Create a Table of Contents

Listing parts in the order they appear for larger documents by inserting a TOC. Word will automatically search a document looking for elements such as; headings styles marked. The TOC will display title, number, and page numbers used to find information quickly.

Using Heading Styles

From the Home tab, within the Styles group, click on a style.
An Example, for a main heading, select the text and click on Heading 1.

Screenshot of Microsoft Word Ribbons. Across the top, there is a blue banner. In the top left, there is a white square with a blue "W", a purple floppy disc icon, a blue curved arrow pointing to the left with a black triangle pointing down, a white curved arrow, and a black triangle pointing down with a thin line. To the right, there is the name of the document, excel 2010 intermediate - Microsoft Word. To the right of that, in the top right corner, there are three squares. The first square has a thin white line. The second box has the outline of a square. The third box has a white "X." Below that, there is a white outlined triangle pointing up and a blue circle with a white question mark icon. To the left, there are tab options. The options are: File (with a blue background), Home (selected), Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, View, Add-Ins, and Acrobat. Within the Home menu, there are five sections. They are Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, Styles, and Editing. Within the Styles section, there is a yellow outlined square around the first style option. The option shows "AaBbCcDd" and below that it has the paragraph symbol and text that reads Normal.

Mark Text Entries

Marking text entries individually will included text that is not formatted using Heading Styles into a TOC.

Select text you want to include in the TOC.
From the References tab, within the Table of Contents group and click on Add Text command.
From the drop down list, select the level you want the selected text to display in the TOC.

Create a Table of Contents - Built in Heading Styles

Click at the beginning of the document to insert the TOC
From the References tab, within the Table of Contents group, click on the Table of Content command button and select a style for the TOC.

Screenshot of a Microsoft Word document. Across the top, there is a blue bar. In the top left, there is a white square with a blue "W" on it, a purple floppy disk, a blue curved arrow pointing left, a gray circular arrow, and a black triangle pointing down with a line. Below that are tab options. They are File (with a blue background), Home, Insert, Page Layout, Mailings, Review, View, Add-Ins, and Acrobat. References is selected. Within the References menu, Table of Contents is selected. It is the first option and has a yellow background. There is also an icon of a document with text and numbers on it. Below the Table of Contents Option, there is a menu with more options that runs the left side of the screenshot. Across the top of the menu is a light gray header. The text in the top left says Built-In. Below that, is a white background. The text reads Automatic Table 1 (with blue text that says Contents and below is Header 1, Header 2, and Header 3. Each of them has horizontal lines that go to the right. There are numbers associated with each of them); Automatic Table 2 (with blue text that says Table of Contents and below is Header 1, Header 2, and Header 3. Each of them has horizontal lines that go to the right. There are numbers associated with each of them); Manual Table (with blue text that says Table of Contents and below are section title options. Each of them has horizontal lines that go to the right). Below the examples, there are four options: More Table of Contents from Office.com (with a document icon with a circle icon on top of it. There is a black triangle pointing right); Insert Table of Contents... (with a white document with lines on it); Remove Table of Contents (with a white document with lines on it and a red "X"); grayed out text and icon that says Save Selections to Table of Contents Gallery.. (with a white document and another white document with lines on it).

Format Table of Contents

To format an existing TOC in your document by changing the options, you need to insert a new TOC from the Table of Contents dialog box.

Select the existing TOC
From the References tab, within the Table of Contents group, click on the Table of Contents command, and select Insert Table of Contents.
Within the Table of Contents dialog box:
- From the Show levels section, change how many levels are listed in the TOC.
- From the Formats section, click on a different format to change the look of the TOC.

Screenshot of Table of Contents window. Across the top is a blue bar. There is text in the top left that says Table of Contents. In the top right, there are two boxes. The first is a blue box with a white question mark icon. The second is a red box with a white "x" icon. Below the blue bar, there is a beige background. Across the top, there are four tabs that have the following text: Index (grayed out); Table of Contents (selected); Table of Figures (grayed out); Table of Authorities (grayed out). Within the Table of Contents window, there are two columns. To the left there is text that says Print Preview. Below that is a white box. To the right of the box is a scroll button. At the top is a blue button with a dark blue arrow pointing up. There is a blue bar all the way to the top. At the bottom of the white square, there is a blue square with a dark blue arrow pointing down. In the white box, there is text that says Heading 1 (followed by a dotted line) and the number "1." Below that, there is text that says Heading 2 (followed by a dotted line) and a "3." Below that is text that says Heading 3 followed by a dotted line and a "5." Below the box, there are two checkboxes. The first (which is selected with a green checkmark) says Show page numbers. Below that, (with a green checkmark) is text that says Right align page numbers. Below that there is text that says Tab leader: and to the right is a drop down field that has ............ in it. In the second column, there is text at the top that says Web Preview. Below that is a white box. To the right of the box is a scroll button. At the top is a blue button with a dark blue arrow pointing up. There is a blue bar all the way to the top. At the bottom of the white square, there is a blue square with a dark blue arrow pointing down. Inside the white box are three pieces of blue text that is underlined. The text is Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3. Below the white box is a checkmark box with a green checkmark in it. To the right is text that reads Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers. Below both columns, there is a row that crosses both columns. To the left, there is blue text that says General and a thin, black horizontal line to the right. Below that, there are two pieces of text. The first says Formats: and has a dropdown field with text in it that says From template. Below that, there is text that says Show levels: and a dropdown field with "3" in it. To the bottom right, there are two buttons that say Options... and Modify... Below that there are two additional buttons. They are OK with a blue outline and Cancel.

Click on Modify, from the Style dialog box select the level you want to change and click on Modify. Change the font, size and amount of indentation from the Modify Style dialog box and click on OK.

Screenshot of two dialog options. Both have a blue banner across the top and a beige background below it. Both have two boxes in the top right: the first one is blue with a white question mark icon and the second is a red box with a white "x" icon. The first dialog menu has text in the top right that says Style. Below that in the beige background, there is text that says Please select the appropriate style for your index or table entry. Below that is text that says Styles:. Below that is a white field with TOC 1 in it. Below that is a bigger white field with TOC 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9 in it. To the left of each, is an icon that looks like a "P." There is a grayed out scroll bar to the right of the larger field. To the right of the larger field, there are two vertical buttons that are grayed out that say New... and Delete. Below the larger field, there is text that says Preview. Below that is a white field with text that says +Body. To the right there is a gray box that says 11 pt. To the right of that, there is a gray button with a blue outline that says Modify... Below that there is a box outlined in black. The text inside says Space After: 5pt, Style: Automatically update, Hide until used, Priority: 40, Based on: Normal, Following style: Normal. Below the box, there are two butons that say OK and Cancel. The dialog menu on the right has text in the top left that says Modify Style. Below that, there is blue text that says Properties and a thin, black line to the right. Below that, there is text that says Name: and a white field that says TOC 1. Below that, there is text that says Style type:. To the right, there is a dropdown field with text in it that says Paragraph. Below that, there is text that says Style based on: and to the right, there is a dropdown field with text that says Normal and has a P icon. Below that, there is text that says Style for following paragraph. To the right is a dropdown field with text that says Normal with a "P" icon. Below that, there is blue text that says Formatting. There is a thin, black line to the right. Below that, there are text formatting options. The first option is a dropdown field that says Calibri (Body) in it. To the right, there is a dropdown field with "11" in it. To the right of that, there is a bold "B" icon, a slanted capital "I," and an underlined capital "U" icon. To the right of that, there are two dropdown fields. The first has Automatic in it. The second has Latin in it. Below, there is another row of formatting options. The first four are lines in different patterns. The first is aligned left, the second is aligned center, the third is aligned right, and the last shows horizontal lines lining up perfectly. There is a thin vertical line to the right. To the right, there are three icons with lines. The first shows three horizontal lines perfectly lined up with little space between them; the second has four lines with slightly more space beween them; and the last one has three lines with more space between them. To the right, there is a vertical line. To the right of the vertical line, there are four icons (2 rows of 2 items). The icons show black lines with blue arrows pointing up and down. To the right of that, there is a vertical line. To the right of the vertical line, there are two icons with back lines and arrows pointing left and right. Below this, there is a white field box. The text inside the box is Sample Test replicated over and over again. The first paragraph is grayed out, the second paragraph is in black, and the third paragraph is grayed out. Below the white box, there is an outlined black box. Inside the box, there is text that reads: Space After: 5 pt, Style: Automatically update, Hide until used, Priority: 40, Based on: Normal, Following style: Normal. Below this box, there are two horizontal checkmark boxes. The first one isn't selected and has text that says Add to Quick Style list. The second is selected (with a green checkmark) and has text that says Automatically update. Below this, there are two radio buttons. The first is selected (with a green dot) and says Only in this document. The second says New documents based on this template. In the bottom left, there is a button with text that says Format with a black triangle pointing down. In the bottom right, there are two buttons. The first has a blue outline around it and says OK. The second says Cancel.

Update Table of Contents

Quickly update a TOC if headings have been added or removed from the References tab.

From the References tab, within the Table of Contents group, click on the Update Table command .
Select Update page numbers only or Update entire table.

With the TOC selected, at the top left of the TOC click on the Update Table command.

Screenshot of a Table of Contents menu. The background is white. There is a blue outline of a box around text. At the top left of the blue outline, there is a blue bar with two document-type icons and text that says Update Table... Inside the blue outlined box, there is text that reads Table of Contents (in blue). Below that, there are 8 lines of black text with dotted lines after them leading to a number. The text is Table of Contents (TOC) and points to "2"; Using Heading Styles and points to "2;" Mark Text Entries and points to to "2;" Create a Table of Contents-built-in heading styles and points to "2;" Creat a Table of Contents-Custom Styles and points to "3;" Format Table of Contents and points to "3;" Update Table of Contents and points to "5;" Delete Table of Contents and points to "5."

Delete Table of Contents

From the References tab, within the Table of Contents group, click on the Table of Contents command and select Remove Table of Contents.

Screenshot a Microsoft Word document. There is a blue bar across the top. In the top left, there is a white square with a blue "w" on it, a purple floppy disk, a blue curved arrow pointing left with a black triangle pointing down, a grayed out circle arrow, and a black triangle pointing down with a thin black line. Below that there are tab options: File (with a blue background), Home, Insert, Page Layout, References (selected), and Mailings. Within the References menu, Table of Contents is selected with a yellow background. The icon is a white document with lines on it. The Table of Contents window is open. Across the top there is text that says Built-In. Below that, is a white background. The text reads Automatic Table 1 (with blue text that says Contents and below is Header 1, Header 2, and Header 3. Each of them has horizontal lines that go to the right. There are numbers associated with each of them); Automatic Table 2 (with blue text that says Table of Contents and below is Header 1, Header 2, and Header 3. Each of them has horizontal lines that go to the right. There are numbers associated with each of them); Manual Table (with blue text that says Table of Contents and below are section title options. Each of them has horizontal lines that go to the right). Below the examples, there are four options: More Table of Contents from Office.com (with a document icon with a circle icon on top of it. There is a black triangle pointing right); Insert Table of Contents... (with a white document with lines on it); Remove Table of Contents (with a white document with lines on it and a red "X"); grayed out text and icon that says Save Selections to Table of Contents Gallery.. (with a white document and another white document with lines on it).

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