Dot Leader Sporadically Missing from Table of Contents

In my September 24 post, I wrote, "If the TOC style has a hanging indent, then, depending on your version of Word and your Compatibility Options settings, there may automatically be a left-aligned tab stop at the position of the hanging indent."

Suzanne:

I understand that.  I suppose it's arguable that as INDEX is 5 characters, the "first" tab stop would have been the .5" hanging indent tab (implicit) immediately after the X.  I'd have thought that the X in "INDEX" would have occupied that spot, but...hey {shrug}, who can speak to the mysteries of Word's implicit anythings?

I posted what I did, in order to assist anyone else that comes along.  If you think about what happened with mine, setting other tabs, etc., would not have worked. The sole solution was to move the hanging indent closer to the left-hand margin so that INDEX was patently longer than the implicit tab location.  

I read your Sept. 24 post; I assume your instructions/comments about removing the implicit tab stop came earlier, and I simply missed it.  

Thanks.

Even if there is not an actual tab stop displayed, there is an implied tab stop at the location of the hanging indent. In Word 2003, 2007, and 2010, there is a Compatibility Option/Layout Option, "Don't add automatic tab stop for hanging indent." Unless that option is checked, you get the tab stop. In Word 2013, this option is no longer available; I don't know whether that means that Word 2013 automatically sets a tab stop, and there's nothing you can do about it, or it adopted the option and doesn't set the automatic tab stop. In any case, that is the reason for the phenomenon you observed.       

I did mention this in my post of September 24, 2015.

Hi, Suzanne:

Just as a helpful tip (I hope), I was going daft on a project (for a friend, of COURSE).  I'd done a fully-styled doc, then generated a TOC.  All my entries on the TOC were fine, with the exception of two things--several of the entries had a small, but distinct amount of vertical whitespace below them (h1 class--haven't solved that, no matter what I do to the relevant style), AND, relevant to this thread, my Index TOC entry, the last entry in the group, had no dot leaders and the number was smack up against the text "INDEX."  

I tried everything, I added tabs, removed tabs, nada.  I only had ONE tab for this TOC2 entry--nothing.  I tried everything suggested in this thread.  Until I decided to try something that sounded like it might work--I reduced the hanging indent, from .5 to .3.  Now...no other tabs were set, for either TOC1 or 2. This shouldn't have made a difference. The "preview" for the TOC2 style had always displayed the INDEX entry as it should have correctly rendered--but in the TOC itself, it didn't.

So:

1. I had no other tabs for the TOC entries, in either 1 or 2;
2. I had a normal hanging indent for the TOC of .5;
3. I had mirrored margins (this was for a 6x9 book project), with margins at .75;
4. And the whole book was correctly done in heading, list and paragraph styles.
5. The Index Entry heading itself, on the Index page, was a correctly-styled h1 heading.

I tried everything listed here, but the only thing that finally worked was moving the hanging indent more to the LEFT, reducing it from .5 to .3".

I am posting this just in case someone else pulls their hair out, and maybe what worked for me, will work from him/her.

Hitch