Overview
TOC Builder generates a professional Table of Contents (TOC) page in a PDF document. It reads the existing bookmark hierarchy and renders a formatted TOC with titles, dot leaders, page numbers, and optional hyperlinks. The TOC can be inserted at the beginning of the document or at a specified location.
TOC Builder is designed to work hand-in-hand with the Bookmarker component. Typically you first build a complete bookmark tree using Bookmarker, then generate the TOC from those bookmarks.
Menu location
By default, TOC Builder commands appear directly under the Plug-Ins menu. If you prefer, you can group them under a Plug-Ins > Mapsoft submenu by enabling Place under Mapsoft menu in Plug-Ins > Mapsoft Preferences. Acrobat must be restarted for the change to take effect.
Before you start
A few things to prepare before generating a TOC:
- Clean bookmark hierarchy — Ensure your bookmarks are well-structured and correctly ordered. The TOC is generated directly from the bookmark tree, so any problems there will appear in the TOC.
- Page labels — If your document uses roman numerals, custom labels, or section-based page numbering, verify that page labels are set correctly. The TOC displays page numbers based on these labels.
- Insertion point — Decide whether the TOC should be inserted at the front of the document, at the end, or at a specific page location.
- Level selection — Consider which bookmark levels to include. For large documents, you may want to limit the TOC to the top two or three levels.
Building the TOC
- Open the PDF and go to Plug-Ins > TOC Builder.
- Select which bookmark levels to include in the TOC (e.g. levels 1–3).
- Choose a layout: single column, two-column, or custom arrangement.
- Configure fonts, sizes, colours, indentation, and leader style for each level.
- Preview the TOC layout to verify the appearance.
- Click Apply to insert the TOC pages into the document.
Layout and formatting options
TOC Builder provides fine-grained control over the appearance of the generated TOC:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Leaders | Dot leaders, solid lines, dashed lines, or no leader between the title text and the page number. Leaders improve readability for long entries. |
| Indentation | Per-level indentation in points. Controls how deeply nested bookmark levels are indented in the TOC, reflecting the document hierarchy visually. |
| Fonts | Specify the font family, size, style (bold, italic), and colour for TOC entry titles and page numbers independently. Different levels can use different fonts. |
| Page number alignment | Align page numbers to the right margin or position them using tab stops for consistent spacing across entries of varying title length. |
| Multi-style numbering | Support for different numbering schemes (Arabic, roman, alphabetic) to match your document’s page labelling convention. |
| Column layout | Single-column or two-column TOC page layout. Two-column layouts fit more entries per page. |
Multi-file workflows
TOC Builder supports generating a TOC that spans multiple PDF files. Use the multi-file input options to define the file order and to reference bookmarks from each source file. When working across files:
- Define the list of source PDFs and their order using the File List dialog.
- Ensure consistent page labels across all files so page numbers in the TOC are meaningful.
- After generation, verify that cross-file bookmark destinations resolve correctly.
Updating an existing TOC
If you need to regenerate the TOC after making changes (such as adding pages or updating bookmarks), simply re-run TOC Builder. The plug-in can replace the existing TOC pages with a fresh version, preserving your formatting settings.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Missing entries in the TOC | Confirm that the selected bookmark levels include the content you expect. Bookmarks on excluded levels are not rendered. |
| Incorrect page numbers | Check the document’s page labels (Acrobat > Page Thumbnails > Number Pages). If labels are wrong, fix them and regenerate the TOC. |
| TOC runs onto too many pages | Reduce the number of included levels, decrease font sizes, or switch to a two-column layout to fit more entries per page. |
| Leaders misaligned | Ensure the right margin and tab-stop settings are consistent across all levels. Preview the TOC before applying. |
| Help page does not open | Verify that the help files are installed alongside the plug-in, or check the configured help server URL. |
Tip
Always preview the TOC before applying. The preview shows exactly how the final pages will look, allowing you to adjust fonts, indentation, and leaders without modifying the document.
Note
TOC Builder creates new PDF pages containing the rendered TOC content. The original document pages and bookmarks are not modified by the TOC generation process itself.