

[@sasi7672]

Really good tutorial. Clear and well explained... you are a natural teacher. Great stuff :-)

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. I really appreciate that.

[@opeyemiafolabi7957]

Excellent Tutorial i must confess.. Thank you so much

[@MichaelBullo]

I'm happy to hear that. Thank you.

[@mrabmonnaf]

Absolutely a GREAT tutorial. Thanks much for this.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. Hope it helps you with those long documents.

[@LillianKZ123]

Excellent presentation. Your approach make it very logical and understandable.

[@MichaelBullo]

I appreciate the feedback and kind words Lillian. Thank you.

[@milesgirlm2m]

Super Useful Video and pretty easy to follow!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. Hope you're building some cool stuff in InDesign :)

[@EghosaUgbo]

Better than my teacher.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate 👍

[@brittebee3014]

T H A N K Y O U, M I C H A E L ! - Finally I found a video that explains it all and I can now think about making a TOC without getting stress, haha! You're awesome! :D

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. That's very kind of you to say. A stress free InDesign TOC does sound pretty awesome ;)

[@MadeinChinakiki]

Love your vid mate from another Aussie.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks mate. I appreciate that. Hope you're building some cool stuff in InDesign.

[@softsoundart7460]

Excellent tutorial. Thank you.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[@adeodatuskakorozya9064]

Thank you so much for this great tutorial

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you very much. I appreciate the comment.

[@rosemaryjason2772]

Excellent tutorial, thank you so much!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Rosemary

[@SandeepApte]

Superb tutorial Michael! Thanks so much! (Y) :-) May I make two suggestions please: 1. Could you please offer the download files in the idml format as well - that would take it to far more people who might be using older versions of InDesign. 2. Could you please do a tutorial on paragraph, character & object styles to go along with this same tutorial? Here is wishing you the very best and look forward to more InDesign tutorials Michael!

[@MichaelBullo]

Hi Sandeep. Thank you for the feedback and the kind words. It's most appreciated. I like your suggestion about adding an IDML version of the files and I've just created them. The link is in the description. Cheers.

[@marcelvanlierop]

Nicely done :) Thank you. Like your voice as well: plenty of dynamic range.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Marcel. Yeah not putting the listener to sleep is half the challenge ;)

[@a.miroshin]

No more handy work designing my graduation book! Thanks!

[@MichaelBullo]

Cheers Alex

[@farrukhabdurahmanov288]

Thank you, Michael!

[@MichaelBullo]

Cheers Farrukh

[@yaserazrak]

thank you very much the best lesson I've ever seen

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Mohamad. Very nice of you to say.

[@mariaestrada9422]

Excellent. Exactly what I needed and more. Thank you so much!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Maria. Best of luck with all your InDesign documents :)

[@timfitzgibbon9104]

Agreed, super tutorial, clear, easy to follow, spot on!

[@MichaelBullo]

Cheers Tim. Happy it helped.

[@RichardSessums]

Excellent and helpful video. Thank you for creating and posting it.

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Richard. I appreciate that.

[@marcelolima8819]

Installed, everything works, thanks!

[@MichaelBullo]

Excellent. Happy designing :)

[@liccao5256]

This video helped alot. Thanks for that

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you for letting me know and have a great day

[@eddyjuillerat835]

Very well explained. Maybe slow for some, but good. Thanks mate.

[@MichaelBullo]

Cheers mate. I agree the pace in this video isn't for everyone. Have a great day.

[@lynnqi6451]

Thank you so much, it clarifies a lot of things for me!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Lynn. That's great to hear.

[@LafeJames]

PERFECT! Thank you!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you very much

[@trevorevans7101]

Fantastic, thank you, You're the best!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you Trevor. I appreciate the support. Best of luck with all your InDesign docs.

[@miker302]

Great introduction - thanks! Three things that you didn't mention that are really irritating to work out (or were for me). I'd really appreciate knowing if I have taken the right approach to point 1: 1. If you have numbers stacked on the right (e.g. after a ^y) then it can look a bit odd with a proportional font (21 between 20 and 22 looks indented). I created a character style and set the open type features, figure style to "Tabular Lining". The numbers are now fixed width. 2. Turn on Remove Forced Line Break by default - it's got to be pretty rare that you actually want that unchecked. 3. Once you've saved a TOC to a style then you need to edit the style, not the TOC in order to get a change to persist - I kept trying to save the Style again and changes did not persist until I went into the "Table of Contents Styles" menu item. Seems simple but I was slowly going nuts on this one (particularly as I was trying to get my point 2. to persist)! Thanks, Mike

[@MichaelBullo]

Hi Mike. Thanks for posting all the additional notes. You make some great points. Cheers.

[@danielpetrushevski7177]

Very helpful for me, thanks mate!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thanks Daniel. Happy to hear that.

[@ananda5287]

Very informative, I greatly appreciate you Bro!

[@MichaelBullo]

Thank you. I appreciate you stopping by.

[@bouzidiseifeddine5116]

Thanks a lot for this informative tutorial, all steps are well explained !

[@MichaelBullo]

Cheers mate. Happy it helped.