Confusion between dot and title in contents

Question

I have a confusion in the toc between the title and the dots.

 \documentclass[oneside]{book}

    \usepackage{color, xcolor}


    \newcommand{\mysection}[2]{
        \setcounter{section}{#1}
        \setcounter{section}{0}
        \chapter*{#2}
        \addcontentsline{toc}{section}
    {\protect\numberline{\hspace{-1.15cm}%
                       \colorbox{blue!50}{\color{blue}\string\parbox[c][.72em]{1em}
                       {\strut\protect}}%
                       \hspace{1em}\bfseries\sffamily \MakeUppercase{#2}\protect}}
    }




    \begin{document}

    \tableofcontents

    \frontmatter
    \mysection{1}{Introduction}
    \mysection{0}{Acknowledgments}
    \mainmatter


    \end{document}

Answer 1

Instead of a bunch of \protect commands and a strange \string macro there, it's better to use a robust command for such things since exandability of the command is no issue here!

However, \chapter* and using section as formatter indicator for the ToC still looks weird.

\documentclass[oneside]{book}

\usepackage{xcolor}

\usepackage{tocloft}

\renewcommand{\cftsecindent}{0pt}  % Perhaps?

\DeclareRobustCommand{\entryfortoc}[1]{%
  \bfseries\sffamily\MakeUppercase{#1}%
}

\DeclareRobustCommand{\bluenumberbox}[1]{%
  \colorbox{blue!50}{\color{blue}\parbox[c][.72em]{1em}{\strut}}%
}

\newcommand{\mysection}[2]{%
  \setcounter{section}{#1}
  \setcounter{section}{0}
  \chapter*{#2}
  \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{\protect\numberline{\bluenumberbox{}}\entryfortoc{#2}}%
}



\begin{document}

\tableofcontents

\frontmatter
\mysection{1}{Introduction}
\mysection{0}{Acknowledgments}
\mainmatter


\end{document}

Answer 2

It's quite hard to understand what you're trying to do.

1. Why should chapters in the front matter be regarded at the section level in the TOC?

2. Should the blue rectangle be typeset in the margin?

3. Why not simply a rule?

4. What's the purpose of \setcounter{section}{#1}\setcounter{section}{0} if the final effect is just to set the section counter to 0?

Here's a simpler code.

\documentclass[oneside]{book}

\usepackage{xcolor}

\DeclareRobustCommand{\bluerectangle}{%
  \hspace*{-3.5em}%
  \textcolor{blue!50}{\rule{1em}{.72em}}%
  \quad
}
\newcommand{\mysection}[1]{%
  \stepcounter{section}% reset all child counters
  \setcounter{section}{0}%
  \chapter*{#1}
  \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{%
    \bluerectangle\bfseries\sffamily\MakeUppercase{#1}%
  }%
}

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents

\frontmatter
\mysection{Introduction}
\mysection{Acknowledgments}

\end{document}