[Solved+Issue] Automatic update of table of content / index

[hhue13@gmail.com]

Is there a way so that OO Writer automatically updates in Index / Table of Contents when the document is printed or exported as PDF? Would ensure that the index is always current when a document is printed / exported as PDF for sharing (and sometimes I only realize that I forgot to do that when it is too last ).

[acknak]

Greetings and welcome to the community forum!

That could be a nice option, but no. There's no built-in way to to that, as far as I know.

[hhue13@gmail.com]

Thanks for your response on this. Is there a way to submit such request / suggestions regarding enhancements?

[RoryOF]

Bugzilla report at
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=25710
suggesting automatic update of ToC before printing.

[acknak]

Thanks for digging out the issue!

Looking at the issue comments, there's a link to this oooforum thread: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=11826
discussing a macro to do the update. You can bind a macro to an event, such as printing or saving, or to a key press--although that's not much different than simply using the built-in menu: Tools > Update > Indexes & Tables.

Since oooforum can be rather difficult to access, here is the macro code from that thread:

Code: Select all

sub updater
oIndexes = ThisComponent.getDocumentIndexes()

for i = 0 to oIndexes.getCount() - 1
 oIndexes (i).update
 msgBox ("Index updated: " + oIndexes.getByIndex (i).getServiceName ())
next i

end sub

I can't say if it works or not.

[hhue13@gmail.com]

Thanks a lot for your help on this ... will give it a try!

[RoryOF]

A side effect of automatic update of Tables of Content or indexes is that if this is carried out at load or at save time on large documents (typically several hundred pages, ToCed and/or Indexed), it may make the Open/Save Processes even slower than they already are; probably the best compromise is automatic update before printing and perhaps an Update button on the toolbar so the process can easily be manually selected.

[hhue13@gmail.com]

Well - I've tested the macro approach and it seems to work nicely. I've modified the code slightly to check the document type as I want to do that only for Writer documents and removed the msgBox (as I personally find that annoying after a while).

The current macro is:

Code: Select all

sub updateIndex

if ((ThisComponent.supportsService("com.sun.star.text.TextDocument")) OR (ThisComponent.supportsService("com.sun.star.text.WebDocument"))) Then
	oIndexes = ThisComponent.getDocumentIndexes()
	
	for i = 0 to oIndexes.getCount() - 1
	oIndexes (i).update
	REM If you want to get a message box when the index is updated
	REM remove the "REM" in front of the msgBox line below!!
	REM msgBox ("Index updated: " + oIndexes.getByIndex (i).getServiceName ())
	next i
end if

end sub

and then I've assigned the macro to the following events (Tools --> Customize --> Events tab.):

• Print Document
  Storing or exporting copy of doc

Note: If you want to apply this macro assignment to all documents make sure to select "OpenOffice" in the "Save in" drop down box

This seems to work pretty well ... thanks for your help on this.