Dot Leader Sporadically Missing from Table of Contents

Anonymous
2012-04-18T23:56:07+00:00

I am updating an automatic table of contents.  I'm using Word 2010.  There are dot leaders for each toc entry.  However, for several (but not all) of the new toc entries, the entry appears with the page number, but with no dot leader.  I've deleted the item and re-entered, re-formatted and done everything else I can think of and nothing works.  Help??

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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-05-22T18:43:08+00:00

Considering just the entries that are missing the period leaders, are those entries much shorter or longer than the other entries? Often this problem is a result of placement of tab stops in the relevant TOC style; in that case, however, the problem also results in page numbers being in the wrong place as well as lacking leaders. The situation arises when there is a tab stop (or hanging indent) fairly far to the right in the TOC style. A very short entry will stop short of this tab stop, and so the tab that should go to the right-aligned tab stop at the right margin (for the page numbers, with leader) instead stops at the first tab stop/hanging indent.

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-09-24T19:37:15+00:00

    Nowhere has it been suggested that you remove the tab stop for the page numbers. If all the entries at a given level are missing period leaders, then you need to correct the setting in the style, adding the period leader to the page number tab stop. But if there are just a few entries that are missing it, then this is usually due to another tab stop in the paragraph. 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.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-30T10:04:21+00:00

    This was just the answer I was looking for!!! Thanks a mill dontait

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-18T02:06:25+00:00

    Amazingly solved my problem!! Thanks!

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-01-16T21:59:35+00:00

    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

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