Show contents in word

Insert a table of contents

A table of contents in Word is based on the headings in your document.

Create the table of contents

1. Put your cursor where you want to add the table of contents.

2. Go to References > Table of Contents. and choose an automatic style.

   

3. If you make changes to your document that affect the table of contents, update the table of contents by right-clicking the table of contents and choosing Update Field.

To update your table of contents manually, see Update a table of contents.

If you have missing entries

Missing entries often happen because headings aren’t formatted as headings.

1. For each heading that you want in the table of contents, select the heading text.

2. Go to Home > Styles, and then choose Heading 1.

   

3. Update your table of contents.

To update your table of contents manually, see Update a table of contents.

Create the table of contents

Word uses the headings in your document to build an automatic table of contents that can be updated when you change the heading text, sequence, or level.

1. Click where you want to insert the table of contents – usually near the beginning of a document.

2. Click References > Table of Contents and then choose an Automatic Table of Contents style from the list.

   Note: If you use a Manual Table of Contents style, Word won’t use your headings to create a table of contents and won’t be able to update it automatically. Instead, Word will use placeholder text to create the look of a table of contents so you can manually type each entry into the table of contents. To update your manual table of contents, see Update a table of contents.

   

If you want to Format or customize your table of contents, you can. For example, you can change the font, the number of heading levels, and whether to show dotted lines between entries and page numbers.

If you have missing entries

Missing entries often happen because headings aren’t formatted as headings.

1. For each heading that you want in the table of contents, select the heading text.

2. Go to Home > Styles, and then choose Heading 1.

   

3. Update your table of contents.

To update your table of contents manually, see Update a table of contents.

Word uses the headings in your document to build an automatic table of contents that can be updated when you change the heading text, sequence, or level.

1. Click where you want to insert the table of contents—usually near the beginning of the document.

2. On the toolbar ribbon, select References. 

3. Near the left end, select Insert Table of Contents. (Or select Table of Contents > Insert Table of Contents. 

   The table of contents is inserted, showing the headings and page numbering in your document.

If you make changes to your document that affect the table of contents, you can update it by right-clicking the table and selecting Update Table of Contents.

Get the learning guide

For a hands-on guide that steps you through the process of creating a table of contents, download our Table of Contents tutorial. Or, in desktop Word, go to File > New, and search for table of contents.

See Also

Update a table of contents 

Is this article up to date?

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.

Did you find this post useful?

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.

Insert, Format and Update a Table of Contents or TOC in Microsoft Word (The Easy Way)

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated April 14, 2022

Applies to: Microsoft^® Word^® 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 or 365 (Windows)

You can create a table of contents quickly in Word using built-in heading styles. Although you can insert a table of contents (TOC) using different strategies in Word documents, it’s easiest to use Heading 1, Heading 2 and so on to format headings and then generate your table of contents. You can then change the formatting and update the TOC when your document changes.

Because a table of contents is a Word field, you should not type over it as any typing will be removed when you update the TOC.

There are 4 steps for creating a table of contents in Word using heading styles:

1. Prepare the document by applying built-in heading styles such as Heading 1, Heading 2 and so on
2. Create or insert the table of contents
3. Format the table of contents
4. Update the table of contents

Both custom and automatic table of contents can be updated when changes are made to the document. An automatic table of contents is inserted in a content control and some users may have difficulty working with, or understanding, content controls (which act as containers for specific content). The Manual Table that appears in the Insert Table of Contents drop-down menu is an option that requires the user to type entries and is not an efficient way to create a table of contents in Word (and should rarely be used).

Recommended article: 14 Timesaving Microsoft Word Shortcuts to Quickly Select Text

Do you want to learn more about Microsoft Word? Check out our virtual classroom or in-person classroom Word courses >

Step 1: Prepare the document by applying built-in heading styles

In order to easily insert a table of contents in Word, you’ll need to apply heading styles to titles and subheadings in your document first.

To apply a built-in heading style to a title or subheading:

1. Click in the title or subheading to which you wish to apply a built-in heading style. Each title or subheading is a paragraph and should be followed by a hard return (you pressed Enter or Return).
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon and in the Styles group, click a heading style (such as Heading 1). You can click the down arrow on the bottom right of the Styles Gallery to display more styles.

Below is the Styles Gallery in the Home tab in the Ribbon in Word:

It’s common to have one or two levels of headings (Heading 1 and Heading 2), but you can apply multiple heading levels. By default, Word will typically display the next heading level if a previous level has been used in the document.

You can also click in a title or subheading and press Ctrl + Alt + 1 to apply Heading 1, Ctrl + Alt + 2 to apply Heading 2 and so on.

Step 2: Create or insert the table of contents

Once you have applied built-in heading styles, you can easily create a custom table of contents or TOC.

To create or insert a table of contents:

1. Click in the document where you want to insert or create a table of contents (typically at the beginning of the document).
2. Type «Contents» or «Table of Contents» and press Enter. Format the text, but do not use built-in heading styles.
3. Click below the title where you want to insert the table of contents.
4. Click the References tab in the Ribbon and click Table of Contents in the Table of Contents group. A drop-down menu appears.
5. Select Custom Table of Contents. A custom table of contents will not appear in a content control. A dialog box appears.
6. Enter the number of levels to display in the table of contents beside Show levels (such as 2).
7. Select or check Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers if you want to create active hyperlinks or links if you save the document as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. This will enable users to click the table of contents in the PDF to jump to specific locations in the file.
8. Ensure Show page numbers is selected if you want page numbers to appear in the table of contents. If you select Show page numbers, the page numbers are typically right aligned by default. If necessary, select a tab leader from the Tab leader drop-down menu to change the character that leads up to the page numbers in the table of contents.
9. Select an option from the Formats drop-down menu if necessary. It’s best to select From template if you want to modify the formatting of the table of contents.
10. Click OK. A table of contents appears in the document. This is a Word field so if you click in it, it will normally appear in grey. Do not type manual entries in the table of contents.

The Table of Contents dialog box appears as follows:

Step 3: Format the table of contents

You can format a table of contents in many ways using the Table of Contents dialog box:

1. Click in the table of contents.
2. Click the References tab in the Ribbon and click Table of Contents in the Table of Contents group. A drop-down menu appears.
3. Select Custom Table of Contents. A dialog box appears.
4. Click Modify. Note: you will not be able to select Modify if you have selected any option other than From Template from the Formats drop-down menu. A dialog box appears with TOC styles.
5. Click a TOC style. For example, click TOC 1 if you want to format the first level items in the table of contents.
6. Click Modify. The Modify Style dialog box appears.
7. Select the desired options (such as font size, bold, etc.). You can also select Format and choose other options from the drop-down menu. It’s a good idea to turn off Automatically update so if a user selects and formats paragraphs manually in a table of contents, the table of contents does not update with the changes. It’s also usually best to select Only in this document so that the formatting changes apply only to the current document, not future documents based on the template (typically the Normal template).
8. Click OK.
9. Repeat for other TOC levels.
10. Continue clicking OK until you return to the document. A dialog box appears asking if you want to replace the table of contents.
11. Click OK.

You can modify an automatic table of contents in the same way. Click in the automatic table of contents and follow steps 2-9.

Below is the Style dialog box that appears when you click Modify:

If you selected 2 heading levels to include in your table of contents, you may want to modify TOC 1 and TOC 2.

When you click a TOC style and then click Modify, the following Modify Style dialog box appears:

You can select options under Formatting or click Format on the bottom left and select other options such as Font or Paragraph.

The following table of contents example includes 2 heading levels (TOC 1 and TOC 2):

Step 4: Update the table of contents

After you edit your document, you can update the table of contents at any time.

To update a table of contents:

1. Click in the table of contents.
2. Right-click and select Update Field from the drop-down menu or press F9. You can also click the References tab and then click Update Table in the Table of Contents group. A dialog box appears.
3. Click Update page numbers only or Update entire table (recommended).
4. Click OK.

Navigate to table of contents entries

If you want to quickly jump to a table of contents entry, Ctrl-click it in the table of contents.

Remove a table of contents

You can remove a table of contents if it’s no longer required.

To remove a table of contents:

1. Click in the table of contents.
2. Click the References tab in the Ribbon and click Table of Contents in the Table of Contents group. A drop-down menu appears.
3. Select Remove Table of Contents.

You can also select the entire table of contents by dragging over it and then pressing Delete.

Table of contents can be generated easily from built-in heading styles so it’s best to use the built-in styles when formatting your Word documents rather than creating new styles for headings.

This article was first published on February 8, 2020 and has been updated for clarity and content.

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This Contents Page in Word tutorial is suitable for users of Word 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word for Microsoft 365.  

Objective 

Create a Table of Contents for a Word document and update it to add new entries.  

Table of Contents Explained 

A Table of Contents page makes it easier for your readers to navigate and work with long documents. It gives documents a professional look and feel and helps you jump to a specific section quickly and easily.  

A Table of Contents is usually inserted at the beginning of a document or just after a cover page. It can be modified to fit the overall style of the document and be updated easily with one click when new headings and paragraphs are added to the document.

The golden rule, when creating a contents page, is good preparation.

A Table of Contents relies on the document being formatted with heading styles in order to work correctly. Word scans the document and looks for anything marked with a heading style and pulls it through into the contents page. You can choose how many heading levels you would like to include.  

In this screenshot, I have pulled through 3 levels of heading.  

Method 

In this example, I am going to go through the process of creating, modifying, and updating a Table of Contents in Word for a document titled ‘The Solar System’.  

Prepare the Word document 

In order to successfully insert a Table of Contents page, you must first set-up the document correctly by using Word styles to denote headings.  

Switching to Draft View 

You may find it easier to view your document in draft mode when working with styles, as it makes it easy to see which headings you’ve applied to which items.  

1. Click the View tab 

1. Click Draft 

The style currently applied to each paragraph will display on the left-hand side of the document. Normal denotes no style has been applied.  

NOTE: When you switch to Draft view, if you do not see the style pane on the left-hand side, you will need to go into Word Options and turn it on.  

1. Click the File tab 

1. Click Options 

1. Click the Advanced tab 

1. Scroll down the Display section 

If you cannot see the styles pane, it will say 0 inches. Set this to 1 – 2 inches and click OK.  

Apply heading styles to the document 

1. Select the first main heading in your document 

1. Click the Home tab 

1. In the Styles group, click Heading 1 

Scroll through the document and apply a Heading 1 style to all top-level headings 

1. Select the second-level headings in your document 

1. In the Styles group, click Heading 2 

Apply a Heading 2 to all second-level headings in the document. You can hold down the CTRL key to select multiple headings at the same time.  

Repeat this process for any other headings in the document. In this example, I have three levels of heading in my document.

Once the document is styled and organized correctly, it becomes easy to insert a Table of Contents.  

Insert the Contents Page 

A contents page is normally inserted at the beginning of the document.  

1. Scroll to the top of the document and position the cursor before the first letter of the first word in the document 

1. Press CTRL+Enter to insert a page break 

1. Click the References tab 

1. Click Table of Contents 

Word makes it simple to quickly add a Table of Contents by providing a small selection of in-built tables. In this example, I have selected Automatic Table 1.  

Hold down the CTRL key and click on a page number to jump to that page.  

Modify a Table of Contents 

You can make changes to the Table of Contents and format it as you please.  

1. Click on the Table of Contents to select it 

1. Click on the References tab 

1. Click Table of Contents 

1. Click Custom Table of Contents 

Tab leaders and levels 

Tab leaders 

Tab leaders are the dots you see between the heading and the page number in the Table of Contents. You can change these to solid lines or dashes.  

Show levels 

You can also specify how many levels of heading you want to show in the Table of Contents. For example, you might have four levels of heading in the document, but you only want to show two levels in the Table of Contents.  

1. Click OK 

If you make a change to the Table of Contents, Word will ask if you would like to replace the current Table of Contents.  

1. Click OK to replace 

Updating a Table of Contents 

It’s rare for a document to stay the same forever. New paragraphs might be added either at the end of the document or somewhere within it. With each new addition, headings are pushed on to new pages, and the new items need to be added to the Table of Contents.

Fortunately, it’s very easy to update a Table of Contents in Word.  

In this example, I’ve added a paragraph for ‘Pluto’ at the end of the document. I’ve formatted it with a heading 2 style.  

I now need to update my Table of Contents to include the additional heading.  

1. Click on the Table of Contents to select it 

1. Click the Update Table button 

Word will ask if you want to update the pages numbers only or the entire table.  

If you have reorganized your document and moved headings on to different pages but not added any new headings, you could select ‘Update page numbers only.’ For everything else, select ‘Update entire table.’  

Custom Table of Contents 

You can customize the look and feel of your Table of Contents by modifying the formatting. For example, you might decide that you want all level 2 headings to display in a bold, red font.  

1. Click on the Table of Contents to select it 

1. Click on the References tab 

1. Click Table of Contents 

1. Click Custom Table of Contents 

1. Click Modify 

Modifying ‘TOC 1’ will affect all level 1 headings. Modifying ‘TOC 2’ will affect all level 2 headings and so on.  

1. Select TOC 1 

1. Click Modify 

1. Make the desired formatting changes 

1. Click OK 

Video Tutorial 

To see a demo of how to create a Contents Page in Word, please watch the following video tutorial.  

How to create a Contents Page in Word Video (15:09) 

For more Free Microsoft Office tutorials from Simon Sez IT. Take a look at our MS Office Resource Center.

To learn Word with Simon Sez IT. Take a look at the Word courses we have available.