Working with long documents in Word can be a pain, especially when you need to jump between sections. A table of contents (TOC) makes navigation way easier, just like a chapter list in a book.
A TOC usually sits at the start of your document, listing all the headings and subheadings along with their page numbers. In Word, it’s even better – it becomes a list of clickable links, so you can go straight to the part you need without endless scrolling. Let’s explore how to set up, tweak, and use a TOC in Word.
Formatting Your Document for a Table of Contents
Before you generate a TOC, you need to format your document so Word can automatically pick up the section titles. This involves using heading styles, so Word knows what to put in your TOC.
To get started, apply heading styles like “Heading 1”, “Heading 2”, and so on to your titles and subtitles, giving context to the content. Think of “Heading 1” for main chapters and “Heading 2” for sub-sections and so on.
For example, your main chapter titles should use “Heading 1,” and the subtitles under those would use “Heading 2,” and so on. To apply a heading style, click on your title text, then go to the Home tab, and choose the style you want from the Styles box. We’ll use ‘Heading 1’ for chapter titles as they are main titles.
Next, apply “Heading 2” to your secondary titles. Here, we’re using “Heading 2” for the Introduction section under Chapter 1. Continue using heading styles for the other titles you want in your TOC.
You can also use shortcuts to apply heading styles:
- Heading Style 1: Alt+Shift+1
- Heading Style 2: Alt+Shift+2
- Heading Style 3: Alt+Shift+3 and so on.
If you want something different from the built-in heading styles, you can create your own custom style. To make a new style, go to the Home tab, and click the ‘More’ button in the bottom right of the Styles section.
Then, select ‘Create a Style’ at the bottom of the Styles box.
Give your new style a name, and click ‘Modify’ to adjust its formatting.
Choose the heading level it should be based on from the ‘Style based on’ dropdown (like Heading 1).
Now, you can adjust the font, size, color, and more. For advanced formatting, click the ‘Format’ button.
In the Format menu, you can tweak the font, paragraph settings, tabs, borders, and more. Click ‘OK’ after applying your formatting.
Click ‘OK’ in the ‘Create New Style from Formatting’ dialog to save your new style.
To use your style, select the title and apply it from the ‘Styles’ options.
Creating the Table of Contents in Word
After formatting your document with headings, you’re ready to create your table of contents. You have a few ways to go about this:
- Automatic Table of Contents – This is the most efficient way, using preset heading styles to generate the TOC.
- Manual Table of Contents – This method lets you create the TOC by manually typing entries, but it requires more effort.
- Custom Table of Contents – This allows you to tweak the font, colors, structure, and heading levels of your TOC.
It’s a good idea to create a TOC on a separate page at the start of the document. If you already have content on the first page, put your cursor at the top and press Ctrl+Enter (or Command+Enter on Mac) to insert a page break.
To add a table of contents, put your cursor where you want it to appear. Then, go to the ‘Reference’ tab, click the ‘Table of Contents’ button, and pick from the available built-in styles.
Method 1: Inserting an Automatic Table of Contents
From the Table of Contents dropdown, choose either ‘Automatic Table 1’ or ‘Automatic Table 2.’ The styles are pretty similar; they format headings 1, 2, and 3, and the main difference is just the title (either “Contents” or “Table of Contents”).
Word will automatically detect and add your formatted titles to the table of contents.
After generating the TOC, you can still select the content and adjust its formatting in the ‘Home’ tab.
If you get a “No table of contents entries found” error, that means Word couldn’t detect any text formatted with Heading 1, 2, or 3 styles.
If this happens, delete the error message and double-check that you’ve formatted the headings correctly. Then, try inserting the TOC again.
Method 2: Inserting a Manual Table of Contents
Sometimes, Word might not perfectly recognize the headings when using the automatic table. With the manual option, you have to type the list of titles and add page numbers yourself.
To create a manual table of contents, choose ‘Manual Table’ from the Table of Contents menu.
This gives you a basic template to type in your topics and subtopics.
Method 3: Inserting a Custom Table of Contents
If the built-in TOC styles don’t quite fit your needs, you can customize various aspects like fonts, alignments, page numbers, and how many levels of headings to show. By default, only three levels of headings are displayed, but you can go deeper than that through customization.
You can customize either an existing TOC or create a totally new customized version.
To create a custom TOC, go to ‘References’ and click ‘Table of Contents’, then choose ‘Custom Table of Contents…’.
This opens a dialog box with options for customizing your TOC.
Customizing Your Table of Contents
Changing the Format
You can adjust the overall look (font, size, alignment, etc.) by picking from the ‘Formats’ dropdown menu. There are 6 styles to choose from, and you can see previews in the ‘Print Preview’ and ‘Web Preview’ boxes.
If you don’t like any of the preset formats, you can customize the current template by selecting ‘From template’ and clicking ‘Modify’.
The ‘Modify’ option is only available if you choose ‘From template’.
Select the level you want to change, then click ‘Modify’ again.
This will open the Modify Style window. Here, you can change the font, size, color, indents and more. You can see how the changes look in the preview box.
As shown below, here we are changing the font to ‘Elephant’, font size to ’14’, and text color to ‘Orange’. Save formatting by clicking ‘OK’.
You can also choose if the custom style will apply to the current or all future documents. Select ‘Add to the Styles gallery’ to use it in future documents.
Preview the style in the Preview box in the Style dialog.
Now, repeat the process for other TOC styles (TOC 1, TOC 2, etc). Here, we are setting ‘Elephant’ for font, ’12’ for size, and ‘Blue’ for color.
Changing the Number of Levels Shown
In the ‘Table of Contents’ window, you can change how many heading levels are included in your TOC. The default is 3 levels.
Increase or decrease the number in the ‘Show levels’ box as needed. Here, we want to show 4 levels of headings, from Heading 1 to Heading 4.
Changing the Tab Leader
The ‘Tab leader’ is the line or dots that connect the title and the page number. Use the ‘Tab leader’ dropdown menu to select between dots (…), small dash, long dash, or none.
Showing or Hiding Page Numbers
If you don’t need to see page numbers, uncheck the ‘Show page numbers’ checkbox.
Make sure ‘Right align page numbers’ is checked to keep page numbers neatly on the right side of the TOC.
If this option is unchecked, the page numbers will show right next to the entries.
Changing Table of Contents Options
To control the layout and outline levels even more, click the ‘Options’ button.
This lets you choose which items or styles to include in the TOC, and at what level. It maps the existing styles to TOC levels.
Scroll through the Styles list to find Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. As you can see Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and Heading 4 are already set as levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. Since we set the number of levels to 4, only four entries are mapped.
Suppose you want the document’s main title listed in the TOC rather than the Heading 1 title.
Delete the TOC level number from Heading 1, scroll to the ‘Title’ style, and enter ‘1’ in the box. Then, enter ‘2’ for Heading 1, ‘3’ for Heading 2, and so on. Save by clicking ‘OK’.
If you want to undo any changes, click the ‘Reset’ button.
If you’re using Table of Contents field codes, check the box next to ‘Table entry fields’ at the bottom right corner of ‘Table of Contents Options’.
Creating a Clickable Table of Contents
The ‘Web Preview’ section of the ‘Table of Contents’ dialog shows how your TOC will look as a webpage. By default, it just shows a list of entries, and you’d have to go to the page number, or press Ctrl and click the title to jump to that topic.
But you can also use hyperlinks in your TOC to navigate the document.
To create a clickable TOC, uncheck ‘Show page numbers’ and then check ‘Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers’.
If you want to see the same view as in ‘Print Preview’, uncheck ‘Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers’.
Once you’ve made your formatting adjustments, click ‘OK’ in the ‘Table of Contents’ box to apply the changes.
Word will ask if you want to replace the current table. Click ‘Yes’.
Now you have a custom table of contents with your chosen formatting.
For easier navigation, use the navigation panel by going to the View tab, and checking the box next to ‘Navigation Pane’.
Changing the Table of Contents Appearance
You can change the TOC appearance using the Design tab in the ribbon.
To format the TOC, select the table, then go to the ‘Design’ tab, and choose an option from the Document Formatting section.
Editing or Customizing Your Table of Contents
To tweak the TOC after you’ve created it (changing levels, styles, formats, etc.), use the following steps:
Right-click anywhere in the table of contents, and click ‘Edit Field’ in the menu.
This opens the Field dialog. Choose ‘TOC’ in the ‘Field names’ box, and click ‘Table of Contents’ under ‘Field Properties’ to open the Table of Contents dialog.
Now, you can customize the TOC with the options in the Table of Contents window.
Updating Your Table of Contents in Word
Your table of contents in Word doesn’t automatically update when you add or remove content, change heading styles, or make other edits. You’ll need to manually update it by clicking ‘Update Table’. Here’s how:
Click on the table of contents, go to the ‘References’ tab, and then click the ‘Update Table’ button.
Or, you can just click the ‘Update Table’ button directly above the table.
A prompt box will show two options:
- Update page numbers only – Use this option if you just need to update page numbers, such as if you added or removed content but didn’t modify any heading sections.
- Update entire table – Use this to update everything, including page numbers, added, removed, or modified headings.
Pick an option and click ‘OK’.
After clicking, your TOC should update instantly to reflect the changes.
Note that you can only update automatically generated TOCs using the built-in table format. For manually created tables, you’ll need to edit within the table itself.
Using the Table of Contents to Navigate
Each entry in the TOC is linked to its corresponding section. When you hover over an entry, you’ll see how to use it – ‘Ctrl+Click to follow’.
To jump to a specific section, press the Ctrl key and click on the entry you want.
Removing a Table of Contents
If you don’t need your TOC anymore, you can easily remove it:
Click on the table, go to the ‘References’ tab, click ‘Table of Contents’, and select ‘Remove Table of Contents’.
Or, you can open the ‘Table of Contents’ dropdown menu above the table and select ‘Remove Table of Contents’.
The table of contents will then be removed from the document.