Put contents in word

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In this post, we would show you 3 ways of how to quickly insert a table of contents into your Word document.

While reading a document in Word, you can use either table of contents or navigation pane to help yourself look through contents quickly. Yet when it comes to printing, the navigation pane cannot be printed along with document. But, the former does. Therefore, it’s necessary to insert a table of contents into a Word document, especially a long one. Following are 3 effectual methods.

Method 1: Insert a Table of Contents Manually

1. Firstly, put cursor at the place where you want the table of contents goes. Click “References” tab then the “Table of Contents” command.
2. Next select “Insert Table of Contents”.
3. In the dialog box open, set up the configurations as you need, such as the “Show levels”.
4. Click “OK”.

Usually, we place table of contents at the first page of document. If you have inserted page number before, you will find the main document now starts at page 2. Then here is the situation. Some people will want the main document page starts at page 1 as usual while the table of contents shall be excluded from page numbering. To do this, you will need extra operations. Read this article for detailed instructions: How to Start Page Numbering from a Specific Page in Your Word

And remember to update your table of contents after all the adjustments.

Method 2: Run Word Macro

As you see, the manual way to insert a table of contents is a bit tiresome, with such issues as resetting page numbers. For this reason, we recommend you using the macro way to fulfill this task. With a macro, you can have the entire process automatically performed in seconds.

1. First off, press “Ctrl+ Home” to go to the start of document.
2. Then press “Alt+ F11” to trigger VBA editor.
3. Next click on “Normal” and then “Insert”.
4. Choose “Module” and double click on it to open the editing area.
5. Then paste the following codes there:

Sub InsertTOC()
  Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdSectionBreakNextPage
  Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
  With ActiveDocument
    .TablesOfContents.Add Range:=Selection.Range, RightAlignPageNumbers:= _
      True, UseHeadingStyles:=True, UpperHeadingLevel:=1, _
      LowerHeadingLevel:=9, IncludePageNumbers:=True, AddedStyles:="", _
      UseHyperlinks:=True, HidePageNumbersInWeb:=True, UseOutlineLevels:= _True
    .TablesOfContents(1).TabLeader = wdTabLeaderDots
    .TablesOfContents.Format = wdIndexIndent
  End With
  ActiveDocument.Sections(1).PageSetup.DifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter = True
  With ActiveDocument.Sections(2)
    .Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevious = False
    .Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).PageNumbers.RestartNumberingAtSection = True
    .Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).PageNumbers.StartingNumber = 1
  End With
  ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1).Update
End Sub

1. Last but not the least, click “Run”.

After running macro, the newly inserted table of contents will be put at the first page and the page numbering starts at the second one. Also, the table of contents is already updated.

Method 3: Insert Tables of Contents into Multiple Documents

In case you like the easiness of batch processing, you utilize the bellowing macro:

Sub InsertTOCForMultiDoc()
  Dim objDoc As Document
  Dim strFile As String, strFolder As String
 
  '  Initialization
  strFolder = "C:UsersPublicDocumentsNew folderTest1"
  strFile = Dir(strFolder & "*.docx", vbNormal)
 
  '  Precess each document in the folder.
  While strFile <> ""
    Set objDoc = Documents.Open(FileName:=strFolder & strFile)
 
    Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdSectionBreakNextPage
    Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
    With ActiveDocument
      .TablesOfContents.Add Range:=Selection.Range, RightAlignPageNumbers:= _
        True, UseHeadingStyles:=True, UpperHeadingLevel:=1, _
        LowerHeadingLevel:=9, IncludePageNumbers:=True, AddedStyles:="", _
        UseHyperlinks:=True, HidePageNumbersInWeb:=True, UseOutlineLevels:= _
        True.TablesOfContents(1).TabLeader = wdTabLeaderDots
      .TablesOfContents.Format = wdIndexIndent
    End With
    ActiveDocument.Sections(1).PageSetup.DifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter = True
    With ActiveDocument.Sections(2)
      .Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevious = False
      .Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).PageNumbers.RestartNumberingAtSection = True
      .Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).PageNumbers.StartingNumber = 1
    End With
    ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1).Update
 
    objDoc.Save
    objDoc.Close
    strFile = Dir()
  Wend
End Sub

Just follow the same steps in method 2 to install and run the macro.

Notes

1. You must arrange all documents under the same directory first.
2. Never forget to replace the “C:UsersPublicDocumentsNew folderTest1” with your actual folder path. Don’t forget the last “”.

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Table of contents (TOC) on a hard binding book helps readers to quickly navigate to any particular section of the book. This is also true for e-documents created with software like Microsoft Word. It not only helps other readers but also helps you, the creator of the document, to easily navigate to different sections. Sometimes, your project may have hundreds of pages long and it can be a problem to remember which page has what information. When you’re creating such a long document or report in Microsoft Word, there is a very good chance that you’ll have to add a table of contents to go with it.

Now, that might sound like a difficult task but it really isn’t. You can add or create a table of contents in just few clicks and then go about tweaking it. Then let’s say if you want to make some changes in the table content, you don’t have to completely replace it. You just need a single click to update the table of content. Let’s learn how to create table of contents in Microsoft Word Windows and Mac versions.

There are actually several ways of adding up a table of contents in Microsoft Word. In this article, we will show you the simplest way of creating the table of contents. These methods will work mostly in all Microsoft Word versions both on Windows and Mac. One more thing which we like about Microsoft Word is that each heading in the table of contents is automatically hyperlinked. With a single click, you can easily roll over to any page or heading in your long document.

1. Before Proceeding – Structure Your Document

It’s totally up to you, you can choose whatever document you like to make a table of contents. But there is an important point before you trying to create TOC. Microsoft Word will add only heading styles 1, 2 and 3 from your document in the TOC. So, you have to keep in mind that your document should have these headings (available under Home > Styles) in an arranged format as you wanted.

If you have a document in plain body text format without headings, it’s a good idea to first structure the format with h1, h2 and h3 headings. So, let’s jump on to the step by step guide on how to add a table of contents in Microsoft Word.

2. Using Navigation Pane

Before we start adding a table of content you need to turn on the navigation pane under ‘View > Navigation Pane’ in Windows platform. This ‘Navigation’ pane will show all headings that can be included in the TOC. You can click on the heading to navigate to that section. This way you can navigate to different sections of a document without creating explicit TOC inside your document.

3. Automatically Add Table of Contents with Built-in Style

Using pre-installed styles for table of contents is one of the fastest and the most common techniques we can see. Most of the people use it and make their work faster and save a lot of time. For adding a table of content automatically, you need to be at the page where you want to add a table of content. Generally you should add the TOC at the start of the document, so go to start of the document by pressing “Control + Home” keys on Windows and “Function + Command + Left Arrow” keys on Mac. Hit enter key to create enough space, again go up to the first line and follow the below steps for inserting TOC.

• Go to the ‘References’ menu and click on the ‘Table of content’ option.
• Now, you will see all the pre-installed styles and choose the style that suits your document.
• For this guide, we are selecting the ‘Automatic Table 2’. Once selected, you will see the TOC is added at the current cursor position.

The length of TOC depends on the length of your document and the number of headings you have added to your document.

4. Using Custom Table of Contents

The TOC with built-in style works great in most cases. But there are certain cases you may need to include additional headings created with custom styles. These custom heading styles are not included in the built-in TOC. At any case, you can customize the table of contents as per your need using custom table of contents option.

In Windows, go to the ‘References’ tab, click on the ‘Table of Contents’ button. At the bottom, you’ll see ‘Custom Table of Contents’ and click on that.

Now, you’ll see a dialog box ‘Table of Content’ and click on the ‘Options’ button. It will again display another small dialog box ‘Table of Contents Options’. Here you can choose the levels of headings, outline levels and choose table entry fields option.

When you have custom styles for headings, make sure that ‘styles’ box is checked and Heading 1, 2 and 3 are turn on with a small check on left side. Scroll down in styles box and select all custom heading styles like ‘Large heading’. If you want the outline levels to be turned on, it’s up to you. Click ‘ok’ and now you can see the Table of Contents has been added successfully including your custom heading styles.

5. Linking Sections from Table of Contents

When Word generates TOC, it links to the corresponding headings automatically. Hover the mouse on any of the headings on the table of contents. You will see a popup that says “Current document – CTRL + Click to follow the link”. When you press Ctrl key, your cursor will convert into a hand which shows it’s a link now and when you click on that link you will be rolled over to the section of that link in your document.

6. Creating Table of Contents on Word Mac Version

Microsoft has different versions of Word for Mac – Microsoft 365, 2016 and 2011. The Microsoft 365 and 2016 versions work as explained above while 2011 version works similar to earlier Word versions of 2002 or 2003 as explained below:

6.1. Document Map Pane (Navigation Pane)

On Word version for Mac, you should enable ‘Document Map Pane’ option available under the menu “View > Sidebar”. Latest version will have ‘Navigation’ option similar to Windows instead of ‘Document Map Pane’.

6.2. Insert Automatic TOC

Navigate to “Insert > Index and Tables…” menu. Go to “Table of Contents” tab and choose the available format of TOC for your document.

6.3. Custom TOC

Visit ‘Insert’ menu and chose ‘Index and Tables…’ options. Go to ‘Table of Contents’ tab and click on ‘Options’ button. In the options dialog box, it will show some options which allows you to build table of contents of your choice.

6.4. Hyperlinks

Unfortunately, the hyperlinks of table of contents will not work in Mac version of Microsoft Word.

7. Updating Table of Contents

If you want to update the table of contents, then simply ‘Right click’ on it and choose ‘Update fields’ option. You will have two options to update the TOC – update page numbers only and update entire table.

Choose to update the page numbers when you have added additional content in-between resulting the headings to move to different pages. If you have modified the document including headings then choose update entire table option to update the TOC based on new content.

7.1. Understanding Levels in Table of Contents

People get confused with the levels used in TOC. Below example explains how Word converts the headings from the content to links in the TOC.

1. Heading Level 1
2. Heading Level 1
   2.1. Heading Level 2
   2.2. Heading Level 2
     2.2.1. Heading Level 3
     2.2.2. Heading Level 3

The prefix 1, 2, 2.1, 2.2.1, etc. are the headings and sub-headings used in document. Whereas the level 1, 2, 3, etc. are the levels used in the table of contents.

8. Modifying Font and Styles of TOC

You can select the actual content in TOC and customize the font and paragraph settings. But this will be overwritten when you update the TOC. The easy way to modify the settings is to customize the themes of TOC. Word uses different style for each heading level in TOC. When you are in the options section, click on “Modify” button to open the style dialog box. Here you can choose the TOC level and customize the format and fonts as per your need.

9. Additional Options for Customizing TOC

Word treats entire TOC as a field, you can use the below points to customize the TOC further.

• Don’t use headings for titles if you don’t want it to be included in the TOC. Instead you can use title or book title styles.
• By default Word supports 9 level of headings for table of content. You can limit the levels in the options dialog box but you can’t increase the levels more than 9.
• Right click on the TOC and choose “Toggle field codes” option to see the entire TOC is converted into a field code like {TOC o f}. If you are aware, modify the parameters and customize the TOC as per your need.

Conclusion

With long document or report, it’s a good thing to add a table of contents page in them. It becomes a lot easier for the person to find the required sections quickly. As you have learned in this guide, adding a table of contents in your documents is not a hectic task. If you do any changes to TOC, always remember to update it.

Word can generate a table of contents for your document based on the document’s heading styles. For example, paragraphs formatted with the Heading 1 style would be main headings in the table of contents, paragraphs formatted with the Heading 2 style would be subheadings, and so on.

Insert a Table of Contents

A table of contents can take up a lot of space. The best place for a table of contents is a blank page, near the beginning of a document.

1. Click in the document where you want to insert a Table of Contents.
2. Click the References tab on the ribbon.
3. Click the Table of Contents button.

A gallery of built-in styles appears. You can select one of these, browse for more tables of contents on Office.com, or create a custom table of contents style.

4. Select a table of contents style.

   

The table of contents is inserted, listing all the headings in the document in outline order, as well as the page number that each heading appears on.

Customize a Table of Contents

If one of the built-in templates isn’t quite what you’re looking for, you can customize a table of contents.

1. Click anywhere in the table of contents.
2. Click the Table of Contents button.
3. Select Custom Table of Contents.

   

A dialog box opens, with options to customize the appearance and behavior of the table of contents.

You have the option to toggle whether page numbers appear and whether those page numbers are right-aligned, as well as specify what sort of tab leader appears between the heading text and the page number.

You can also select whether the table of contents uses the current document’s theme, or select another theme from the Formats list.

Finally, you can adjust how many outline levels deep the table of contents should go.

4. Customize the appearance of the table of contents.

As you adjust the table of contents options, the previews update to show you how the table of contents will appear.

5. Click OK.

   

If you’re customizing an existing table of contents, you’ll need to confirm the changes that you’ve made.

6. Click OK.

   

The table of contents is replaced by the table that you customized.

Update a Table of Contents

If the content of the document changes, you will need to update the table of contents to include new or changed information.

1. Click inside the table of contents.

When the table of contents is selected, tabs will appear above it with options to change or update the table.

2. Click Update Table button.

   

A dialog box will open, asking how you want to update the table.

3. Select what you want to update:
• Update page numbers only: This option will update page numbers, but not headings. Use this option if you’ve added text to sections, but haven’t added new headings or reordered existing ones.
• Update entire table: This option will update both headings and page numbers. Use this option if you’ve added new headings or reordered existing ones.
4. Click OK

   

The table of contents is updated to reflect the changes in the document.

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When you’re creating or editing a long document, you’ll
probably have to create a table of contents. That might sound like a chore, but
fortunately, you can do it in just a few clicks. Then, if you change the document, Word can update the table of content instantly. 

Best of all, Word includes hyperlinks to the various sections in your table of contents, so it isn’t just a visual aid for
printed documents, but it’s also perfect to make easy-to-browse online documents and PDFs with.

Creating the table of contents in Word itself is simple, but the tricky part is getting it to work the way you want. In this tutorial, I’ll show you everything you need to make a simple, auto-generated table of contents, and then get it to look the way you want in every version of Microsoft Word.

How to Make a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word (Screencast)

You can follow along using your own document, or if you prefer, download the zip file included for this tutorial. It contains a document called The Age of Einstein.docx, which is a public domain physics textbook (credit to the author, Professor Frank W.K. Firk).

Watch the video screencast above or follow the written tutorial instructions below for more detail on how to make a table of contents in Word.

Creating Your Table of Contents in Word

There are a few ways of creating a table of contents in Word, but only two that you’ll
ever use

• Create them automatically from built-in styles
• Create them from your custom styles

These methods work mostly the same in Windows and Mac versions of Microsoft Word.

Using MS Word built-in styles is the fastest and most common
technique, and using custom styles takes only a little more work. Sometimes,
you’ll want to use both techniques in the same document. Once you have a table of contents (TOC) in
a document, you can format it with its own styles. You don’t want to format the
TOC like regular text, because the formatting can easily get wiped out.

How the Textbook is Organized

Before doing anything to the document, let’s see how it’s
organized. Page 1 is the title, page 2 is blank and will hold the table of contents, page 3
is the preface, and after that comes the text. As you scroll down, notice that headings
and subheadings are formatted.

The best way to see the structure of the document is with
the Navigation Pane. (In some versions of Word for Mac, it may be called the Document Map Pane.)

In Windows, go to the View
tab, then click the check box to enable the Navigation Pane.

On the Mac, click the Sidebar option to show the drop-down menu. Click the arrow next to the option and click Navigation. (On older versions of the Mac software, the option is called Document Map Pane.)

On your Mac or PC, go back to the Home
tab if you’re not already there. Keep your eye on the Styles box on the ribbon,
and click the items in the pane to navigate through the book. 

Notice that the
items with whole numbers – like 2.
Understanding the Physical Universe – are formatted as Heading 1, and items
with decimals – like 2.1 Reality and Pure
Thought – are formatted as Heading 2. There are also a few decimal items –
like 4.5 Space Travel – that are
formatted as Heading 3.

Tip: when
creating a document, the shortcuts for applying the Heading 1, 2 and 3 styles
are Ctrl-Alt-1, Ctrl-Alt-2, and Ctrl-Alt-3
(and Command-Opt-1, Command-Opt -2, and Command-Opt-3 on the Mac).

Generating a Table of Contents Using Built-In Header Styles in Word

Word can now turn those Heading styles into table of contents
entries. Click at the top of page 2. (Tip: in Windows, press Ctrl-G,
type 2, then press Enter. On the Mac, press Command-Opt-G, type 2, then press Return.)

In Windows, go to the References
tab on the ribbon, click the Table of
Contents button on the left, then choose one of the two built-in tables
from the list. Note that the thumbnails show that Headings 1, 2 and 3 will be
included.

It’s almost the same on the Mac. Go to the Insert menu, choose Index and Tables, then pick one of the
formats on the left and click OK.
This dialog box also shows that Headings 1-3 will be included.

As soon as you choose one, the table of contents gets inserted starting on
page 2, and Word automatically inserts a couple of more pages, so it all fits. In Windows, you can Ctrl-click one of the items, and it will hyperlink to the item in the document.

This works great, but there’s one problem. Before the
Introduction, there is a Preface that
should be included in the table of contents. And just before Appendix A1 is the heading for
the Appendix, and that should also be
included. But they weren’t, because they’re both formatted with a custom style
called Large heading, and custom
styles don’t get included in the default table of contents. The second method of creating table of contents in Word will fix that.

Creating a Table of Contents From Custom Styles in Word

Word can include any styles in a table of contents. We just
have to tell it which ones to choose. And we can update the table, rather than having
to delete it and start over.

In Windows, go back to the References tab, click the Table
of Contents button, then near the bottom of the menu, choose Custom Table of Contents. Click the Options button near the bottom of the dialog box to display the Table of Contents Options dialog box.

On the Mac, go to back to the Insert menu and choose Index
and Tables. In the Table of Contents section, click the Options button.

On the Mac or PC the Table of Contents Options dialog box shows that the Heading 1 style will have TOC level 1,
the Heading 2 style will have TOC level 2, and the Heading 3 style will have
TOC level 3.

Scroll down to the bottom of the list (on the Mac, you’ll use the down slider). Then, in the box for Large heading, type a 1 to make it level 1. Table of Content levels can
come from more than one style.

Click OK in the
Table of Contents Options dialog, then OK again in the Table of Contents dialog box. When Word displays a message asking if you want to replace the
table, choose Yes. The Preface and Appendix are now both included in the table
of contents.

Manually Updating the Table of Contents in Word

There are other times when you’ll want to update the table
manually. This is handy when you change the text of one of the headings and
want the change reflected in the table of contents.

Scroll down to the page with the preface. At the top of the page replace
PREFACE with FORWARD. Make sure it still uses the Large heading style.

Go back to the top of the table of contents and click in it. Note that it
has a gray background; that means it’s a field, and fields can usually be
updated. 

Click the Update Table
button either on the TOC itself (that button doesn’t always appear) or on the References tab, and the first entry changes to FORWARD. (On the Mac, right-click the table and choose Update Field from the pop-up menu. Choose the Update entire table option and click OK.)

Now that the table of contents displays the correct text, we
can apply nicer formatting though.

How to Modify Table of Contents Styles in Word

Each heading level of the table of contents has its own
style that’s automatically applied. All we have to do is change the formatting
of the styles to change the table’s appearance, here’s how:

1. In Windows, in the References tab of the ribbon, click again on the Table of Contents button and choose Custom Table of Contents, near the
   bottom. In the Table of Contents dialog box, click Modify.
2. On the Mac, click Insert > Index
   and Tables. On the left side, choose From Template, then
   click Modify. Everything else works
   the same way as in Windows.
3. In the Table of Contents dialog box, click Modify, and another dialog box appears,
   showing style names and formatting for the TOC heading levels. Select TOC
   1.
4. Click the Modify
   button just below it, and the Style dialog  box appears. (On the Mac, it’s called the Properties dialog box.)

Format the style with Arial or Helvetica, 12 points, bold.
Then click OK.

• Repeat for the TOC 2 style, and set it to Arial
  or Helvetica, 12 points, normal.
• Repeat for the TOC 3 style, and set it to Arial
  or Helvetica, 11 points, normal.

The table of contents should now look like this:

Conclusion

When you have a long document, you don’t have to fear
creating a table of contents. Whether you’re using Windows or a Mac, you can
insert one in just a few clicks, then use the same dialog box to change the
formatting.

As you learned in this table of contents tutorial, remember not to apply formatting directly to the table, because it
can get wiped out if you replace it. If you make any changes to the Word document itself, remember to click the top of the TOC and update it. Leave a comment below if you have any trouble making or tweaking your table of contents.

To learn more about working with Microsoft Word, study the following tutorials:

Editorial Note: This post was
originally published in 2014. It has been comprehensively revised to make it
current, accurate, and up to date by our staff—with special assistance from Laura Spencer.

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Bob Flisser has authored many videos and books about Microsoft and Adobe products, and has been a computer trainer since the 1980s. He is also a web and multimedia developer. Bob is a graduate of The George Washington University with a degree in financial economics.