Using a TOC in an Include Page or Excerpt

Question

My company's style guide has a very specific way of displaying a TOC on a page. So that all of our writers use the same format, I tried creating an Include Page with this specific formatting on it. When I tried to include it on an article, the TOC did not populate.

OK, that didn't work. Let's try using it in an Excerpt and adding an Insert Excerpt macro on an article.

Nope, that doesn't work either! While I totally understand WHY it doesn't work (you're simply duplicating content that originates on another page), I would like to know if there's some way to "templatize" a TOC for reuse by a team of writers.

P.S. (If you're interested in our TOC styling, we create a one-celled table with a blue background. Inside that cell, we have On this page: 
 {toc macro}.)

Barbara Szczesniak · Answer

@Christie Gera _ Appfire I'm not sure about a TOC with an Include Page, but this may have something to do with not being able to nest macros.

Regarding templatizing the TOC:

On my page template, I have actually added 2 TOC macros (one for Sections on this page and one for Procedures on this page). I personally use a 3-panel layout at the top with the TOC macros in the first and second and another thing I place at the top of every page in the third.

I set the parameters I want for each of these macros in the template, and, when I create a new page from the template, it comes with both TOCs. As I write the page, these are fleshed out based on the content I add.

Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM · Answer

Look to see if an addon can get this functionality for you.

Macros would have been my suggestion, but since this is cloud, you would need to create a connected app.