Creating a table of contents is one of the most rewarding features to add to your catalog, and one of the most immediate benefits resulting from automating your catalog production.

Manual creation

Creating a table of contents manually requires the copying and pasting of headings and page numbers. Any changes to the location of products or the desired headings need to be manually updated within the table of contents – a serious limitation for a detailed product catalog.

Automated creation

Automated using Table of Contents feature within InDesign

InDesign offers an easy-to-use table of contents (TOC) featured based on cross-referencing to different headings created as paragraph styles. This method is suitable for creating a hierarchical reference of all relevant categories. Manually placed content (e.g. at the start or end of a catalog) which utilizes the same heading styles will automatically be included within the table of contents.

Learn more by reading our Creating a table of contents using Adobe InDesign guide.

Automated using EasyCatalog

Using EasyCatalog to create your table of contents or index gives you access to more advanced options, most notably the inclusion of product records including pricing and other summary information.

Learn more by reading our Creating an index using EasyCatalog guide.

Selection guide

* Requires specific InDesign paragraph styles to be setup. Handling of multiple/duplicate codes may not be suitable.