Xara MX 2013 - Table of Contents

[vman]

Folks,
This is a long shot but I thought I'd probe the expertise here.

I have been using Xara Extreme for years and have recently upgraded to 2013 MX. I also use Web Designer for building and maintaining websites. I thus consider myself a fairly adept user.

I have recently discovered the freedom of using Xara Photo&Graphic Designer MX as my word processor of choice. I used to use MS Word, but had always found that software ridget and difficult to make it do what I wanted. With Xara as a word Processor I find I have ultimate freedom to make document look exactly the way I want them to; unfortuatly, Xara wasn't really designed for this so there are some functions that are either missing or difficult in terms of word processor tasks.

One such task is creating a Table of Contents (ToC). In MS Word, one can, with a couple of steps, create a self updating table of Contents. When new pages are inserted into a document, the page numbers in the ToC with automatically update.

Does anyone know how to do a similar trick with Xara. I thought about a Hyperlink and Anchor, but this doesn't add a page number (Unless I'm missing something). It's ok with me if it takes 15 steps to create, because once created it can be saved and resurected for new projects. I'll include a link here to a basic instruction for creating a ToC with MS Word (if this helps): http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numb...fcontents.html

Any assistance would be appreciated. I'd like to break free of the MS Word Chains for good, but before I do, I'll need to be able to do a few more functions with Xara.

Thank you,

[gwpriester]

I am hopeful that this function will be added in the next release to round out the DTP text editing capabilities.

But then I am still hopeful that spot color support will be added for bitmaps, so I would not put too much stock to my hopes.

[vman]

Thanks Gary,

I presume from your responce that there is no built in functionality to create Table of Contents in Xara. Do you know of any work around? Presently, I don't even know how to add a page number to an Xara document (that updates when new pages are inserted). I am exporting to PDF and using Adobe to add the page numbers. Not ideal but it works.

This means that the only way I can complete a Table of Contents is manually. A real roadblock because it makes updating documents very time consuming and prone to errors. Adding one page in the middle of a 100pg document will change the page numbers of all pages, which then need to be manually changed.

If this could be solved, it would be a major step forward towards a functioning Word Processor.

Thanks,

[Sadler]

How 'bout this...

Let's say you had a section title like this: "The Transcendental Prognostication of Esoteric Solipsim Page 384"
Then you create a Live copy of each section title to create a TOC.
Then when you add new pages you just jump to each (perhaps named) title, see what page it is on and update the page number right there. The TOC will then update.

A slight extension to this idea is that you have the title and page number as two different live copies. You'd still have to update all page numbers once after an inserted page but his gives more flexibility on layout.

Yeah, so it's a huge kludge, is only partly automatic and imposes fugly restrictions on your page structure/layout but...

[vman]

Sadler,

Excelent idea. While you gave me pause as I contemplated my previously held egocetric view of exsistance, I ultimatly considered that this idea might work. Unfortunatly, I still have not been able to force Xara to provide sequential page numbers, but I can work around this with Adobe. I can embed the page number with the section title and as the need to update the title or page number comes about, the ToC will also update. Still a bit manual, but more automated then my current way for doing things.

Unfortunatly, I have Photo&Graphic MX and WebDesigner seperate and not the one integrated Pro version. I will email Xara to find out if I can get an affordable solution to upgrade. It looks like Live Copy is one of the very few useful tools (to me anyway) only available in the Pro version. I tried this with a soft group, but it didn't work as suspected.

Thanks for your help Sadler,

[ad1066]

I've already posted in Dear Xara regarding auto page numbering, maybe next version. I would say you should definitely post about TOC generation there as well. If enough people ask for enhanced DTP features, the devs will listen.

-- Ben

[vman]

Thanks ad,

I did as you suggested and posted to Dear Xara. Too bad there isn't voting on that part of the board. In any case, Xara just keeps getting better with every sucessive update so I'm sure at some point in the future, it will serve many more functions than what it already does.
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...ssor-of-Choice