Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Updating an Entire TOC from a Macro.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 7, 2026)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
If you have a document that contains a table of contents (TOC), and you update the fields in the entire document, Word asks if you want to update the entire table or just the page numbers in the table. This occurs because TOCs are implemented through the use of a field, and when you update all fields you are telling Word you also want to update the field underlying the TOC.
You can update a TOC using a macro by utilizing the TablesOfContents collection. Each item in the collection represents a single TOC in the document. (In most documents the collection will consist of only a single item.) To update the entire TOC, you use this format of the command:
ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1).Update
The Update method is what does the work; it updates the TOC. If you want to update only the page numbers in the TOC, you use an entirely different method:
ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1).UpdatePageNumbers
Whenever you use commands like these in a macro, it is a good idea to make sure that there is actually a TOC in the document before you try to do any updating. The easiest way to do this is to just check the Count property for the collection, as shown here:
If ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents.Count = 1 Then _ ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1).Update
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (301) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Updating an Entire TOC from a Macro.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here:
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