To ensure a table of contents is up to date which of the following should be done

Lesson 15: How to Create a Table of Contents in Word

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

How to create a table of contents in Word
Add a new table of contents
Update an existing table of contents
Format a table of contents
Automatically format
Manually format
Add entries to an existing table of contents
Add new entry automatically
Add new entry manually
How is the table of contents typically formatted?
Where is the table of contents positioned in your document?
How can you ensure that reviewers will use track changes when they edit a document?
Which of the following is used to create Layout or formatting changes in a portion of a document?

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How to create a table of contents in Word

Imagine you're working with a really long document in Microsoft Word, like an academic paper or a big report. Depending on the project, it might be dozens or even hundreds of pages long! When a document is this large, it can be difficult to remember which page has what information. Fortunately, Word allows you to insert a table of contents, making it easy to organize and navigate your document.

A table of contents is just like the list of chapters at the beginning of a book. It lists each section in the document and the page number where that section begins. A really basic table of contents might look like this:

You could create a table of contents manually—typing the section names and page numbers—but it would take a lot of work. And if you ever decide to rearrange your sections or add more information, you'll have to update everything all over again. However, with the right formatting, Word can create and update a table of contents automatically.

Step 1: Apply heading styles

If you've already read our Applying and Modifying Styles lesson, you know they're an easy way to add professional text formatting to different parts of your document. Styles also serve another important purpose: adding a hidden layer of organization and structure to your document.

If you apply a heading style, you're telling Word that you've started a new part of your document. When you insert the table of contents, it will create a section for each heading. In the table of contents above, each chapter uses a heading style, so there are four sections.

To apply a heading style, select the text you want to format, then choose the desired heading in the Styles group on the Home tab.

Step 2: Insert the table of contents

Now for the easy part! Once you've applied heading styles, you can insert your table of contents in just a few clicks. Navigate to the References tab on the Ribbon, then click the Table of Contents command. Select a built-in table from the menu that appears, and the table of contents will appear in your document.

As you can see in the image below, the table of contents uses the heading styles in your document to determine where each section begins. Sections that begin with a Heading 2 or Heading 3 style will be nested within a Heading 1 style, much like a multilevel list.

A table of contents also creates links for each section, allowing you to navigate to different parts of your document. Just hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and click to go to any section.

Step 3: Update as needed

If you edit or add to your document, it's easy to update the table of contents. Just select the table of contents, click Update Table, and choose Update Entire Table in the dialog box that appears. The table of contents will then update to reflect any changes.

No matter how large your document may be, you can see there's nothing complicated about creating a table of contents. If you want even more control over how your table of contents appears, check out this tutorial from Microsoft on Taking a Table of Contents to the Next Level.

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Updated: 07/31/2022 by

A table of contents helps readers know what information is contained in a document, and where it is located. In Microsoft Word, a table of contents can also allow a reader to jump to a specific section of a document by clicking a header. To add or update a table of contents in your Word document, select from the links below to view the appropriate steps.

Add a new table of contents

Click a page in the document where you want the table of contents added.
Click the References tab in the Ribbon.
In the Table of Contents section, click the Table of Contents option.
In the dialog box or pop-down window, select one of the available table of contents layouts to automatically insert it to the current page of the document.

Tip

In step 4, you can select the Custom Table of Contents option to add a customized table of contents.

Update an existing table of contents

Locate and click the table of contents in the document.
Right-click the table of contents and select Update Field in the pop-up menu.
In the Update Table of Contents window, select the Update entire table option and click the
button.

Format a table of contents

To format a table of contents, you can set automatic formatting settings or manually format individual entries in the table.

Automatically format

After creating a table of contents, you can modify the formatting so that automatic updates replicate it.

Click the References tab in the Ribbon.
In the Table of Contents section, click the Table of Contents option.
In the dialog box or pop-down window, select the Custom Table of Contents option near the bottom.

In the Table of Contents window, click the Modify button near the bottom-right corner.
Select one of the table of content styles in the Styles window and click the Modify button.

Click the Format button in the bottom-left corner of the Modify Style window, and select an option to modify. For example, you can select Font and change the font type, size, and color, and set it to bold or italic.

After making your desired modifications to the table of contents style you selected, click OK on each of the open windows to save the changes.

Now, when updating the entire table of contents, the formatting options you set are automatically applied.

Manually format

After creating a table of contents, you can manually modify the formatting of text and numbers, including text size, text color, bold, and italic.

Select the text in the table of contents that you want to format.

How to highlight or select text.

In the Ribbon, on the Home tab, select the new font type, size, or color, or click the bold or italic button. All selected text is changed.

Using the steps above, you can select and format each line in the table contents to be different from other lines, if desired.

Note

If you make any manual formatting changes in the table of contents and later use the "Update entire table" option to update entries in the table, your formatting changes are overwritten.

Add entries to an existing table of contents

Add new entry automatically

The most effective way to add entries to a table of contents is to create more content with headings in the document.

Insert one or more headings in the document using the headings options in the Styles section of the Home tab in the Ribbon.

Add content below each new heading.
Follow the steps in the update an existing table of contents section above to automatically add the new heading entries.

Add new entry manually

If preferred, you can manually add entries to the table of contents.

Note

If you add a manual entry in the table of contents and later use the automatic "Update entire table" option, your manual entries are dropped from the table.

Add new content to the document, if not already done.
In the existing table of contents, determine where you want to add an entry. Then, place the text cursor at the end of the entry above where you want the new entry.
Press the Enter key to add a new blank line in the table of contents.
Type the text for the new entry.
Type the page number where the new content exists in the document for the new table of contents entry.
Move the text cursor to the left of the page number. Repeatedly type the character or symbol used to separate the entry text from the page number, until it is to the right. The page number should line up with the page numbers of other entries in the table of contents.

For example, in the table of contents below, the "New manual entry" text and page number 3 is separated by multiple periods.

How is the table of contents typically formatted?

A table of contents usually includes the titles or descriptions of first-level headings (chapters in longer works), and often includes second-level headings (sections or A-heads) within the chapters as well, and occasionally even includes third-level headings (subsections or B-heads) within the sections as well.

Where is the table of contents positioned in your document?

A table of contents is usually found at the end of a document. The Custom Table of Contents option allows you to create a table of contents on your own. You can choose a hyphen as tab leaders for a table of contents. Only text formatted with a heading style can be included in a table of contents.

How can you ensure that reviewers will use track changes when they edit a document?

Turn on Track Changes On the Review tab, select Track Changes. In the Track Changes drop-down list, select one of the following: To track only the changes that you make to the document, select Just Mine. To track changes to the document made by all users, select For Everyone.