Before we start talking about how to create a table of contents, we need to cover some basics.

 

First off, there are three parts to a TOC.

 

 

1	This is the list of headings in your document.
2	These characters are called tab leaders. They fill in the space between your headings and your page numbers. You can choose different styles of tab leaders or none at all!
3	This is the list of page numbers.

 

You can hold the Ctrl key and click on any of the headings to go to that part of the document:

 

 

The text included in the headings is up to you, so you need to tell Word what you want to include. (The easiest way to do so is to mark it as you write the document.)

 

You can mark text in one of three ways:

-          Outline levels

-          Heading styles

-          Custom styles

 

Each of the three ways is different, and we’ll focus on them more later. No matter what method you use, remember that the text you mark is what will be displayed in the Table of Contents, so it should be concise yet clearly explain what section the reader will be taken to.

 

There are some other things to remember about tables of contents in Word:

-          You should never edit the table of contents itself (either text or formatting). Once the table of contents is updated, those changes will be overwritten. The only time it makes sense to edit the text and formatting is if it’s the very last thing you do to it and you never, ever want to update it again.

-          If you click in your table of contents, it will appear in a gray box. This is a visual aid to separate it from the other text, and won’t be printed.