Create table of contents with Word

Anyone who has a document with forty pages will probably recognize it. A long piece of text makes the whole cluttered. Therefore, structure the document by providing the document with a table of contents. This way the reader knows at a glance which page he should be on. Fortunately, this does not have to be done manually in Word: there is a handy function for this.

Create a table of contents in Word that consists of main and subheadings:

• Open the Word document.
• Create headlines with a so-called ‘headline style’. This is a ready-made format in Word that indicates the level of the heading. For example, larger letters (Heading 1) are used for capital headings and smaller letters (Heading 2 and Heading 3) for subheadings. Because of these formatting styles, Word knows which text is a main or subheading and creates the automatic table of contents based on this.
  • click on Start.
  • Select the text to have a heading style, such as a chapter name.
  • In the ‘Styles’ box, click Cup 1.
  • The text changes style. Give all main headings in the document the ‘Heading 1’ style.
  • Make a header? Select text and choose Cup 2.
  • Structure the text under style 2 subheadings with additional subheadings (Cup 3).
• Format the title of the document. Next to the heading styles, click the triangle > Title. This text will not be included in the table of contents.
• Does the text contain main and intermediate headings? Click on the tab at the top References.
• Click on the left Table of contents.
• Select the option Automatic table of contents 2 to create the table of contents.

The table of contents has been inserted. Do you adjust anything later? Think of extra text or another name for a headline. Then click on the table of contents > To update > Update in its entirety > OK and the table of contents is up to date again.