Forum Discussion
bradholtz
Sep 18, 2025Copper Contributor
Index tab leaders don't reflect tab leaders in the Index Style
Contex: 700 page word document with multiple indexes - about 1500 index items in each of three indexes Issue: Indexes appear with dotted tab leaders in front of page number. Index 1 style (and the o...
Charles_Kenyon
Sep 21, 2025Bronze Contributor
You might try changing the tab setting in the generated index paragraph and then updating the style to match.
Can you perhaps save a pared-down copy of your document on OneDrive or DropBox and posting a link here? It should have at least the problem index and some of the index entries that go to create it.
It would also help if you specified the version of Word/Office by name and release number and your operating system.
- bradholtzSep 21, 2025Copper Contributor
Thank you. Your questions led me to a path to solution. A bit overkill, but it worked. Here's what I did:
- Reboot
- Open Word (Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2509 Build 16.0.19231.20044) 64-bit )
- "Open and Repair" the file with issues
- Save the file as "REPAIRED.docx"
- Confirmed that Index 1 and Index 2 Styles are set as desired (no dot leaders)
- Alt-F9 to expose parameters for each of the three indexes (noting that the \e parameter is a tab -->):
\e " " |h "A" \f "f" \c "1" \z "1033"
\e " " \f "d" \c "1" \z "1033"
\e " " \f "b" \c "1" \z "1033"
- Save the file as "NOINDEX.docx and close
- Open "NOINDEX.docx" and confirm Style settings
- Close WORD and Reboot
- Open Word
- "Open and Repair" NOINDEX.docx
- Save as "NOINDEX - REPAIRED.docx"
- Go to location for first index (Index of First Lines)
- Create INDEX with simple parameters (\e " " \c "1" \z "1033"
- Add the \f parameter
- Alt-F9
- Update index
- Repeat for the second and third indexes ("d" and "b")
- Save the file as "FIXED.docx"
Hopefully this will be a useful note for others who run into the same issue.