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. Anonymous
    2017-07-03T01:43:00+00:00

    As usual for answers on Microsoft websites, this explains how the problem comes about but not how to solve it.

    The solution is to put a hard space <Ctrl,Shift,Space> between the last two words of the section title/subtitle/etc. instead of a regular space <Space>.

    Don't ask me why this works.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-10-26T04:40:54+00:00

    How do we fix it?  My issue is with entries that are short (most are a phrase, but 2 of them are just single words).

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  3. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-10-26T06:38:01+00:00

    Your issue is that with the short entries, they do not extend past the position of the first tab stop in the TOC # paragraph style and hence, it is the page number that is aligned at that tab stop rather than at the tab stop on the right of the page which is the one defined to have the dot leader.  

    If you cannot sort it out, if you send me a copy of the document, referencing this thread in the covering email message, I will investigate the issue.

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