Comments on: How to create / update a table of contents in Microsoft Word

If you are a document writer, this article will be very useful for you. You will learn how to insert a table of contents into your document, modify and update it just in a few clicks. Also, I’ll show you how to make your document look good using Word’s built-in heading styles and the multilevel list option. Continue reading →

Comments page 2. Total comments: 47

  1. Hi. How can I make the page numbers in my TOC all the same size, independent of the Heading Style associated to the respective title? Thank you.

  2. I have word 2010. I must regularly update the TOCs of 8 files as I revise them. They were created at different times, over a period of perhaps 10 years, likely in different editions of Word. Their average length is about 500 pages.

    Whether I click "Update Table" under References or at the top of the TOC in a document, I seem to have no control over whether Word automatically Updates Page Numbers Only"/"Updates Entire Table" without asking which I want, or offers me the opportunity to check which I prefer.

    Any idea why this happens and how to make sure I always have the option? Right now, when the program does whatever its default update is I have to try updating a 2nd time to be sure the entire table was updated (I need to be able to control/click on chapter headings to jump to them).

    1. If you press F9 does the box pop up that gives you the option to update the whole TOC or just the page numbers?

  3. I have a toc that works fine, but I would like to know if a toc recognises a table that has split over 2 pages, with the same header.

    Is there away of on the toc the page number could say pages 3/4 automatically?

    Been looking everywhere but not found anything.

    I l0ok forward to your suggestions

    Donna

  4. hi i have an automatic table of contents but it is picking up on of my tables and showing it in the table of contents how do i stop this form happening
    thanks :) janet

    1. You will need to remove the HEADING formatting that you have used in the table to Normal and then change the font independently and not use a saved Heading or Sub Heading

      1. If upon reviewing your TOC, you see that in addition to the heading, the actual text is also appearing in the TOC, then you need go to the View tab, and click on the button that says outline and then in the upper left click “outline.” You are now viewing the document with little bullets that show plus signs or other indicators. To see all levels, at the top left click all levels in the drop down box after “show levels”. (You can scroll through your document and when you click on a heading or line from the body of the text, you will see what level of text that is.) So now go to your problem area in the text of the document that keeps appearing in the TOC. You will see that it is ascribed the wrong level. You can fix that by highlighting it and then at the https://www.ablebits.com/excel-suite/index.php upper left click on the correct level from the drop down box (which may in your case be body text.) You can then X out of outlining view. Check your text. You may have to fix the formatting a little but the text will be at the correct level. Now update your TOC and the heading but not the text should appear in the TOC.

  5. I have done all the section breaks, gone to home page and indicated heading 1, 2 or 3 then placed curser where I wanted it and generated a TOC. About half of my page numbers for heading 1 (Chapters) in the TOC are not correct, even though none of the Chapters actually have any page numbers on them. I skipped the numbering over the Chapters. The first few and a few others came out just fine, but not all. I think I looked at all the section breaks and they seem correct so I'm stumped. Help!

  6. Thank you for good instructions. However, I still have a problem of separating first pages with italics i.e. i, ii, iii... and the main text pages with arabic numbers 1,2,3 ...

    Best regards

    Djax Biria

  7. I want to use a five level TOC. However, every time I save document and reopen, in the Reference, Add Text it reverts to 1, 2 and 3. Is there a way to set the default in this document to 5 level TOC?

  8. I am trying to create a table of contents in a 100+ page document, the first, second and third headings are as follows:

    Article 1 (centered and bold)
    Premises (centered and underscored)
    1.1 (bold) (TAB) Lease (bold and underscored). Subject to the terms, covenants and conditions set forth herein, Landlord leases to Tenant and Tenant leases from Landlord the Premises identified ....
    1.2 (bold) (TAB) Common Areas (bold and underscored). Tenant shall have the nonexclusive right (in common with other tenants or occupants of the Building,....
    (a) (bold) (TAB) Initial Term (bold and underscored).
    (b) (bold) (TAB) Extension Term (bold and underscored).
    (i) General (bold and underscored).
    (ii) Adjustment (bold and underscored).

    I don't want the period after the headings bolded or underscored.

    I used the multi-level list styles, formatted each paragraphs and designated my Heading 1 as Heading 2 in the Styles Gallery because I might need Heading 1 as an unnumbered heading.

    Now, my understanding is that once I have right-clicked in Heading 2 and chose "Update Heading 2 to Match Selection" I should be able to click on Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. and have my paragraph numbered and formatted as chosen.

    Please tell me what I am doing wrong!!!

    Thanks.

    Thank you so very much if

  9. Hi,

    I must write my thesis in Times New Roman 12. My chapter names are going to another line in the ToC so it looks very messy. How can I correct that?

    Thanks very much

    J

  10. I'm trying to do a Table of Contents in Word 2010. I have book chapters listed ion the TOC one to twenty all in Heading 1. For some reason, and I don't know why,several of the listed chapters are missing from the TOC when the procedure has finished. Can you help?
    Thank you.

  11. I have a doc and I want two TOC in it. First as usual come at start up of the doc and I want to insert next TOC at mid of this doc. Is it possible?
    If it is possible then please guide me 20 pages I want on 1st TOC and then 10 pages I want on 2nd TOC simultaneously.

    Can any one please help me

  12. Can I move the TOC to another page? It created it on Page 01, and I still need to put some info before my TOC. I cannot find a way of inserting a page break in front of the TOC like other tables.

    Thank you,

  13. We place headings in table cells to create a color bar with the text in white. These headings in table cells do not appear in autogenerated TOCs. How can I get these headings to appear in the TOC without manually typing them all in?

  14. Hi,

    Before this, I clicked "Update table" --> "Update entire table" many times. So once I click "Update table", the program now automatically update the whole table of contents. But now I really want to update only page numbers. Is there any way to cancel this automatic command?

    Thanks

  15. Hi,

    I created a TOC without page numbers which allows for "Update page numbers only" - I'm not sure how I did this but I need to do it again!

    I've been trying and searching but I can't figure out how I managed to do it the first time.

    Does anyone know how to do that?

  16. Hi,

    I've got figures in my document that include sources - e.g.

    Figure 1: Interesting text here (Source: The Author)

    How can I omit the (Source: The Author) from my table of contents?

    Thanks

  17. Hi,

    when i update my table of contents, it also shows the main text in the table. How can I fix this?

    Thanks

    hasan

    1. make sure you main text is not marked as a heading style. alternatively, it could be because you don't have a proper carriage return after your heading *(you did a shift + enter to create a line feed - which looks like a carriage return but doesn't create the paragraph mark - thus your text looks like its different and on a new line but its of the same paragraph and style. click the paragraph mark button to see whether there is a paragraph mark behind your heading which is followed by the main text in your TOC )

  18. Hi
    I have a question.
    I wanted to include my abstract, acknowledgement, dedication and list of figures tiles in my table of content.
    Note that my page number begins with page number 1 in the Introduction of my thesis. That means, the above titles are numbered as a, b, c, and d separately and their inclusion into the table of content will appear before my Introduction section.
    How can I do that?
    Thanks
    Liky

  19. My table of contents is only showing pages 1 and 2, and the rest of the TOC is missing page numbers. Why would it only add page 1 and 2, and not the rest?

  20. for reference

  21. How to update table content and Figures in same time

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