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Click here to download the Word document “TOCExample.docx” containing this example.
Key elements
There are three features in Microsoft Word that work together to enable you to create and maintain a Table of Contents:
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Style: A collection of formatting choices (font, size, bold/italic/underline, line spacing, indentation, color, etc.) that has been assigned a name. Each document has its own separate set of styles. If you want a consistent look (technically called “formatting”) for the different types of text in your document, styles can help you achieve that. For example, the built-in “Normal” style typically specifies the default look of every regular paragraph in your document.
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Field: A special piece of “calculated text” that you can choose to have Word insert into your document, saving you lots of time and effort. Word has dozens of fields you might use. The most common one is “PAGE,” which inserts the page number of the current page, typically in the header or footer so it will appear on every page. In this issue, our main focus is the “TOC” (Table of Contents) field.
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TOC entries: By default, your Table of Contents will display your document’s Chapter headings, subheadings, etc. based on every paragraph to which you have applied the special styles Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. You can go 8 levels deep if you want, but in most documents one or two levels are sufficient. Word will generate the text for the “TOC” field using the text of those particular paragraphs, along with the numbers of the pages on which they appear.
In the techniques below I will describe the steps that you’ll take.
Exactly how you perform each of these steps (i.e., whether you’ll perform those steps using commands in the Menu Bar or in the Ribbon) will depend on the particular version of Word that you’re using. I have marked each of those steps with “(*)”.
How to create your Table of Contents
1. Mark each paragraph in your document that deserves to appear in your TOC
- If you haven’t already, now is the time to think about your document as a whole. What are the top-level Chapter titles or major headings? What are the second-level Subchapter or minor headings? Do you need a third level?
- Scroll through your document from beginning to end, find each paragraph that deserves to be listed in the TOC as a Chapter title or major heading, and then apply the special style “Heading 1” to that paragraph. (*)
- For each paragraph in your document that deserves to be a Subchapter title or minor heading in the TOC (if any), change its style to “Heading 2.” (*)
- If you don’t like how those paragraphs look when you apply those special styles (the font, size, bold, italic, etc.), see “Changing how your headings look,” below.
- Note that all of the text from every one of those specially-marked paragraphs will appear in your TOC, so if they’re overly long, you might consider shortening them. For example, instead of “The top 10 reasons that you might choose to rent a house for your family to live in instead of buying one” you might change that to “Renting might be better than buying.”
2. Changing how your headings look in the body of your document
As you apply the Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles to your Chapter headings and subheadings, you might not like the way those styles look. If so, don’t manually change the formatting of those paragraphs. Instead, you should modify the definitions of those styles. (*)
3. Create your TOC
- Scroll back to the start of your document.
- Click at the exact location in the text where you want your TOC to appear.
- I recommend inserting a Page Break (*), so that your TOC will start on a new page.
- Type in the text “Table of Contents” and then press the Enter key twice (Return on Macintosh) to finish that paragraph and skip another line as well.
- Insert the special field that Word will expand into the generated Table of Contents for this document. (*) In the process of inserting that field, you will probably see a small sample showing how your TOC will appear (how the text and page numbers will be arranged, etc.),
- If your TOC displays a message like “Error! No table of contents entries found,” that means that you skipped Step 1 above, i.e., you have not yet marked any paragraphs in your document with the special styles Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.
- I also suggest inserting another Page Break (*) right after your TOC, so that the text following it will start on a new page.
- Remember that you can’t edit your TOC directly. You will probably notice that when you click in the text of your TOC, the entire TOC turns grey, which is Word’s way of indicating that all of that text is a mechanically generated field.
4. Controlling how your TOC looks
- You might not like the way the text in your TOC is formatted (the font, size, bold, italic, etc.). If so, don’t try to manually change it. Instead, you should modify the definitions of the special styles TOC 1, TOC 2, etc. (*)
- You also might not like the overall appearance of your TOC, e.g., how the page numbers are arranged, etc. To change that, you can adjust the TOC field options. (*)
How to maintain your TOC
- As you continue to edit your document, if you add new Chapter headings and subheadings, be sure to apply the special styles Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. to those paragraphs so they’ll also be listed in the TOC. (*)
- You will also need to “update” (i.e., recalculate) your TOC. (*) Word will ask, “Update page numbers only” vs. “Update entire table.” I recommend always updating the entire table.
- Word will also update your TOC whenever you begin to Print your document. As above, always choose “Update entire table.” Thus, another trick you can use to update your TOC is to do File->Print, and then click Cancel to avoid actually printing.
Another powerful feature of your TOC
Clicking on any page number in your TOC will immediately jump to the page where that heading is located and place the insertion point (the vertical blinking line) at the start of that heading text. In Word 2013 and later you’ll also have to hold down the CTRL key (Shift on Macintosh) before clicking the page number.
Creating a Table of Contents using another word processing program
Many other (non-Microsoft) word processors also let you create a Table of Contents, including Google Docs, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, NeoOffice, WordPerfect, and more.
(*) How to perform the steps that I’ve written about
Here are the different functions that I’ve mentioned above along with the steps to perform them in selected versions of Word:
First, click to place the insertion point (the vertical blinking line) at the appropriate place in your document (e.g., in the paragraph that you want to change, etc.).
Then:
In Word 2003, which had a Menu Bar interface:
- Apply paragraph style: Format->Styles and Formatting...->Select the style to apply
- Modify paragraph style: Format->Styles and Formatting...->Right-click the style->Modify...
- Insert Page Break: Insert->Break...->Page Break...->OK
- Insert Table of Contents: Insert->Reference...->Index and Tables...->Table of Contents->OK
- Change Table of Contents options: Right click->Edit Field...
In Word 2007, the first version that had a Ribbon interface:
- Apply paragraph style: Home->Styles->click the tiny arrow to the right to reveal the Style list->Select the style to apply
- Modify paragraph style: reveal the Style list (see above)->Right-click the style->Modify...
- Insert Page Break: Insert->Break->Page Break
- Insert Table of Contents: Insert->Index and Tables...->Table of Contents->OK
- Change Table of Contents options: It’s complicated; the best approach is to delete the TOC (first do Right click->Toggle Field Codes), insert it again, and adjust the options before you click OK
In Word 2019, which had a Ribbon interface:
- Apply paragraph style: Home->Styles->click the tiny arrow to the right to reveal the Style list->Select the style to apply
- Modify paragraph style: reveal the Style list (see above)->Right-click the style->Modify...
- Insert Page Break: Insert->Pages->Page Break
- Insert Table of Contents: References->Table of Contents->Custom Table of Contents->OK
- Change Table of Contents options: It’s complicated; the best approach is to delete the TOC (first do References->Table of Contents->Remove Table of Contents), insert it again, and adjust the options before you click OK
In all versions of Word:
- Update TOC: Right click anywhere on the TOC->Update Field->Update entire table->OK
Other versions of Word are a little different, so the above may not match your version’s user interface.
Where to go from here
Where V is the particular version of Word that you’re using (e.g., “2013 Windows,” “2016 Macintosh,” etc.) and X is the name of a (non-Microsoft) word processor:
- google: microsoft word V create table of contents
- google: microsoft word V update table of contents
- google: X table of contents
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