Word's basic table of contents may not always suffice for what you need as you create your documents. Fortunately, there are many variations you can apply. The following articles discuss specialized tables of contents and how to efficiently format them.

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Table of Contents' topic. Click the article''s title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

   Adding Column Headings to a Table of Contents
Word makes it easy to create a Table of Contents. If you want column headings in that table, getting them takes a bit of ingenuity. Here are some ideas.

   Creating a Simple TOC
Sometimes a table of contents created by Word can have a few too many bells and whistles. Here's how to get rid of the hyperlinks that Word automatically adds to a TOC.

   Creating a Table of Contents from Heading Levels
If your document is any length at all, adding a table of contents is a nice touch. This tip demonstrates how easy it is to create a TOC based on the headings in your document.

   Creating a TOC that Includes Specific Styles
Want to create a special TOC that contains different elements of your document? It's easy to do if you consistently use styles. Here's how to create the special TOC.

   Customized Tables of Contents
Generating a table of contents is easy in Word. Changing how that table of contents looks is also easy, provided you change the styles that Word automatically applies to the parts of the TOC.

   Insert a TOC without Upsetting Pagination
Insert a table of contents in your document, and your page numbering may get thrown for a loop. If you want the page numbering to remain constant, then you'll appreciate the advice in this tip.

   Jumping Back to the TOC
Word allows you to create a table of contents that provides hyperlinks to headings within your document. It doesn't make it that easy to get back to the TOC after clicking on a TOC entry, however. Here are some ideas on how you can work around this apparent shortcoming.

   Locking Lines in a TOC
Want to "lock down" the lines in a TOC so that you cannot add new paragraph marks in the middle of one? You may not be able to lock things down as much as you want, for the reasons described in this tip.

   Overriding Automatic Numbering of Tables
Word lets you add automatic numbering to different elements of your document. It does not, however, allow much flexibility in how those numbers are applied.

   Page Ranges in a TOC
It is easy to generate a table of contents for a document, and that TOC can contain page number references for each heading. What it cannot contain, without manual intervention, is a range of page numbers covered by each heading.

   Paragraph Numbers in a TOC
Word is great at creating a simple, straightforward table of contents. If you want a more non-traditional TOC, however, it can get a bit trickier. Here are some ideas on creating one such non-traditional TOC.

   Problems with TOC Styles
If you generate a table of contents for your document, there may be some unexpected surprises in the way the TOC appears. This could be directly related to how you have the headings in your document formatted.

   TOC Heading Numbers Always Show in Bold
Linda's got a document that includes a table of contents that is based on headings in the document. When the headings include automatic numbering, she cannot get the numbers in the TOC to be non-bold. This tip discusses a possible cause (and solution), based on the relationship between the headings and the TOC generated from them.

   Two Types of Page Numbers in a TOC
Word, when creating a table of contents, should automatically make sure that the page numbers it shows correspond to the way those page numbers appear in your headers and footers. Here's what to do if the page numbers don't appear the way you expect.

   Two-Line Headings in a TOC
If you use the TC field to mark what goes in a TOC, you may wonder why if you mark two lines together with the field they don't both end up in the TOC. The reason has to do with how Word puts together the TOC from the fields.

   Updating an Entire TOC from a Macro
The TOC (Table of Contents) is generated by a field. This field may be updated in a macro using a single command line.

   Using Multiple Tables of Contents
Adding multiple tables of contents is a must for some types of document design. Here's a great overview of how you can add all the tables you need.