How to automatically add a "Table of Contents" to a Microsoft Word document

No matter what the document is, if it doesn't have a Table of Contents section, it will definitely be difficult to navigate through it. What's special about Microsoft Word is its simplicity and its ability to make the user's job easier. Having said that, Microsoft Word definitely has a built-in method by which users can insert a perfectly formed table of contents into their Word document. What's even more acceptable is that the table of contents can be updated automatically even if you make any changes to the document after inserting it.

In this article, we explain in detail how to easily insert a table of contents section into a Word document, how to automatically update it when the document content changes and how to use Table of ContentsBrowse documentation. Read on to master this super amazing Word trick.

Note: The table of contents is created from the title of your Word document.

Part 1: How to Automatically Create a Table of Contents in a Word Document

Step 1: First, make sure you have prepared the basic structure, All headings and subheadings are in place because the Table of Contents section is generated from the headings in the document.

In the example below, we have a document that contains a title, subtitle, and sub-subtitle. There can also be text under each heading. For simplicity, we only added the section headers.

Step 2 : Next, use the Title Format tab on the top ribbon to format the title correctly.

First, press the CTRL key. Nowclickandselect all the main headings. With all major headings selected, click the Heading 1 Format Style on the top ribbon.

Step 3: Just like you formatted Heading 1, Next select all secondary headings, Then click the Heading 2 Format Style at the top.

Step 4: Thenselect all third headers and use Title 3 Format it. Likewise, you can format as many heading levels as you like.

#Steps 5 through 7 are optional. These steps are used to customize the header formatting style. If you don't want to conditionally customize the title, you can skip to step 8, skipping steps 5, 6, and 7.

Step 5: First, format your title 1 in any way you want. To do this, you can use the options available in the "Home" tab. For example, you can change the color of the font, make it bold, make it italic, underline it, or make it larger or smaller, change the font type, etc.

After formatting the title to your liking,

click and select the text.

With the text selected,

right-click its corresponding heading format , in this case Heading 1, and click OptionsUpdate Heading 1 to Match Selection.

Step 6: This will immediately apply your title formatting to all Title 1 text.

Step 7: Likewise, you can apply text formatting to all headings in the document, such as Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. .

Step 8: After completing all settings, click the starting point of the document. This will be the first point on the first line of the entire document.

After that, click on the

Insert tab at the top and then click on the button Page Break as shown in the screenshot below.

Step 9: The previous step will add a blank page before page 1 of the document.

Step 10: Now let’s add the directory.

To do this,

click on the blank page you just created. Then click on the topmost REFERENCES tab.

Next, click the drop-down button named Table of Contents. Select the format of your choice. We decided to use the second format, Automatic Table 2.

Step 11: Great! You can see that the Table of Contents section is now automatically added to your document along with the corresponding page numbers. Yes, it's really that simple.

NOTE: The table of contents is added to page 1 of the document, the actual document starts on page 2.

Part 2: How to Update the Table of Contents If You Make Any Changes to the Document Title

Now, let’s say you updated the document section title. Let's say you add another section at the end of the document. In this case you need to update the directory, but this is also automatic. You can follow the steps below to accomplish this task perfectly.

Step 1: First, Add additional section titles or modify existing section titles.

Then click somewhere in the table of contents to display the Update table button at the top. click it.

In the "

Update Catalog" window, select the radio option button## corresponding to the "Update entire table" option #, and then click the "OK" button.

Step 2

: You can now see that the Directory has been updated automatically.

Part 3: How to Navigate the Document Using the Table of Contents

When you have the Table of Contents ready, just

hover the

On it. You will now see a small toast message saying that you need to CTRL click the line you hovered over to follow the link. So just

hover over any line

on the table of contents and CTRL click it to go to its actual location in the document Location. Yes, it doesn’t get easier than navigating a huge Word document!

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