Insert your

first table of contents

Create, update, and customize a table of contents
You don’t need to wait until your pages are finalized; inserting a table of contents can be an
early step in creating your document. As the pages of your document develop, Word helps you
keep the table of contents up to date.

This doc isn’t just for reading, it’s for trying too. Watch for the Try it text in red
throughout this document so you can learn by doing.

Insert a table of contents

To add a TOC (short for table of contents), just decide where you want it. Word will do the heavy
lifting.

Try It: Hit Enter after the first paragraph in this doc to get a new line. Then, go to the
References tab, select Table of Contents, and choose a TOC from the gallery.

Voila! Word found all the headings in this document and added a TOC.

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 1. From the list of Tab Leader options, select Line (last choice in the list), and click OK.

2. When you’re prompted to replace the TOC, click Yes.

And just like that, Word found your TOC and changed the tab leader from dots to an underline.

Remove a TOC
You can’t delete a TOC like you can a picture or other things in a doc. Well, you can, but if you
do it too many times, your TOC can get out of whack. Remember the heavy lifting Word does
for you? All the scaffolding needs to be removed too. Tell Word to remove the TOC, and Word
will clean up after itself.

Try It: On the References tab, click Table of Contents, and then near the bottom, click
Remove Table of Contents.

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Poof! The TOC, and the stuff to make it work, are gone from the document. But you can add
your TOC back any time, in any location. Word will remember everything you did—even your
change to the tab leader.

Under the hood: The stuff Word removes is a collection of hidden bookmarks that keep track of
the heading text and page number shown in the TOC.

Explore more
If you want to customize your TOC even more, give these a try. (If you didn’t add your TOC back,
do that now. You can add it above this section if you’d like. Or, if removing it is the last thing
you did, press Ctrl+Z to undo.)

Change text formatting of the TOC entries

Try it: In your TOC, select an entire Level 1 entry and make a formatting change. For example,
change the font color to blue. (Make sure you select only one TOC entry, including the tab
leader and page number. Notice that even though the whole TOC may look like it’s selected, the
one entry you select will have darker highlighting.)

Like the rest of the TOC magic, all the TOC Level 1 entries changed too.

Under the hood: Okay, it’s not really magic. The TOC entries are assigned to a style (TOC 1, TOC
2, and so on), and those styles are set to update automatically whenever you make a formatting
change.

Change the number of TOC levels

Try it: Include only Heading 1 headings in your TOC, no subheadings.

1. On the References tab, click Table of Contents, and then near the bottom, click
Custom Table of Contents.

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2. Change Show levels to 1 and click OK.

3. When you’re prompted to replace the TOC, click Yes.

4. Verify your TOC no longer includes subheadings, such as Add a Level 2 TOC entry.

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Get help in Word
The Tell me search box takes you straight to commands and Help in Word.

Try it: Go to Tell me what you want to do near the top of the window, and then type what you
want to do.

For example, type:

 table of contents to quickly get to the Table of Contents options and other TOC help topics

 styles if you want to know more about using styles in Word

 help to go to Word help

 training to see the list of Word training courses

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