For the past of couple weeks I’ve been focusing heavily on improving Connections’ documentation, extensions and templates. One of the improvements I really wanted was a table of contents that linked to sections on the page to make it quick and easy to locate the info you are looking for.
In my quest for a solution I came across the Table of Contents Plus plugin. It was nearly what I wanted, but not quite. So I did what any good developer would do… I rolled up my sleeves to make it the way I wanted. The result is a fork of Table of Contents Plus named Easy Table of Contents. After just one weekend, Easy Table of Contents already has 40+ active installations and two 5 star reviews. Not a bad start!
Want see it in action? The following pages show off the included widget:
If you need to put a table of contents on your posts or pages give Easy Table of Contents a try, it’s free!
First of all: awesome plugin, thank you!
I just rated on WordPress, 5 stars obviousely, would also like to chip in a little donation if you tell me how :-)
I would like to share 3 feature requests, that would make this plugin even more awesome :-)
Feature request 1:
your plugin allows to exclude headings, thats great.
What would be even better is to replace a heading with some alternative text. It happens that a H2 or H3 can be a little long – and look bad (I mean too long) in the TOC.
The solution would be to say: in the TOC, replace H text “xyz” with H text “abc”
Feature request 2:
the “active” section of the TOC is highlighted. Now, if the section is very long and has no subheading, suddenly no item of the TOC is highlighted (once the H tag is out of sight). It would be cool if the item is highlighted as long as a part of that whole section is visible. So if a section is very long, that H title in the TOC will remain highlighted.
Feature request 3:
For extra-long content it would be great to have an option like this one http://codecanyon.net/item/jquerywikinav/full_screen_preview/7974274 (see behaviour of sidebar when scrolling), so that the subheadings open up and close once they come to sight and disappear.
Just a few suggestions in case you have a roadmap for this plugin :-)
Thank you once again,
and keep up the good work :)
Greetings from Italy
Julius
@ Julius
Thank for the review and feedback!
Feature request 2 is already on my todo list. I do think it makes more sense for the active item to always be highlighted even if the H tag is not on the screen.
I really do like the idea of “alt” text for the TOC. How would you feel it about it being implemented like this example:
<h1 data-alt-toc="Use this for TOC">This is my really, really, really long header.</h1>This would be pretty advanced since it would require you to add the alt text using HTML. I suppose it could be done using settings… something like this:
This is my really, really, really long header.|Use this for TOC
I image this as a textarea where each line could be a header and its alt text.
Feature request 3… now that is pretty neat!!! I’ll have to look into that.
Thanks again!
ps. No donations :) This plugin was created for a need on this site since none of the other available options met my needs exactly.
Hi Steven, wanted to ask if you see a near implementation of this idea of “alt” text for the TOC… That would be amazing! ;)
@ Julius
Sorry for the late reply! I did not notice the new comments until just now. Your comment reminded me, so, I just now spent a few hours and have added this feature. No HTML or alt tags needed … you set the alt TOC header items right in the post settings like the exclude headers are set. This seems to work quite well so I plan on releasing tomorrow.
Hi Steven,
Thanks for all the work you’ve put into the plugin.
Is feature 2 (highlight item in TOC even when heading is not on screen) still on your todo list?
@ Kostas
Yes, it is still on my todo list. No eta, but it could be awhile.
good to know you are already working on that :)
The thing with using HTML alt tag would be a great solution (since its still simple editing). Sure, if you could implement it in the settings, even more people could make use of it!
“Keep up the good work”
:-)
Hello Steven.
This is the best table of contents plugin I found. Awesome work!
Question/ feature request: it would be awesome if I can split the table of content in 2 or 3 (responsive) columns, if the table is too long. Like this one https://thrivethemes.com/tkb_item/use-table-contents-element-thrive-content-builder/ . You think this could be added to the development roadmap? If not, do you think there is a simple CSS command or so to achieve this? :)
The other idea mentioned here (replace the item text in TOC with a custom ID or “alt” text) would definitely be a fantastic feature! Will you really add this feature soon? :-D
Thank you to contributing to WP with this awesome plugin!
@ Mario
re: Question/ feature request: it would be awesome if I can split the table of content in 2 or 3 (responsive) columns, if the table is too long.
Well you could probably do something like this right now. you would have to set the TOC so it does not display as a hierarchy (nested) list. This is done on the Settings page. You could then use some CSS like this to make the TOC list appear in columns.
re: The other idea mentioned here (replace the item text in TOC with a custom ID or “alt” text) would definitely be a fantastic feature! Will you really add this feature soon?
The couple comments I just recently received on this reminded me… so I spent a few hours on it today. I have the feature added and it seems to work quite well. It does not even need HTML you can set alternate TOC headings right in the post settings like you can when excluding header. Making it a settings was actually much easier than attempting to use the alt HTML attribute I was thinking of using. I plan on releasing this tomorrow because I still need to add the direction on how to use this new feature.
Thanks for a great plugin! I was wondering if you’re still planning to add support for pagination with the wordpress nextpage shortcode? Many of my long posts are paginated and I would love to be able to add a TOC to them.
I do plan on it, but have no timeline as to when because time is in short supply.
Hi Steven
I love the plugin!
Is there a way that the white space offset here can be fixed in CSS?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ld795mfr4uc5x9q/2018-07-08_18-55-14.png?dl=0
Thanks in advance
Dean
Likely, if it is being caused somehow by ezTOC. I can’t give any specifics though based on just a screenshot.
Came across this plugin through this blog post. Totally loving it so far. I used to insert navigation through internal links earlier, made my job so much easier now. I’ve heard it helps you in ranking better on Google too. Is that true?
Thank you!
Hi Steven,
Thanks for the amazing plugin. Its so simple yet so powerful.
I have 2 questions, which I was unable to resolve:
1. How can I align the header label to the right?
2. How can I create an indent so if I have H2 and H3 headers the H3 will not appear directly under the H2 header but will receive an indent?
Here is an example of a post in which I use your plugin:
https://www.francophilesanonymes.com/%D7%91%D7%AA%D7%99-%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%91%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%96-%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A4%D7%97%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A2%D7%9D-%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%93%D7%99%D7%9D/
Thanks a lot for your help.
Best regards,
Zvi
@ Zvi
I’m sorry to report I really have not invested time into properly supporting right-to-left. If you update the TOC so it includes the title header and some `h2` headers. I’ll take a look and should be able to give you some CSS to address these issues.
Please open a new issue in the support forms so I will get notified. I really do not actively monitor post comments so I might miss something posted here.
Thank you very much for your help.
How do I open a ticket? I don’t see how I can register to your site…
Go here https://connections-pro.com/support/forum/general-support/ and click the green button. No account is required.
Greetings Steven, there is any way to implement the table of contents with a shortcode or something to work along ACF Pro since “the_content” is not being used in my case. If not then I totally understand, amazing plugin. Thanks ahead.
Sorry, no. It only works with the_content.