Creating a Table of Contents

Introduction to Tables of Contents in Word

Many people want to include a Table of Contents with their documents. Unfortunately, they often don’t use Word’s Table of Contents feature because they don’t understand it. Instead, the create one manually, which is much more complicated.

Before you make your Table of Contents, creating an outline of your document in Outline view. Then, Word will create a Table of Contents automatically from the Outline. By using this feature, you will avoid the problems associated with creating one manually. First, Word uses the headings you entered in outline view to create the Table of Contents. You won’t need to waste time entering the information a second time.

Word also makes it easy to format the table, providing several pre-defined options. But, best of all, Word will automatically update the page numbering for you. So, as your document grows in length, the Table of Contents will reflect the changes.

You can also use the Table of Contents to navigate through your document. The Table is linked to the sections of the document. This means that you can use it to navigate through the document. Simply hold the mouse pointer over one of the entries in the Table. Then, hold the Ctrl key and click the mouse. Word takes you to that section of your document.