Generating a TOC that Includes Text Boxes

Some people love to use text boxes to help place text on their pages. In essence, the text boxes become elements of a larger page layout, used in order to get "just the right look." Unfortunately, using text boxes means making trade-offs in other areas. One of those areas is in relation to a table of contents.

A table of contents can be generated in two ways--using styles or using fields. (Details on this are covered in other issues of WordTips.) If you generate your TOC using styles, and you have a heading style defined in a text box, Word still won't include it in the TOC. This is because text boxes are really graphics, and they are contained on a "graphics layer" or "drawing layer" in Word. Thus, text in a text box is a portion of the drawing layer and separate from the main text of your document.

If you generate your TOC using fields, then you rely on the placement of the TC field to designate a table of contents entry. Unfortunately, all the documentation available from Microsoft indicates that you cannot include certain fields in a text box--including TC fields.

If you must include the contents of your text boxes in a TOC, the only solution is to not use text boxes--you need to convert them to frames. You can get a good idea of the difference between text boxes and frames by searching Word's online help system for an article entitled "The difference between a text box and a frame" (this article may not be available in all versions of Word's help system) or you can do some searching and comparing at the WordTips Web site. In order to convert an existing text box to a frame, you follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the text box. Word displays a Context menu.
2. Choose the Format Text Box option from the Context menu. Word displays the Format Text Box dialog box.
3. Make sure that the Text Box tab is selected.
4. Click on the Convert to Frame button. Word asks if you are sure you want to convert.
5. Click on OK.