How to Insert a Table of Contents
A table of contents in Microsoft Word is based on the headings in the document. Headings formatted with the H1 style become main topics, while headings formatted with H2 become subtopics. You may be working with a document that’s already written and needs a table of contents added, but you want to preserve the font and formatting of the document. If you want to customize the automatic headings to match what’s already in the document, format them with the H1 or H2 styles as appropriate. Once that’s done, follow these steps:
How to Update the Table of Contents
To update the table of contents when you make changes to the document that affect the table of contents, select any place in the table of contents and choose Update Table. Then, choose to either update page numbers only or the entire table of contents.
How to Use and Customize the Table of Contents
An automatic table of contents has hyperlinks built in to navigate through the document quickly. To use a hyperlink, hover the mouse over the appropriate entry in the table and Control+Click to follow the link. This is an especially helpful tool for long documents. There are also many ways to customize a table of contents. To adjust the font and size, highlight the text as you normally would in a Word document, then go to the Home tab to select a font, size, color, or other text format. To access advanced font customization options, select the More Options icon. Additionally, to find more customization options, right-click the table and select Edit Field. Scroll down and select TOC, then choose Table of Contents. Here, you can choose whether or not to show page numbers, page number alignment, general formatting, and more.
