Wrassling with Word 2010's Table of Contents

  Sooo... I'm working on a 'Sekrit' project (It's the Novel Form of my Terraria Fanfiction. Dang... I suck at secrets... ;P), and a part of that involved using the 'Table of Contents' feature baked into Microsoft Word. As long as you begin your chapters with a title that uses H1, you're fine just letting it loose on your project, and it will auto populate with Titles, Page Numbers (That you can update as you add / remove words from your project), and Hyperlinks to that Chapter. It's wondermous. The 'Problem' arises if you're doing something 'Different' in your Chapter Naming scheme... for example... Using H1 for the 'Chapter X' part, and H2 for the Chapter Name. (I did this so that I could use the Chapter Names Separate from the 'Chapter X' portion in the headers). If this sounds incredibly complicated... That's probably why I ran into problems. ;P

  The 'Problem' arose when I wanted to add another chapter to the story. See... you can have the table update the page numbers... or update the entire thing (Redoing all the Formatting, and pulling all the titles anew). I had manually adjusted the formatting of my ToC, and once you do that you can still use the 'Update Page Numbers Only' option... but updating the whole thing means you have to reformat (And in my case, Write in all the Chapter Names again) it. Now... before we continue... you can adjust an incredible amount of formatting option in the advanced Table of Contents generation menus. This problem was because I just went with the default, and then 'Manually' formatted it. If you're just deciding to add a Table of Contents... I'd spend a little bit of time playing around with the formatting options up front, and you can maybe save yourself this headache. >.>

  ANYwho... since I needed to update it, AND I wanted to keep my custom formatting, I used this guide, to learn about Field Switches, and re-familiarized myself with Copying and Pasting 'Only' Formatting. (CTRL + SHIFT + C to Copy Only Formatting and CTRL + SHIFT + V to Paste Only Formatting) Specifically... I learned that you can adjust the Field Code to pull multiple heading levels, and then once I did that, I pasted my custom formatting on top of the pulled Table. From there, I merely needed to bring the now separate sections (It by default gives each heading it's own line) together for each chapter... which was as easy as putting in my delimiter of choice (I put a : after that 'Chapter X') and hitting DELETE four times for each line. FAR quicker than retyping everything.

  All in all, I love working on this project. I've learned an incredible amount about formatting a novel... so 'One Day' when I end up writing my own original work... I'll be able to adequately format it for private printing. (If I ever go 'Pro' I realize that I'll have to play with LaTeX or something akin to that...  Yay? ;P)

Writing Again. ^.^

  And since this is my "Creative Blog" one would assume that I'd have updated it with that information... right? Well, I'm not that "On the Ball" yet... but I'm getting there. ;P

  Sooooo... that Advent of Indies thing... yeah... December was a crazy month filled not only with the usual hustle and bustle of the "Holidays", but also a large sum of "Extra" hours at work, and even the joys of looking for, and changing jobs... So I kind of dropped the ball there. Alas, it seems that there is no surer way for me to fail at a project than to announce it in writing... All except for one, which I am proud to say I have kept to for the entirety of the year thus far.

  Right on the First of the year, one of my friends had mentioned that she was going to take a photo a day for the year. Now... I'm no photographer. I mean, my Dad was, and I've had a childhood filled with "Family Photos" being set up, "Just So"... so I'm a little more in tune with it than some, but it's certainly not something I've ever felt "Called to".

  That said, for some reason, when I read about her project, I was 'Inspired' and decided to take on the challenge as well. I am aware that 'Part' of it was the fact that for the last couple months I 'have' kind of wanted to take pictures 'On the Side', and another 'Part' would be the fact that this Christmas the "Household Gift" was a new DSLR, but that alone wouldn't have drawn out the crazy in me.

  A "Larger" part of this project, for me, is that along with each shot, I'm making myself write 2+ Paragraphs... about the shot, about what's going on in my life, sometimes just 'Off the Cuff' ramblings from my thoughts. This has been amazingly inspiring for me. Typically, I try to make myself write, but then 'Real Life' gets in the way, and whatever project I'm trying to work on peters off. But this time.. there are even more variables that have been working in my favor.

  First, I've been working on a Fan Fiction (Yes, another one. ;P) for awhile now. It's been on and off for the last year, and I'm ecstatic at the fact that I've been able to keep myself working on it when I get the chance. So, my writing has been pseudo consistent for a little bit anywho.

  Second, One of the things that has killed my "I'm going to start writing" urges has been the lack of 'Inspiration'. I'm a workaholic, and not a lot happens in my day to day that's worth writing about. Sure I think sometimes 'Interesting' things, sure I have sometimes 'Interesting' experiences... but neither of these is predictable, and 'Most' of the time my schedule is / was... "Wake up and Rush to Work -> Work for 12+ Hours sometimes split across Jobs -> Come Home and eat my meal for the day -> "Maybe" spend some time trying to get things done around the house OR attempt some entertainment -> Sleep -> Rinse, Reuse, Ad Nauseum.

  So having to first come up with (Though that happens "Last Second due to late nights at work most of the time. :?) a photo idea, but then to take it and post it gives me 'At Least' that to write about if nothing else. And thanks to this shift in Daily Planning, I've actually gotten accustomed to looking around me with a more 'Visually Inquisitive' Eye. I've always been able to pull stories out of the air, and likely always will (Not that all of them are 'Interesting' ;P), but I will admit that until recently the 'Natural Beauty' of the world around me has mostly gone by unnoticed. So in a little way, that helps to inspire me too.

  All that said, There is one additional element that has helped this transition. Even as I type this, I am 'At Work'. I realized long ago that my "Workaholic" nature was killing my Creative Output. Now... I've tried in small ways to counter that.. but it always ends up boiling down to time / energy running out before I can get home and actually "Create". So I made a decision that 'This Year' I would either cut my work schedule to the bone (Work 'Just Enough' that I could pay my bills and not a moment more), so that I would have more time / energy, or that I would move into a job that allowed me the opportunity to "Create" even as I worked. I managed to luck into the latter... and this has been the best choice I've made in a long time. ^.^

  Anywho, the long winded point here is that yes, I am writing again, yes, I am 'Creating Again' and I have the unusually good feeling that 'This Time' it will stick. In previous attempts I've never felt compelled to 'Write Even More' than I'd intended... and now, I can't help it. ;P