What is the table of contents in word

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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.

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.

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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Let’s look at the basic options for making a Table of Contents (TOC) in a Word document.  The basic TOC options haven’t changed for a long time.  The look of the dialog boxes and galleries changed with Word 2007 however under those superficial features, the fundamentals are the same.

Table of Contents is very easy to do in Word and it’s not just for people who are making books. TOC’s can be useful in any long document such as a contract.

Beyond the simple Table of Contents there are a lot of extras and tricks.
Table of Contents tricks in Word
Choose the words to show in a Word Table of Contents
Four Word tricks to shrink a Table of Contents

A table of contents can be there for ‘in house’ use while making the document, and later removed or reduced in the final version. It’s a good way to see an overview of a long document and ensure that it’s in a logical structure.

Finally, it can be a way to jump to parts of the document if you don’t like using the Document Map/Navigation Pane feature in Word.

Preparing your document

Before you make your Table of Contents (aka TOC) you need to setup your document with headings that will make up the TOC.

Word takes the text from paragraphs in nominated styles to make up the TOC. Normally you’ll use the ‘Heading 1’, ‘Heading 2’ etc styles in Word to define the headings that you want to show in the Table of Contents.

If you haven’t already, go through your document applying Heading styles to heading and sub-headings.

That’s the easy way and what we’ll use in this article.  However, you can assign any paragraph style to a level in the TOC.

It’s a common misunderstanding that Word uses the Heading styles to make the Table of Contents but that’s not strictly true.  TOC’s are also made from Outline Levels a hidden paragraph attribute.

Making a simple TOC

Once you’ve got some headings formatted in your document you can make a Table of Contents. The basics haven’t changed much for many versions of Word. Word 2007 and later it’s under the ‘References’ tab on the ribbon.

In Word 2003 and before you’ll find it under Insert | Reference | Index and Tables | Table of Contents.

If you just click OK you’ll get a standard Table of Contents showing headings from ‘Heading 1′, Heading 2′ and Heading 3’ with a heading for the ToC included.

The pull down menu at left shows the same Table of Contents gallery to quickly change the look of the ToC.

Chances are you’ll notice some anomalies in your initial TOC – headings missing or items that should not be there. Just go through your document, adjust the Heading styles accordingly then click ‘Update Table’.

Updating a Table of Contents.

A Table of Contents does not update automatically when headings or pagination changes. The Update Table button will give you two choices.

• Update Page Numbers only
• Update entire table

The default is ‘Update Page Numbers only’ which is fine if you’ve not changed or moved any headings – only added or removed text. This choice is faster but we generally avoid it because a change in the headings, however minor, may be overlooked.

We prefer to use ‘Update entire table’ to ensure the TOC is fully up to date. It rarely takes a noticeable time to update even on a long document. It’s a wise move to fully update the TOC before sending a document out.

Alternatively pressing F9 will also update the ToC because underneath the modern buttons and boxes is an old-fashioned Word field code { Toc }.

TOC Title

Some ToC templates come with a title which defaults to the word ‘Contents’.  Change that to whatever you prefer.

Add Text

The ‘Add Text’ button on the References | Table of Contents tab might win the prize for the most misleading Office button. It’s not really adding anything.

‘Add Text’ lets you manually control which headings appear in the Table of Contents.  In Word nerd speak, you can change the Outline Level of a heading without changing the look of that heading.

Select a heading in the document then choose ‘Add Text’.  It will show the Outline Level assigned to that heading/paragraph.  In this case ‘Level 1’.

To remove that heading from the Table of Contents, change it to ‘Do Not Show in Table of Contents’.  In Word terms you’re changing the Outline Level to ‘Body Text’ which is an option also available in the Paragraph | Indents and Spacing | Outline Level.

Headings can also be changed to a different Outline Level without changing the document appearance. For example, a single Heading 2 is upgraded to Outline Level 1 or downgraded to Outline Level 4 for the ToC.

Note: changing an Outline Level does NOT alter the levels for sub-headings.  Any sub-headings must be manually changed as well.  If not, the sub-headings will still appear in the ToC with strange results.

Changing the ToC

As always in Office, the initial offerings on the menu are just the beginning.  They can, and probably should change to suit your needs.

For example, quite often modern documents don’t need page numbers because the document won’t be printed out.  Clickable links to the document headings are more useful.  Or maybe you’d like both links and page numbers so the document is useful in both printed and on-screen form.

Clickable links in a Table of Contents are also great if you’re making a PDF from the Word document.  It’s how we make the clickable Table of Contents in Office Watch ebooks.

All that and more is possible from References | Table of Contents | Table of Contents | Custom Table of Contents.  You’d think the custom ToC option would be easily available from the building block menu or a simple right-click on the ToC but Microsoft has decided to hide the important ToC options away … go figure.

The dialog stills says ‘Web Preview’, a label that hasn’t been changed from the days when Word was being positioned as a web page editor.  It should really say ‘Onscreen’ or ‘Online’..

Show Page Numbers – turn on or off.

Right align page numbers – justify the page numbers on the right edge of the page while

Tab Leader  what character to use between the TOC entry and the page number (to guide a readers eye along the line).

Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers  – an important choice where documents are more commonly read on screen than on paper.  The headings become clickable links to that part of the document.  The hyperlinks work in a PDF exported version of the Word document.

Combine this option with page numbering or instead of numbering.

Format:  select a look for the Table of Contents. There are six in-built styles plus ‘From Template’ which uses the ‘TOC n’ styles in the current template.

Show Levels:  how many Outline Levels / Headings appear in the Table of Contents.  This is a simple option to choose from Level 1 to whichever Level you want.  More options are available by delving into the field codes.

You don’t have to show all the levels of Heading in the TOC. For example, you can have a document using Heading styles 1 to 9 but only display in the TOC the main headings. Do this from the ‘Show Levels’ settings.

Options

Table of Contents Options lets you change what makes a ToC.  Usually it’s Styles with Outline Levels.

As you can see, it’s possible to change the TOC Level (Outline Level) assigned to each Heading style.  Usually the relation is simple i.e. Heading 1 to Level 1 but that can change here.

Table Entry Fields is an advanced option. It’s possible to make an entirely custom ToC by inserting {TC} fields into the document or add entries to a Heading created ToC.

Style Separators are yet another way to build a Table of Contents from just some words in a heading, instead of the whole line.

Modify

Change the look of each Table of Contents level.

If you’ve selected the Format ‘From template’ then each ToC level is formatted with the matching ‘TOC n’ style.  The Modify / Style dialog lets you change the formatting of each level.

It’s really a mini version of the standard Modify Style options.

Multi-level Table of Contents

A table of contents doesn’t have to use only main headings in the document. The TOC can have multiple levels just like a numbered or bulleted list.

For example, a book in its final form could have these headings based on Heading 1 only:

• Akira Kurosawa
• Stanley Kubrick

Changing the TOC settings to include ‘Heading 2’ would change the TOC to show the sections under each main heading.

• Akira Kurosawa
  • Seven Samurai
  • Rashomon
  • Yojimbo
• Stanley Kubrick
  • Paths of Glory
  • 2001, A Space Odyssey
  • Barry Lyndon
  • Full Metal Jacket

There’s no need to create and remove Headings to do this, leave the document unchanged and just change the ‘Show Levels’ option in the TOC options dialog.

We often do this for drafts of long documents.  The Table of Contents is expanded in the draft to show more and deeper levels of Headings.  Before final release the ToC is changed to show only the main headings.

• Shortcuts for Word heading styles
• Selecting Heading words for a Table of Contents
• Table of Contents with extra text –  Quick Reference
• Table of Contents tricks in Word
• Table of Figures in Word

How to Create a Table of Contents in Word – In this post, we will explain how to create a table of contents automatically and will also explain how to create pages in Microsoft Office ( Ms.Word ).

In writing, a table of contents is a very mandatory component. The reason is that writers are required to provide a table of contents in a written work.

Read more:

• 5 Ways To Activate Microsoft Office 2013 Permanently Offline
• How to Activate Microsoft Office 2010 Permanently Offline
• How to Activate Microsoft Office 2019 Permanently Offline
• 15 Ways To Speed ​​Up Windows 10 Laptop PC

For example in writing a book, the table of contents is very important in writing scientific papers such as theses, papers, theses, dissertations, and many more.

What are the benefits of a table of contents in an essay?
The first is initial information about what will be discussed in a book or scientific paper.

The term table of contents is the subject of discussion, in some books have written a synopsis at the back of the book that tells the reader about the material topics or discussions in a book.

The table of contents also contains information on discussion topics contained in chapters or sub-chapters on each page.

In addition, the table of contents can also make it easier for readers to find information in a book or written work they are looking for.

The contents of the book are applied based on chapters and subchapters on each page. The existence of flat content can make it easier for people who are looking for material on the book page because it can be seen from the table of contents.

The discussion below will explain also how to create pages in the word correctly. Check out the explanation below!

How to Create an Automated Table of Contents and Pages in Word

#1. Create an Automatic Table of contents

1. Open the Microsoft Word that you use, then create a file in Microsoft Word. If you have selected the References menu, then select the Table of Contents menu. Choose according to your needs. The explanation here selects the Automatic Table 1 type.
   

   Then on your word screen will appear as shown below.

   It can be seen in the picture above that there is a Table of Content description or the table of contents is not found. Because there are several steps that must be made first.

2. Next, you must first create any chapters or sub-chapters that you will create in the table of contents. For example, as follows:> Preface
   >Prologue
   > Introduction
   > Introduction to Ms. Word
   > Benefits of using Ms. Word
   > How to use Ms. Word
   > About the Author
   > IndexThe chapter above is made with different pages.
3. Then set the style of the chapter title writing to be Heading 1 or Heading 2. The trick is to block writing and then on the Styles menu in Home select Heading 1 or Heading 2 and do it on all pages.
   
4. Then if every page has been completed, the next step is to create a page or Page Numbers. The step is that you select the Insert menu, then in the Header and Footer column click Page Number.
   

   If you have selected Page Number, you will see that there are several page number options. Here is an example of using page numbers in the bottom center, see the image below.

5. Then the next step is to open the first page where the table of contents will be created, then click Update Table.
   

   If you have selected the update table it will appear writing on each chapter of your page.

Note: The following explains how to create an automatic table of contents for page chapters, if you make changes to each page, change titles or add pages, you only need to click on the update table as in the fourth step above.

The changes you make will appear as shown above. Select Update Page Numbers Only if the table of contents page has not changed, on the title name then select Update Entire Table if there is a change in the title name or the addition of a title on the page.

#2. Creating Word Pages

Creating a Page Number 

• Open Microsoft Word, select insert in the header & footer section, then click page number.

• Then select the page number location:

1. Top of Page, the placement of the page number at the top or header.
2. Bottom of the Page, placement of page numbers at the bottom or footer.
3. Page Margins, the placement of the page number of the page margin.
4. Current Position, the placement of the page number at the cursor position.
   

• Then click the page number according to your wishes
• If you have closed the header or footer by double-clicking on the inside of the document or you can click the Close Header & Footer button.

Change Page Number 

The example here will change the page number format from 1,2,3 to I, ii, iii.

Creating Word Page Margins Size

• Open the Microsoft word that you are using
• Then on the top menu of the word page select page layout.
• If so, there are many choices, just click on the very bottom ” Custom Margins “.
  
• If you have clicked on the customs margins section,  then you will be shown a setup page.
• In the page setup section, set the margins to op, left, bottom, right, gutter, and gutter position according to your needs.
  
• Then click paper in the page setup section, to set the paper you are using.
  
• Then click OK.

Conclusion:

That’s the discussion on how to automatically create a table of contents and pages in word, hopefully, it’s useful.

Don’t forget to bookmark and always visit every day Technadvice.com because here you can find the latest technology information such as How-to Guide Tips and Tricks Blogging Digital Marketing Windows Android Root Social Media games, ETC. Best of luck.

Look at the nearest Microsoft Word document you have. There’s a good chance that it’s a document that’s just a few pages long. And without a Word table of contents.

But pick up software documentation or a research report. It wouldn’t be called a “professional document” without a pretty well-formatted Table of Contents.

You shouldn’t look at the job of making a Table of Contents (we will occasionally call it a TOC also) as a chore. Making a TOC isn’t only for dense reports or your next bestseller. It can be for something as simple as a daily journal or a school assignment. You should create a Table of Contents whenever appropriate.

Microsoft Word makes it easy. We will look into a few ways to create a Table of Contents in Word.

But first, let’s go into the benefits of a Table of Contents for a Word document.

Why is a Table of Contents so essential?

Are TOCs relevant when we have bookmarks and advanced search features on digital devices? The short answer is — Yes. A Table of Contents isn’t just for navigating long documents.

Here are five benefits you should immediately look at:

1. It gives the reader a bird’s eye view of the document. A TOC is like an outline. At a glance, you can see how a document will flow from one topic to the next.
2. It makes a document look professional. A document with a TOC looks more organized and professional than a document that lacks one.
3. It is a key organizational aid for the author. Think of it like a roadmap and the first draft for a TOC can help you arrange your thoughts (and even brainstorm).
4. It makes a document easier to discuss. A TOC can signal the quality of the document. Your teacher or your book agent can tell at a glance if the material is worth a read by just glancing at the table of contents.
5. It gives you a learning path. A TOC is a well-ordered series of steps. Steal them from an instructional book to understand the learning path on any subject of your choice.

Check out this quick video on how to create a table of contents in Word:

How to Create a Table of Contents in Word

Microsoft Word can automatically build a Table of Contents for you. You need to only outline the content and then specify the heading styles with basic formatting. Let’s take this step by step.

1. Format your document using heading styles. Select each chapter in your document and apply Heading Styles to them. Here, you are marking up the section headers so that Word can recognize them.

Go to Ribbon > Home > Styles. Select the text and apply headings for all the text you want to include in the table of contents.

You can create a hierarchy within the main chapters with the help of the heading styles. For instance, use Heading 1 for new sections or chapters. Heading 2 for subsections within the section, and Heading 3 for smaller units or topics inside them.

Word scans the document for any text formatted as either Heading 1, 2, or 3 and then uses these to create the format for the TOC.

2. Position the Table of Contents on the page. Place the cursor on the specific position where you want the TOC to appear in your document. This is commonly somewhere at the beginning of the document.

4. Click the Table of Contents command. Go to Ribbon > References > Table of Contents. Choose from one of the two automatic types available. The only difference between the two is the heading of «Contents» or «Table of Contents» at the top.

5. The Table of Contents is inserted automatically. Word scans the document and uses the heading styles to construct the order of the sections and subsections and their page numbers. This is a barebones TOC and you can continue to work with this and make it more stylish.

6. Update the Table of Contents anytime. You can always update a Table of Contents that has been created automatically. Update the table if you change the heading styles, rearrange the contents, or change the text. Also, update it if you make any changes to the content that affects the page numbers.

To update a table of contents that was created automatically, click References > Update Table.

Choose to Update page numbers only or Update entire table if you want to update the page numbers and the text.

7. Create a Table of Contents manually. When the automatic method is so effortless, why would you feel the need to make one manually? There could be two reasons:

• The document is without any styles which Word can recognize.
• The document has too much of variety makes an automatic TOC difficult.

To create a manual table, go to References > Table of Contents > Click the dropdown to reveal the option for Manual Table.

Microsoft Word inserts a TOC with placeholders which you can now edit. You can modify this with your own fonts and colors. Do remember that you also have to insert the page numbers manually too.

A TOC created manually cannot be updated automatically.

You do not have to settle for the basic Table of Contents that Microsoft Word creates for you. You can modify any TOC and even create a custom Table of Contents of your own.

How to customize the Table of Contents

You can easily customize a TOC with the Table of Contents dialog box. Go to References > Table of Contents > Custom Table of Contents to launch the dialog.

Any changes you make here will be visible in the Print Preview and Web Preview windows.

Seven advanced techniques to customize the TOC

1. Choose a different format for the TOC

You can change an entire table by choosing a different format. In the General section, expand the dropdown for Formats and choose an appearance.

2. Change the appearance of the items in the TOC

Remember, the appearance of your TOC is ultimately controlled by style definitions. You may want to tweak the overall look of the TOC by creating your own styles for the headings. These modified styles can be saved alongside the in-built ones and applied across the document for a consistent look. Follow these steps.

1. Click Modify. If the Modify button is grayed out, change Formats to From template.

2. In the Styles list, click the level that you want to change and then click Modify. Here, TOC 1 corresponds to heading level 1 in your document, TOC 2 to heading level 2, TOC 3  to heading 3 and so on.

3. In the Modify Style dialog box, you can change the font or its color. Make any other formatting change like text indentation and then click OK.

4. Before you click OK, you can choose whether the style change applies to the current document or to all future documents. To save it for future use, click the checkbox for Add to the Styles gallery.

3. Change the levels of the style headings shown

A TOC can be itemized, or you can just include the major sections. The Show levels number allows you to change the number of levels displayed in your table of contents. The “Levels” here refers to the style headings you have applied to your sections.

For instance: H1, H2, H3… etc. If you set it on 2, then all text with the Heading 1 style or the Heading 2 style is displayed.

4. Change or add dot leaders in the TOC

Dot leaders are the lines or dots that connect the items in the index to page numbers. These leader lines are mentioned in many style guides as a necessary part of thesis documents.

In the Table of Contents dialog box, click the dropdown for the Tab leader list and select the dotted line option. Alternatively, choose the leader line you want or select “none” to remove it from the TOC.

5. Add a non-heading style

Word won’t include a non-heading style when it inserts an automatic TOC. By default, Word only includes headings 1 through 9. But it gives you a method to include any other style you create in the index. Let’s say you want to add another heading called “A Brief Guide” at the top of the content and the TOC.

In the Table of Contents dialog box, click the Options button to open this screen:

Right now, it maps the styles in use only to the TOC levels. As you can see, the three styles, Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 are mapped as levels 1. 2, and 3.

Go down the boxes until you find Title, which has no mapped TOC level. Enter 1 to map Title to the TOC top level.

Click OK twice to exit the dialogs. Word will prompt you to replace the contents. Click Yes to replace the TOC.

6. Create a clickable Table of Contents

Creating a hyperlinked Table of Contents is expected in the digital age. Navigation is faster. It is also another condition to submit a thesis or dissertation.

Click the Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers checkbox.

Also, uncheck the Show page numbers box if you just want to use the hyperlinks.

7. Place a simple border around the Table of Contents

You can use Word’s Shapes feature to insert a border around the TOC. Set Shape Fill to “No Fill” and then add Shape Styles or use Format Shape to design the look of the pseudo-border around the table.

Remember to add Table of Contents to your documents

The automatic Table of Contents feature is a time saver. But to catch the eye, you need to dive into different styles and custom tables. To sum up:

1. Structure your document.
2. Decide the levels you want to display.
3. Change the style attributes to match your needs.

As you begin making your own, you will have your own questions. Hopefully, this guide has illustrated the basic process well enough for you to take the plunge. Are you more comfortable with Table of Contents now?

If you are looking to sharpen your Microsoft Office skills, check out our Microsoft Word course to learn time-saving tips and tricks for formatting your documents.