Most document files, especially report files, theses or dissertations, must have a table of contents. However, creating a table of contents manually will make the table of contents unsightly, unprofessional and take a lot of time to create. This article will guide you how to create a table of contents in Microsoft Word automatically, quickly and professionally, saving time and effort. Let’s follow along!
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1. How to create a table of contents in Microsoft Word automatically
Instead of manually typing the table of contents, you can use the built-in tools to create a table of contents. Creating a table of contents in Word automatically goes through 2 parts: Part 1 is marking the headings to create a table of contents and part 2 is displaying the table of contents in Word . We will practice in detail!
Part 1: Mark headings to create a table of contents in Word
Marking headings is the most important part when creating a table of contents in Word because it will determine the accuracy and completeness of the table of contents in Word. Therefore, you need to pay special attention, review all the headings, and avoid missing anything. There are 2 ways to mark headings to help create a table of contents in Word:
Method 1: Use Heading Styles available in Microsoft Word
- Highlight the content and headings that you want to format as Headings. You can highlight a line, then hold down the Ctrl key to highlight additional non-continuous content. When highlighting, be careful not to add white space or unwanted content to the table of contents .
- After you have finished selecting the content, go to the Home tab.
- In the Styles group on the toolbar, click to select one of the pre-installed Heading styles (For example, Gitiho will choose Heading 1 here). To display more Heading formatting styles, you can click on this expand arrow button to see more!
Method 2: Use Table of Contents to mark headings for the table of contents in Word
Highlight the content you want to use as a heading. Note: Highlight just enough of the content to avoid adding white space or unwanted content to the table of contents.
After you have finished highlighting the selection, go to the References tab.
In the Table of Contents group , click Add Text . Select the level that matches the heading you are selecting. For example: Your content has 3 headings: 1; 1.1; 1.1.1, then select the level 1, level 2 and level 3 respectively.
It can be said that to create professional, beautiful documents, it is not only about creating a table of contents but also requires a lot of other knowledge and skills such as text formatting, paragraph formatting, margins and other advanced tools such as mail merge…
Part 2: Insert table of contents in Microsoft Word automatically
After marking the headings, to create a table of contents in Word, we will perform the following steps:
Place the mouse cursor where you want to create the table of contents in Word (the table of contents in Word is usually placed right before the Foreword or main content).
Go to the References tab
In the Table of Contents group, click the Table of Contents icon . At this time, the available Word table of contents templates will appear. You can choose from these suggested Word table of contents templates. In addition, you can choose Custom Table of Contents (for Word 2016, 2019 and Word 365 versions) or Insert Table of Contents (For lower Word versions) to format the table of contents style as desired.
2. Update table of contents in Word
When there is a change in the headings (add or delete Heading), you can update the table of contents in Word by following these steps:
Mark the headings using Heading or Table of Contents as above.
Go to the References tab in the Ribbon group .
Click Update Table to update the table of contents in Word after changes. There are 2 options here:
Update page numbers only: Update page numbers only. Use this option when you edit text, causing the text to lengthen or shorten, resulting in a change in page numbers.
Update entire table: Update the entire table. Use this option when you edit section names, add or remove sections, or add or remove pages.
Click OK to finish the operation.
Once completed, your table of contents in Word will be automatically updated without the effort and time to redo the table of contents creation operation.
3. Common errors and problems when creating a table of contents in Microsoft Word
Although the operation is extremely simple, does not take too much effort and does not require much technique, however, errors can still occur or there may be problems when creating a table of contents in Word !
The table of contents in Word does not display “……….”
Normally, when a table of contents in Word is created, the title and page number will be separated by “…………..”. However, if you do not see these dots appear when creating a table of contents in Word , do not worry! Follow these steps to make the dots appear:
Go to the References tab and select Table of Contents.
Click Custom Table of Contents to set up the table of contents in Word.
In the Tab Leader section , select “…….” to display the “……..” mark in the table of contents in Word.
Click OK to finish the operation.
Add level to Add Text
Normally, the Add Text item will only show suggestions for 3 levels of headings (Level 1 to level 3) and will not show the button to add. However, if the document has more than 3 headings, what should we do?
Go to Table of Contents > Custom table of contents
In the Show levels section , enter the number of levels you want to display. However, you need to make sure that the number of marked topics is enough according to the levels to display.
So, in this article, we have learned and practiced together how to create a table of contents in Microsoft Word automatically and quickly, helping to save time and effort. A table of contents in Word created automatically by the methods introduced in the article will definitely make your text much more professional and beautiful.
Good luck with your studies!
See more: How to number pages from any page in Microsoft Word