How to Create a Dynamic Table of Contents in Excel

A table of contents is a total game-changer when working with large files – it keeps everything organized and easy to navigate. Unfortunately, unlike Word, Microsoft Excel doesn’t have a simple “Table of Contents” button that adds this handy feature and updates it automatically. No, you’ll have to roll up your sleeves and create a dynamic table of contents yourself. This table will automatically update and contain clickable links, allowing you to add and remove sheets – as well as jump between them – with ease. This guide has all the info you need to create a dynamic table of contents in Excel.

How to Create a Dynamic Table of Contents in Excel

Technically, there are three ways to create a dynamic table of contents (TOC) in Excel. However, only one of them guarantees a fully automated TOC, and that’s Visual Basic for Applications or VBA for short – Microsoft’s native programming language. The other two – traditional formulas and Power Query – will give you a semi-dynamic table of contents in Excel – one that either doesn’t include clickable links or doesn’t update automatically. Since we’re after a fully dynamic Excel table of contents, we’ll use VBA.

If you aren’t particularly VBA-savvy; don’t worry – you just need to follow a few steps. But first – let’s create our table of contents.

Step 1: Click on the “Insert Worksheet” button next to your sheets at the bottom.

Step 2: Name the sheet “Table of Contents.”

Step 3: Drag the sheet to the first position for better navigation.

Step 4: Enter the names of your sheets in Column A of the “Table of Contents” sheet.

And voilà – you’ve got your table of contents. You can play with the aesthetics of this TOC later – now, we need to make it dynamic. To do so, we’ll need the help of the VBA Editor – a built-in Excel tool that lets you write and run custom codes.

Step 1: Press “Alt + F11” to open the VBA Editor.

Step 2: Go to the “Insert” tab at the top.

Step 3: Select “Module” from the dropdown menu.

Step 4: Copy and paste the following VBA code:

Sub CreateTOC()

    Dim ws As Worksheet

    Dim toc As Worksheet

    Dim i As Integer

    ‘ Check if TOC sheet already exists, delete if it does

    On Error Resume Next

    Set toc = ThisWorkbook.Sheets(“Table of Contents”)

    On Error GoTo 0

    If Not toc Is Nothing Then Application.DisplayAlerts = False: toc.Delete: Application.DisplayAlerts = True

    ‘ Create new TOC sheet

    Set toc = ThisWorkbook.Sheets.Add(Before:=ThisWorkbook.Sheets(1))

    toc.Name = “Table of Contents”

    ‘ Set up TOC header

    toc.Cells(1, 1).Value = “Table of Contents”

    toc.Cells(1, 1).Font.Bold = True

    toc.Cells(1, 1).Font.Size = 14

    ‘ Loop through all sheets and add hyperlinks

    i = 2

    For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Sheets

        If ws.Name <> “Table of Contents” Then

            toc.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=toc.Cells(i, 1), _

                Address:=””, _

                SubAddress:=”‘” & ws.Name & “‘!A1”, _

                TextToDisplay:=ws.Name

            i = i + 1

        End If

    Next ws

    ‘ Adjust column width

    toc.Columns(“A”).AutoFit

 End Sub

Step 5: Hit “F5” to run the code.

Step 6: Exit the VBA Editor.

You’ll notice your Excel table of contents is now clickable.

To automatically update your table of contents after changes, you just need to repeat Steps 1 to 6. This will add any new sheets to the list or remove the ones you deleted.

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