Section 9.3. Creating a Table of Contents | Word 2007[c] The Missing Manual

9.3. Creating a Table of Contents

When you create very long documents in Wordlike theses, annual reports , or even booksyou may need to provide a table of contents. Your readers will be glad you did. What's more, if you did a good job of creating headers and subheads as described in Section 3.4, then most of the hard work is done. Word generates the table of contents automatically from your headers, looks up the page numbers for each heading, and formats the whole table for you. All you have to do is tell Word where you want to place the table of contents, and then choose a predesigned format that compliments your documentall of which you do in the Table of Contents group on the References tab, or in the Table of Contents dialog box.

Tip: You can create your table of contents anytime you have headings in place, but it's usually easiest if you do it when you're finished writing and editing.

Here's how to insert a table of contents into your document:

Place the insertion point where you want to put the table of contents .

The traditional spot for a table of contents is right after the title and before the main part of the text. It's best to put the insertion point on an empty line, so the table doesn't interfere with any other text. If you agree, click after the title, and then press Enter.

Choose References Table of Contents, and then choose one of the Automatic table styles from the drop-down menu .

The Table of Contents menu gives you a few choices (Figure 9-5). You can choose from two Automatic tables Contents and Table of Contents . Or you can choose to create your table of contents manually. If you used custom headings in your document (instead of Word's standard Heading 1, Heading 2), you must create it manually, as described in Section 3.4.3.

Figure 9-5. Choose References Table of Contents to see the different styles of tables of contents you can insert in your text. Most of the tables use the headings you created in your document.

When you click the style of your choice, Word automatically creates a table of contents and inserts the results in your document. To create the table, Word takes paragraphs you've formatted with heading styles, such as Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 (Figure 9-6).

Review the table of contents .

Don't forget to inspect the table of contents that Word created. You never know when something unexpected may happen. Maybe you forgot to format a heading with a Heading style, and it doesn't show up in the table. Or worse , some paragraph is mistakenly tagged with a heading styleoops, it's in your table of contents.

Figure 9-6. Word makes some pretty good-looking tables of contents. They're all laid out very neatly with subheadings indented and leader characters marching off to the page numbers aligned on the right margins. The headings in your table are grayed out to show that they're generated by a Word field. The arrows in the middle of the lines show the tab characters used to align the numbers on the right.

Tip: If you'd like to reword the entries in your table of contentsshorten overly long headings, or add some descriptive text, for exampleyou can edit the contents directly, like any Word text. The headings in your document aren't affected. Remember, though, that if you update the table of contents (as described in the next section), be sure to update only the page numbers, not the entire table. Otherwise, you'll lose any hand-entered changes.

9.3.1. Updating Your Table of Contents

If you make changes to your document after you've created a table of contents, you need to have Word update the table to match. For example, if you've added or deleted any headings, the table of contents needs to reflect that change. Even if you didn't change any headings, edits that you've made to the body text may have changed the page numbering and moved headings to different pages. Surprisingly, Word doesn't make these updates automaticallyit needs a little nudge from you. Here are the ways you can update your table of contents:

Go to References Table of Contents Update Table.
Press Alt+S, U.
Right-click anywhere on the table, and then choose Update Field, as shown in Figure 9-7.

Figure 9-7. The easiest way to update your table of contents is to right-click anywhere on the table, and then choose Update Field from the shortcut menu. Once it's in place, you can also use your table of contents to navigate. Just Ctrl-click one of the entries to jump to that heading in your document.

When you give Word the command to update the table of contents, a box appears asking you to choose exactly what you want updated (Figure 9-8):

Update page numbers only . You can edit the words in your table of contents, but your changes will disappear if you use "Update entire table," as shown below. Use this option if you've edited the table and want Word to update only the page numbers in the table of contents, while leaving your customized table of contents intact.
Update entire table . This option is the same as deleting the old table of contents and creating a brand new one in its place. Use it if you've made lots of changes to your document and just want to start fresh.

Figure 9-8. When you update your table of contents, Word needs to know whether you want to update only the page numbers or whether you want to generate a brand new table of contents.

9.3.2. Manually Adding a Table of Contents Entry

Sometimes you have text that you wish to include in your table of contents, but it isn't formatted as a heading. Suppose you've finished your historical novel and decide that it needs an introduction. You don't want to format the word "Introduction" as a heading, but you want it included in the table of contents for the book.

Here's how to add an entry to an existing table of contents:

Select the text you want to add to the table of contents .

Put the insertion point in the paragraph you want to add as a table of contents entry. Word uses all the text in the paragraph as an entry. If that's more than you bargained for, you can edit the text in the table later.
Go to References Table of Contents, and then click Add Text (Alt+S, A) .

The Add Text drop-down menu appears.
Choose a level for your new contents entry .

The menu gives you a choice for each level included in the table of contents. To add an entry, choose its level. For example, Level 1 entries are the major topics, the ones listed closest to the left margin in the contents.

Tip: The Not Shown in Contents option on this menu lets you remove a heading from the table of contents. Place the insertion point in a heading, and then go to References Table of Contents Add Text Not Shown in Contents.

Go to References Table of Contents Update Table (or press Alt+S, U) to update your table of contents .

After you make changes to your documentor specifically to the headings in your table of contents, as you've done hereyou need to update the table. Use the ribbon command or the keyboard shortcut Alt+S, U.

9.3.2.1. Using the Mark Table of Contents Entry box

One more tool can help you manually add an entry to your table of contents. It's the Mark Table of Contents Entry box (Figure 9-9). Select some text that you want to add to the table of contents, and then press Alt+Shift+O to show the box. You can do most of the tweaks in this box from the Table of Contents menu or by editing the table of contents text. The main reason you'd use this box is if your document has more than one table of contents. Some very long documents may have a table of contents for each major chapter or section. If that's the case, the "Table identifier" option in this box lets you choose a specific table of contents.

Figure 9-9. The Mark Table of Contents Entry box lets you edit the text that's used in the table of contents. If your document has more than one table of contents, use the "Table identifier" menu. The Level text box lets you set the table of contents level for the entry.

9.3.3. Formatting Your Table of Contents

You can select text in your table of contents and format it just as you would any other text, but that's not the best way to change the look of your table. If you make changes or update your table, you'll probably lose the formatting. It's better to make changes to the table of contents styles using the Table of Contents dialog box (References Table of Contents Table of Contents Insert Table of Contents). That way, when you add new entries or update your table, Word formats everything correctly.

9.3.3.1. Quick formatting for tables of contents

The Table of Contents box shown in Figure 9-10 lets you tweak some formatting options of the table of contents. Here are your options:

Show page numbers . Turn off this box to remove page numbers from your table of contents. You may not want page numbers if, for example, you're doing a very short document like a newsletter or brochure, and just want an "In This Issue" list.
Right align page numbers . You can make your page numbers line up against the right margin, as shown in Figure 9-6, or they can follow immediately after the entry's text.
Tab leader . You can choose from any of the standard tab leaders : dots, dashes, lines, or none.
Formats . Choose table of contents formatting from several different standard styles. These options change the font sizes and styles (italics, bold, and so on).
Show levels . Words standard settings create tables of contents from the first three heading styles. You can increase or decrease the number of headings used.

As you make changes, you see the results in the Print Preview box on the left side of the Table of Contents dialog box (Figure 9-10).

Figure 9-10. The Table of Contents box shows two versions of your table. On the left is the print version, and on the right is the HTML version. It shows what the contents would look like if you published the document as a Web page.

9.3.3.2. Detailed formatting for tables of contents

Each line in the table of contents that Word creates has a paragraph style, just like any other paragraph in your document. For the table of contents, these styles not only set the font, font size , and type style, but they also determine the indent from the left margin and the tab leader. Because these styles are ordinary, everyday Word styles, you can fiddle with them all you want. The styles are called: TOC 1 for level 1 entries, TOC 2 for level 2 entries, and so on.

Here are the steps for modifying your Table of Contents styles:

Go to References Table of Contents Insert Table of Contents .

The Table of Contents dialog box opens (Figure 9-10).
In the lower-right corner, click the Modify button to open the Style box .

The Style box lists all the TOC entries 1 through 9. Click an entry, and you see a formatting description in the bottom of the box.
Choose the TOC style you want to format, and then click the Style box's Modify button .

When you click Modify, yet another dialog box opens. If you've customized any paragraph styles or created your own, this box should look familiar.
In the Modify Style box, choose from the Format menu at lower left to choose the formatting you want to change .

Your choices include Font, Paragraph, Tabs, Borders, and more. For more details on paragraph formatting, see Section 4.3.1.

You can change several different styles from the Modify Style box before closing it. Just choose a new style from the drop-down menu at the very top.
Click OK to close each of the boxes and return to your document .

Note: One of the entries in the Table of Contents menu is Manual Table of Contents. Choose this option when you just want to create your own table of contents without any help from Word. Word provides the basic format and some placeholder text to get you started. You replace the placeholders by typing your own entries, including the page numbers, which you have to look up yourself. A table of contents created in this way is just plain text. Word won't update it for you if you add new headings to your document or if the page numbers change.

9.3.4. Deleting a Table of Contents

To delete a table of contents, go to the Table of Contents menu (References Table of Contents Remove Table of Contents (its at the very bottom of the menu). Word removes the entire table from your document. But don't worry, you can press Ctrl+Z immediately to bring it back, or just insert a new one.