If a patron comes in experiencing issues with their links in both the TOC and their lists of tables/figures, before doing anything, turn off track changes in the Review tab.

If track changes is on, any changes to the file, (insertions, deletions, or moves) will break the links. Because the TOC and lists are linked to the file as it is when the links are created, the buffer of changes created by track changes aren’t considered part of the document yet. This means that if track changes is on, and links are created, they can be attached to something that isn’t actually part of the document yet, which breaks the link functionality in Word. This applies to simple moves, i.e. if you move a heading from one page to another, or adding a heading.

To fix this, either accept all changes in the document or go through one by one and accept the changes that affect TOC and List links. 

This problem is mostly associated with template files, but might pop up any time an ETD is required to have significantly formatted level 1 headings internally and the preliminary pages and appendices have more standard formatting. The most common example is when internal headings need automatic numbering options for section or chapter numbering.

To deal with this:

1. Use the style with the significantly different formatting for all level 1 heading and manually change the headings that need to look different.
2. Create a new, alternative level 1 heading style that can be used on the other level 1 headings.
   1. Highlight headings that look different from the standard, level 1 heading format for the document.
   2. Create a new style
   3. Base it on the Heading 1 style
   4. Use the Modify Style window to make the new style have the correct formatting.
   5. Apply the new style to the preliminary headings and the appendices. The base heading code will create the bookmarks, but the formatting will remain consistent.

This can happen with figures that are too high res, when there’s a bug in the file affecting the figures, or when figures are placed inside text boxes.

To fix this:

1. Try exporting a different way.
2. Try delete the figures and reinserting them, making sure the figures are not inserted into a text box. Re-export to PDF and check.
3. Take screenshots using the snipping tool or the screen clipping function in Word, to try and insert a lower res copy. Re-export to PDF and check.
4. If one of the first 3 doesn’t work, double check that the figures are not in text boxes. You’ll know if they are if you select the figure and there is an additional box surrounding the figured (will look like a thin black line, kind of like the lines that surround an inserted TOC). If this is the case, remove all content that is within the text box and put it back on the page outside the text box. Re-export at this point and check the figures again.
5. If nothing in Word seems to make the figures work, you can insert the figures directly into the PDF file by using the “Edit PDF” view in Acrobat Pro. Keep in mind, if you opt for this option, you will have to reinsert the figures every time you make a new PDF, so make it one of the last steps you take before submitting the ETD online.

This mostly comes up with the captions for figures and tables, but text boxes can often cause issues depending on how the student has used them.

Figure/Table Captions

When text boxes are uses for figure and table captions, the biggest issues you might encounter is creating the list of figure/table links. Often word will ignore whatever is inside a text box, so it might miss some of the captions or all of them when you make the lists.

To fix this:

1. To be absolutely sure issues don’t continue, each caption will need to be take out of the text box, and pasted onto page like it’s an actual paragraph of the paper. 
2. After copying and pasting one of the captions onto the page, format it manually to look like a caption should (use a recently approved ETD for comparison). This might require you to play with text wrapping options of the figure.
   1. Double check that the figure or table was not also inserted within a text box.
3. Once formatted, highlight the caption and create a new style based on that caption.
4. Then repeat step 1 for each caption, and once it is on the page, apply the new style you created to each caption.
5. Then recreate the list of figures/tables based on the new style.
6. Check that all figures/tables are included and make sure the links all work.

There is a way to update the links to correctly travel to a caption in a text box. This method, however, is currently unproven and is not guaranteed to function correctly. The previous method will definitely function, but if needed, this can also be done:

1. In the Table of Figures, right click on the broken link and select “Toggle Field Codes”
   1. 1. This will display the code Microsoft Word uses to identify the location of the link.
      2. This link can either be an internal link or an external file path (though often to the document itself). The external file path will only work on the computer where it is created, but will break if you try to move computers or use the “Save As” dialogue.
      3. An internal document link will look like this:
         { HYPERLINK \l “_Toc20502129” }

      4. An external document link will look something like this:
         { HYPERLINK “D:\\Documents\\MyFolder\\MyDocument.docx” \l “Toc20502129 }

2. To convert a broken external link (created by Word when trying to link to a text box) remove the file path from the Hyperlink so it looks like an internal link. Make sure to not remove the \l or the number at the end
3. Right click on the hyperlink again and select “Toggle Field Codes” again
4. If the table is ever updated more than just page numbers, this process will need to be repeated on each broken link
5. This link will most likely be preserved when converting to PDF, but there is a lot of room for error in this process. Make sure to check the link for unexpected behavior after conversion

Other Issues

Text boxes are sometimes added by students who don’t know the best way to achieve what they are trying to do. This can result in sections of their paper, or sometimes their entire paper, being inserted into a text box. These will create unexpected behavior in Word’s automated features.

Indicators of issues

The indicators for this situation are varied based on the situation, but usually the following two options are the best indicators:

1. Headings won’t appear in the TOC, even though the Heading styles have been used.
2. There is a thin stroked box that appears around the text as you edit it. (think the thin stroke that surrounds and automatic TOC, except surrounding regular text).

To Fix this:

1. The easiest way is to copy and paste whatever content is inside the text box to a part of the page that isn’t inside the text box.
2. If the whole paper has been placed inside a text box, start a new document and copy and paste the content into the new document.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE IF A FILE IS USING TEXT BOXES 

1. Press Ctrl + H
2. Click More>>
3. Click Special drop down
4. Chose Graphic
5. Click Find

Word treats text boxes as graphics, so an advanced find searching for graphics will find every text box there, even if they are invisible to us because they have no stroke or fill (or if the entire paper is inside one).

Styles can be set up so that items with the style can be numbered automatically as they appear in a document, similar to how using the “insert caption” option for figures can automatically number figure/table captions. These styles are most often seen in department templates, but the numbering can often be accidentally applied by students who try to figure out the ETD formatting on their own. These styles are used, most often, for chapter and section numbering.

Issues associated with automatic numbering are often related to the numbers being wrong. Here are a few of the common signs of numbering issues, and how to troubleshoot their causes.

1. Section numbers don’t reset after a new chapter.
   1. Make sure that the Heading 1 style that has the automatic numbering set up is applied to the chapter title (double check that the student hasn’t typed “Chapter #” on their own, as the style will often add the word chapter and the chapter number).
   2. If they have the correct style is applied, right click on the numbers that are incorrect, and try selecting “Restart Numbering” or “Continue Numbering.” The auto generated numbers should look like inserted captions (meaning they turn a darker gray when you highlight them) so when you select one of those 2 options, they should update to the current file.
   3. If the numbers still aren’t correct, search for extra section breaks (especially odd/even page section breaks) and eliminate as many as you can. Numbering can be reset when the first internal section number starts inside a new page section.
      • HOT TIP: You can search for section breaks by going to the advanced find menu (Ctrl + H –> With cursor in the find box, type ^%  and click find –> this will find every section break character in the entire document)
   4. If after that, they still are incorrect, you have 3 options:
      1. Dig around in the styles that have the multilevel list applied (usually starts in the Heading 1 style) and try to fix it there, OR
      2. Delete all auto numbering and have them number it themselves. Only do this option if you feel reasonably comfortable troubleshooting files and if the student has enough time before graduation, OR
      3. Have the student use a different style, ones without numbering, for the sections having issues. Tell them to number each section themselves. Then create a custom TOC with the new styles as level 2 headings under the correct chapters.
2. Section numbers restart in the middle of a chapter
   1. Check for section breaks, eliminate as many as you can without causing issues.
   2. Press Ctrl+A, then press F9 to update all fields.
   3. If that doesn’t fix it, check to see if the student has manually typed any of the sections by highlighting the section numbers that are wrong. If they numbers don’t appear in a darker gray than the highlight, they’ve manually changed them. If this is the case, then reapplying the appropriate styles should work.