If you are creating a long, complex
document, it is often useful for the reader to include a Table of Contents
(TOC) to aid navigation through the document. MS Word provides a feature that
automatically creates a TOC for you.
The entries in the TOC are, by default,
based on the paragraph or section headings in your document i.e. the headings
formatted using one of the built-in HEADING styles. You can create a TOC based
on Outline levels, or customised heading styles, but this brief explanation
concentrates on the default headings.
Follow these simple steps to create your
TOC:
1.
Go through the document and apply the heading
styles 1, 2, 3 etc. to each of the headings that you wish to appear in the TOC.
2.
Place your cursor at the point in the document
where you wish to insert the TOC (it is often useful to insert a blank page or
pages for this).
3.
Go to INSERT, REFERENCE, INDEX and TABLES.
4.
Select the TABLE OF CONTENTS tab.
Here you can select the number of heading
levels to be included in the TOC. You will most probably only wish 1,2 or 3
levels. Any more than this creates a complex TOC which may be difficult to
follow.
You can also modify the appearance of the
TOC – whether you want page numbers right-justified or not, any tab-leader
character (the default is dots), whether you want page numbers included or not
– you will normally want them included. You can also modify the style of the
entries in the TOC here as well.
Finally, when you are ready, click on OK and
the TOC will be inserted in your document.
