How to Insert and Update a Table of Contents

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(Note: Suitable for users of Word, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 and Word for Microsoft 365.)

Objective

Add structure to a document and help others navigate by inserting a table of contents.

Table of Contents Explained

A table of contents is a list that appears at the beginning of a document. It shows us which page each heading/section is on. In Word documents, the table of contents acts as a source of information, allowing us to quickly jump to the relevant section in the document as the page numbers are hyperlinks. This greatly assists navigation and makes finding specific sections a breeze!

Before building a table of contents, we must ensure that our document is structured correctly using heading styles. Word uses headings styles to determine what to pull into the table of contents. If we haven’t applied heading styles to the headings in our document, the table of contents will not work.

It’s also very important to keep the table of contents up to date. If we add more text to the document and it pushes one of the headings onto the next page, we need to update the table of contents to reflect the new page number.

• Add Heading Styles to the Document
• Create Space for the Table of Contents
• Inserts a Table of Contents
• Modify the Table of Contents Style
• Update the Table of Contents

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Add Heading Styles to the Document

We should add heading styles to our document before creating a table of contents.

• From the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the diagonal arrow to open the Styles pane.
• Select the document’s first heading and click Heading 1 in the Styles pane.

Repeat this process for all top-level headings in the document. Use Heading 2 for any sub-headings and Heading 3 for any third-level headings. Headings not only help us build a table of contents but give the document structure and make it easier to read.

NOTE: The below example has customized heading styles. So, it will appear different to the default shown in the Styles gallery.

Create Space for the Table of Contents

Generally, a table of contents goes at the beginning of the document after the cover page (if you have one).

In the example below, the table of contents is on the same page as the document’s start. Ideally, a table of contents should be on a page separate from the rest of the document. 

To achieve this, we need to add a page break at the start of the document.

• Position the cursor before the first letter of the first word in the document.
• Press CTRL+Enter to insert a page break.

If you can’t see the page break in the document, you will need to turn on Show/Hide markers.

• From the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the Show/Hide button.  

• Position the cursor so it is before the page break, flush with the left-hand margin.

Inserts a Table of Contents

We are now ready to insert a table of contents.

• From the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click the lower half of the Table of Contents button.

Word has three in-built table of contents styles. These all differ slightly and are a quick way of inserting a table of contents.

If we want a bit more control regarding the heading levels, the style, and how the page numbers look, we can create our custom table of contents.

• Click Custom Table of Contents.

1. Shows a preview of the heading levels.
   
2. Shows what the headings will look like on the web.
   
3. Specify if we want to show the page numbers in the table of contents and if we want them right aligned. De-selecting this option aligns the page numbers next to the heading.
   
4. Specify if we want a tab leader. A tab leader can be dots, dashes, etc. These dots run from the heading to the page number and assist with reading.
   
5. Choose a style for the table of contents. The default is From template.
   
6. Choose how many heading levels to show in the table of contents. The default is three, but if we only have headings 1 and 2 used in the document, we can modify this to show two levels.

We are going to keep the default settings.

• Click OK.

The table of contents will be inserted without a heading. If required, add the text Table of Contents at the top.

Note that the page numbers are aligned to the right-hand side, and a dotted tab leader separates the heading from the page number.

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Modify the Table of Contents Style

We can use a different font or font color for the table of contents.

• Click anywhere inside the table of contents.
• From the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click the lower half of the Table of Contents button.
• Click Custom Table of Contents.
• Click Modify.
• With TOC 1 selected, click Modify again.

Modifying TOC 1 allows us to change the formatting for Heading 1’s in the table of contents.

• Make any formatting changes.

• Click OK.

Word will ask if you want to replace this table of contents with the modified table of contents.

• Click OK.

Let’s also change the formatting for heading 2 in the table of contents.

• Click anywhere inside the table of contents.
• From the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click the lower half of the Table of Contents button.
• Click Custom Table of Contents.
• Click Modify.
• With TOC 2 selected, click Modify again.

• Make any formatting changes.

• Click OK and confirm to replace the table of contents.

Update the Table of Contents

If we change the body of the document, we need to make sure we update the table of contents. We can update the entire table or just the page numbers. So, what’s the difference?

Well, if we were to rename one of the headings in the body of the document and move things around, we would need to update the entire table. If a heading has been pushed onto a different page because we’ve added more text, we only need to update the page numbers. If in doubt, update the entire table.

We’re going to make a couple of changes. Let’s change the heading ‘Marking Index Entries’ to ‘Mark Index Entries’. Let’s also move the Cross References section to page 2.

Once complete, we need to update the table of contents.

• Click on the table of contents.
• Click the Update Table button.

We can also update a table of contents by pressing the F9 key.

• Choose Update entire table.

• Click OK.

The changes are now reflected in the table of contents.

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Deborah Ashby

Deborah Ashby is a TAP Accredited IT Trainer, specializing in the design, delivery, and facilitation of Microsoft courses both online and in the classroom.She has over 11 years of IT Training Experience and 24 years in the IT Industry. To date, she's trained over 10,000 people in the UK and overseas at companies such as HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, Parliament, SKY, Microsoft, Kew Gardens, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.She's a qualified MOS Master for 2010, 2013, and 2016 editions of Microsoft Office and is COLF and TAP Accredited and a member of The British Learning Institute.