alshedivat/al-folio

Distill TOC not working with apostrophe

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#3236 opened on Jul 12, 2025

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Description

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  • I read through FAQ and searched through the past issues, none of which addressed my issue.
  • Yes, I have checked that this issue isn't already filed.

Bug description

This appears to be the same issue as https://github.com/alshedivat/al-folio/issues/489, which said it was fixed but I'm still having the issue. If my section or subsection title contains an apostrophe ('), the Distill TOC does not work.

How to reproduce the bug

Same as previous issue.

Error messages and logs

The error message you got, with the full traceback if available. Please paste it between these triple backticks.

What operating system are you using?

Mac

Where are you seeing the problem on?

Deployed site

More info

Example website:

https://goombalab.github.io/blog/2025/hnet-past/#u-nets-don-39-t-work-for-language

(from the blog: https://goombalab.github.io/blog/2025/hnet-past/)

Contributor guide

Tech stack
htmljavascript
Domain
frontend
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
basic HTMLJavaScript DOM manipulation
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
75
Research direction
The issue is about apostrophes breaking the Distill TOC. Look at the previous issue #489 to see the original fix. The TOC is generated by JavaScript in the Distill layout. The problem is likely in how the script creates anchor links from section titles, possibly missing or incorrectly escaping apostrophes. Search for 'distill toc.js' or similar files in the repository. The fix might involve properly escaping special characters when generating IDs. Check the relevant JavaScript code and ensure it matches the approach from #489.