Hello,
I make lots of reports and manuals. They are all different. Therefore, the table of contents, the section titles, the sub-section title pages, and the section title page table of contents for the sub-sections need to be changed for each one. I make all the pages in Word. When I have all the section table of contents and title pages included with the correct formatting I print them to .pdf, as I mainly insert all the contents of the report from .pdfs.
I have been trying to figure out how I can make this process simpler. I constantly have to go back to edit the pages of the word file if I have forgotten a subsection then to update the section table of contents and then the main table of contents (which in the past were not an automatic or updatable table of contents but a list manually entered. This lead to lots of reprints of the pages to .pdf to get it right.
What I have done so far is create an example template for the pages that include actual table of contents for the entire document as well as the section table of contents using bookmarks for the individual sections. Additionally, I placed link to an excel document where the section titles and sub-sections can be added. This pulls in all the info into the word document and all I do is update each table of contents then print. The issue with this is that I had to add a lot of extra sub-section pages as they always vary in length. This isn’t that big of a deal if I use less sub-sections as I can simply delete the blank pages from the printed .pdf, my table of contents does not pick up the blanks. However, if I need extra sub-section pages then I run into problems.
Is there a simpler way to do this? A way that uses the formatting I have in my current document, that can add additional pages based on the number of cells I have for each sub-section. Possibly delete unused sections or add sections that will have subsections as well. Automatically update the table of contents when a value is changed in the excel document.
I do not know much about macros or VBA. However, I am not against learning it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am basically looking for a step in the right direction for figuring this out. Since I do not know much I am not sure where to start. I have googled extensively but have only come up with the links approach I currently have.
Thanks,
Shane
I make lots of reports and manuals. They are all different. Therefore, the table of contents, the section titles, the sub-section title pages, and the section title page table of contents for the sub-sections need to be changed for each one. I make all the pages in Word. When I have all the section table of contents and title pages included with the correct formatting I print them to .pdf, as I mainly insert all the contents of the report from .pdfs.
I have been trying to figure out how I can make this process simpler. I constantly have to go back to edit the pages of the word file if I have forgotten a subsection then to update the section table of contents and then the main table of contents (which in the past were not an automatic or updatable table of contents but a list manually entered. This lead to lots of reprints of the pages to .pdf to get it right.
What I have done so far is create an example template for the pages that include actual table of contents for the entire document as well as the section table of contents using bookmarks for the individual sections. Additionally, I placed link to an excel document where the section titles and sub-sections can be added. This pulls in all the info into the word document and all I do is update each table of contents then print. The issue with this is that I had to add a lot of extra sub-section pages as they always vary in length. This isn’t that big of a deal if I use less sub-sections as I can simply delete the blank pages from the printed .pdf, my table of contents does not pick up the blanks. However, if I need extra sub-section pages then I run into problems.
Is there a simpler way to do this? A way that uses the formatting I have in my current document, that can add additional pages based on the number of cells I have for each sub-section. Possibly delete unused sections or add sections that will have subsections as well. Automatically update the table of contents when a value is changed in the excel document.
I do not know much about macros or VBA. However, I am not against learning it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am basically looking for a step in the right direction for figuring this out. Since I do not know much I am not sure where to start. I have googled extensively but have only come up with the links approach I currently have.
Thanks,
Shane
