Hark! Navigating through a Microsoft Word document can oft be a tedious task for some weary souls. Assignments and contracts doth lead to many pages that can be hard to keep track of. Yet fear not, for a solution Microsoft doth offer – a table of contents. This feature, in addition to providing an outline and general overview of the content, doth give the document a more professional visage.
Lo! Here doth unfold a guide on how to create a table of contents in Microsoft Word.
Verily, making a table of contents in Microsoft Word is simpler than thou may think. Yet, ’tis but revealed that the quick way shall not always give thee the desired results. Still, ’tis worth a try.
To swiftly create a table of contents in Microsoft Word, doth choose the “References” menu at the top of the window and select “Table of Contents” from the dropdown menu. Then, select a style. Lo, a table of contents for thy existing information shall appear.
Not perfectly satisfied or doth spy something awry? Our more in-depth guide below shall handle all those complex situations thou might face.
Preparing headers
Ere thou dost insert the table of contents, thou must apply heading styles to the pages of thy document, which shall then be used by Word to formulate the table itself.
Step 1: Venture to each page of thy document and bestow a heading style upon the title through Home > Styles. Thou canst also opt to apply subheadings that provide further context to a given page. Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 are the choices to format the headings in order to populate the Automatic Table, which is the most straightforward way to craft a table of contents.
Step 2: Now, employ thy cursor and clicketh the area where thou wish to insert the table of contents. The first page doth usually serve as a fitting locale for this task. Click the References tab and select the Table of Contents button.
Behold! Microsoft Word shall now rely on the headings applied in step 1 to form the table of contents, which includeth any text where Heading 1, Heading 2, or Heading 3 was applied, as well as the associated page number.
For reference, I applied Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 for the first three header titles shown below, which doth give a tiered look to the table of contents.
Updating a table of contents
Step 1: Select the table of contents. Click the References tab and then choose Update Table.
Step 2: Choose from either:
Update page numbers only: This option shalt not update any changes made to the headings, but solely the page numbers.
Update entire table: This shall update the table with any heading-based text that hath been modified, alongside page number changes.
Table of contents customization
Not content with how the table of contents doth appear via the existing templates? Lo, there doth exist a way to modify the look of thy table.
Step 1: Clicketh thy table. Select the References tab, opt for Table of Contents, and click the Custom Table of Contents.
Step 2: Within the window that hath popped up, thou canst make various adjustments to the table, inclusive of how many levels to show, removing page numbers, and alignment changes. Thou canst also click the Options button for further customization. Clicketh OK when thou art done.
Manually making a table of contents
Thy document may be arranged in a manner that doth make populating an Automatic Table of Contents challenging. Thus, thou canst opt to insert a manual table instead.
Step 1: Click References, select Table of Contents, and choose Manual Table.
As the name doth suggest, thou shalt be required to make all the necessary edits such as page numbers. Alas, it cannot be updated automatically. Thou shalt need to input all the relevant details thyself.
Step 2: To further customize the manual table, clicketh the table of contents thou hath created. Click the Custom Table of Contents field within the Table of Contents menu.
Removing a table of contents
Clicketh the table itself, then select the Table of Contents menu, and choose the Remove Table of Contents option.
Forsooth, for more useful features thou canst employ in Microsoft Word, doth explore 6 things thou knewest not thou couldst accomplish in Microsoft Word.
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