How to: Create a Table of Contents

• Sep 19, 2019
• 5 min to read

This topic demonstrates how to create a table of contents of different types.

To create a TOC, perform the following steps.

1. Mark the Entries

   To include the desired headings into the table of contents, mark the corresponding paragraphs as table entries.

2. Build the Table of Contents

   The table of contents in RichEditDocumentServer is represented by the TOC field.

Mark the Entries

RichEditDocumentServer provides the following approaches to mark a document text (heading) to include it into the table of contents.

• Outline Levels

  Set the outline level to paragraphs that should be included into the table of contents. To do that, use the Paragraph.OutlineLevel property as shown in the code sample below. Note that the maximum outline level is 9.

  • C#
  • VB.NET

  richEditDocumentServer1.LoadDocument("Documents//Table of Contents.docx");
  
  //Set the outline level to every chapter title in the document
  for (int i = 0; i < richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Paragraphs.Count; i++)
  {
      string var = richEditDocumentServer1.Document.GetText(richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Paragraphs[i].Range);
      if (var.Contains("CHAPTER "))
      {
          richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Paragraphs[i].OutlineLevel = 2;
      }
  }
  

• Heading Styles

  Create a new heading style or retrieve an existing one from the ParagraphStyleCollection collection (can be accessed through the Document.ParagraphStyles property) and apply it to the target paragraphs. For that, use the ParagraphProperties.Style property as shown in the following code snippet.

  • C#
  • VB.NET

  richEditDocumentServer1.LoadDocument("Documents//Table of Contents.docx");
  
  //Apply the "heading 1" style to every chapter title in the document
  for (int i = 0; i < richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Paragraphs.Count; i++)
  {
      string var = richEditDocumentServer1.Document.GetText(richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Paragraphs[i].Range);
      if (var.Contains("CHAPTER "))
      {
          richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Paragraphs[i].Style = richEditDocumentServer1.Document.ParagraphStyles["heading 1"];
      }
  }
  

• TC Fields

  Insert a TC field at the beginning of the target paragraph. Type the caption in the field switch, and it will be reflected in the table of contents instead of the original title.

  • C#
  • VB.NET

  richEditDocumentServer1.LoadDocument("Documents//Table of Contents.docx");
  int j = 1;
  
  //Mark every chapter title in the document by the TC field
  for (int i = 0; i < richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Paragraphs.Count; i++)
  {
      string var = richEditDocumentServer1.Document.GetText(richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Paragraphs[i].Range);
  
      if (var.Contains("CHAPTER "))
      {
          Field field = richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Fields.Create(richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Paragraphs[i].Range.Start, String.Format("TC {0} \\f bvz ", j));
          richEditDocumentServer1.Document.Fields.Update();
          j++;
      }
  
  }
  

• SEQ Fields

  Use these fields to mark the captions of document figures/tables/equations and include them into the corresponding table. Insert a caption into the target figure and mark it with the SEQ field as shown in the code snippet below.

  • C#
  • VB.NET

  richEditDocumentServer1.LoadDocument("Documents//Table of Contents.docx");            
  document.BeginUpdate();
  
  for (int i = 0; i < document.Images.Count; i++)
  {
      DocumentImage shape = document.Images[i];
      Paragraph paragraph = document.Paragraphs.Insert(shape.Range.End);
  
      //Insert caption to every image in the document
      DocumentRange range = document.InsertText(paragraph.Range.Start, "Image ");
  
      //Mark the captions with the SEQ fields
      Field field = document.Fields.Create(range.End, "SEQ  Image \\*ARABIC");
  }
  document.Fields.Update();
  document.EndUpdate();
  

Build the Table of Contents

Insert the TOC field with the corresponding switch into the desired position within the document using the following API.

The code sample below inserts a TOC field into the given document position.

Document document = richEditDocumentServer1.Document;
document.BeginUpdate();
Paragraph paragraph = document.Paragraphs.Insert(document.Paragraphs[1].Range.Start);

//Insert the table of contents to the beginning of the document
document.InsertText(paragraph.Range.Start, "Table of Contents (Heading Styles) " + "\r");
Field field = document.Fields.Create(paragraph.Range.Start, "TOC \\h ");
field.Update();

//Update all fields to apply changes
document.Fields.Update();
document.EndUpdate();

Dim document As Document = richEditDocumentServer1.Document
document.BeginUpdate()
Dim paragraph As Paragraph = document.Paragraphs.Insert(document.Paragraphs(1).Range.Start)

'Insert the table of contents to the beginning of the document
document.InsertText(paragraph.Range.Start, "Table of Contents (Heading Styles) " & ControlChars.Cr)
Dim field As Field = document.Fields.Create(paragraph.Range.Start, "TOC \h ")
field.Update()

'Update all fields to apply changes
document.Fields.Update()
document.EndUpdate()