How to copy and paste a multi-page table of contents?

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Level 1

9 points

How to copy and paste a multi-page table of contents?

Hi everyone.

I have a large document with a Table Of Contents extending over two pages. I'd like to copy the entire TOC then paste it into a new Pages document.

I have been able to copy the TOC however when I try to paste it into a new blank Word Processing pages document the following Error message appears: "The table of contents is empty because none of the paragraph styles selected in the Document Inspector are used in the document."

I can paste it into a blank Page Layout pages document however it pastes it into a text box with only one page of the TOC in it. Even if the new Page Layout document has two pages and I extend the text box over the two pages only one page of the TOC is copied into the new Page Layout document. At the moment the only work-around I can do is to take a screen shot of each individual page of the TOC and paste them individually into a new pages document. I have tried exporting the entire original document to a plain text file however all the formating is lost (obviously). I have also tried exporting the entire original document to a Word document (.doc) however it won't let me copy the multi-page TOC and paste it into a new Word document.

Is there any way to successfully copy a multi-page table of contents to a new Pages document?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on May 2, 2013 11:19 PM

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Answer 1

May 2, 2013 11:53 PM in response to VQM

The TOC is a hyperlinked text derived from the contents of the file it was generated in.

You can try exporting the pages the TOC is on as rtf, text or pdf and transferring that, but I would question the value of a TOC for one document being in an entirely different document, which doesn't have what the TOC is pointing to.

Have you tried copying the T.O.C. Section from the document Thumbnails and pasting into the document Thumbnails of the 2nd document?

Peter

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Answer 2

fruhulda

Level 6

15,161 points

May 2, 2013 11:59 PM in response to VQM

The Table of content is relying on the title and headings in the document and their styles.

Could you tell us why you want to do this? Do you expect it to be editable?

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Answer 3

VQM Author

Level 1

9 points

May 3, 2013 12:10 AM in response to fruhulda

Thanks for the quick replies!

The copied TOC do not need to be editable and they do not need to "point" to anything at all. They just need to be copies of the TOC purely for reference purposes.

I actually have a number of such documents which are "modules" for a course. A number of my students have requested copies of the TOC only for quick referencing.

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Answer 4

fruhulda

Level 6

15,161 points

May 3, 2013 12:16 AM in response to VQM

Then try this: Copy the TOC and then go to Preview and File > New from clip. You should get a document with your TOC as it looks in Pages. Save the document as PDF

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Answer 5

VQM Author

Level 1

9 points

May 3, 2013 12:25 AM in response to fruhulda

Thanks fruhulda.

Sadly, the "New from clip" option is greyed-out. I even tried this with non-TOC sections of the document and the New from Clipboard option is always greyed-out.

FYI: I'm using version 4.3 of Pages '09.

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Answer 6

VQM Author

Level 1

9 points

May 3, 2013 12:46 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Thanks Peter.

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

The TOC is a hyperlinked text derived from the contents of the file it was generated in.

You can try exporting the pages the TOC is on as rtf, text or pdf and transferring that, but I would question the value of a TOC for one document being in an entirely different document, which doesn't have what the TOC is pointing to.

Have you tried copying the T.O.C. Section from the document Thumbnails and pasting into the document Thumbnails of the 2nd document?

Peter

How does one export individual pages from a Pages document?

I've also tried to copy the TOC section from the document thumbnail however I can't figure out how to select multiple pages in the document thumbnails. It only allows me to select one at a time. Furthermore, when I do select a single page from the thumbnail section and attempt to drag and drop it into the the thumbnail section of the second document it picks up the whole document and wont allow me to move it from the thumbnail section of the original document.

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Answer 7

fruhulda

Level 6

15,161 points

May 3, 2013 12:41 AM in response to VQM

Yeah, you are right. I should have tried it out first.

You could save or export the whole document to Pdf.

Do you need the TOC to be in a Pages document?

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Answer 8

VQM Author

Level 1

9 points

May 3, 2013 12:48 AM in response to fruhulda

Thank fruhulda.

No, it doesn't need to be in a Pages document however I would like to maintain the "look" of the TOC. When I tried exporting it to a text file it only took the text and lost the formatting i.e. it looked pretty messy.

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Answer 9

fruhulda

Level 6

15,161 points

May 3, 2013 12:49 AM in response to VQM

That is why you should try exporting to PDF instead.

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Answer 10

VQM Author

Level 1

9 points

May 3, 2013 12:56 AM in response to fruhulda

Thanks again fruhulda.

Have exported the whole document as a PDF but now how do I get just the TOC in a separate document. I've tried highlighting the pages containing the TOC in the thumbnails, then right clicking and Export As however it exports the whole document again. I've also tried highlighting the TOC from the pdf file of the document, copying that to the clipboard and trying File>New from clipboard however that option is still greyed-out.

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Answer 11

fruhulda

Level 6

15,161 points

May 3, 2013 1:02 AM in response to fruhulda

When you have the Pdf version you can from Preview drag the thumbnail pages onto Pages, one by one.

If you don't them floating but inline press Option/Alt and Cmd keys when you drag them over to PAges.

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Answer 12

VQM Author

Level 1

9 points

May 3, 2013 1:05 AM in response to fruhulda

BINGO!

Thanks fruhulda - problem solved 🙂

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Answer 13

fruhulda

Level 6

15,161 points

May 3, 2013 1:08 AM in response to VQM

Glad we found a workable solution!

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Answer 14

May 3, 2013 2:29 AM in response to VQM

VQM wrote:

Thanks Peter.

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

The TOC is a hyperlinked text derived from the contents of the file it was generated in.

You can try exporting the pages the TOC is on as rtf, text or pdf and transferring that, but I would question the value of a TOC for one document being in an entirely different document, which doesn't have what the TOC is pointing to.

Have you tried copying the T.O.C. Section from the document Thumbnails and pasting into the document Thumbnails of the 2nd document?

Peter

How does one export individual pages from a Pages document?

I've also tried to copy the TOC section from the document thumbnail however I can't figure out how to select multiple pages in the document thumbnails. It only allows me to select one at a time. Furthermore, when I do select a single page from the thumbnail section and attempt to drag and drop it into the the thumbnail section of the second document it picks up the whole document and wont allow me to move it from the thumbnail section of the original document.

Shift click to select multiple pages, and I did say Copy and Paste, not drag and drop.

Peter

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Answer 15

VQM Author

Level 1

9 points

May 4, 2013 1:07 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Hi Peter.

You did say Copy and Paste. I neglected to mention that when I Copy and Paste as you suggest the entire document is copied and pasted into the new Pages document. Also, in Pages, shift-clicking does not select multiple pages. As I mentioned, I can only select one page at a time. I also tried option-click, command-click, option-command-click, shift-command-click, shift-option-click and shift-option-command click.

However, I can select multiple pages in the thumbnails when the document is in pdf format in Preview. Thanks anyway for your suggestions 🙂

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