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 June 4, 2021)
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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2023-06-11 00:40:36
Richard M Levine
I find the method Allen suggests to work perfectly in Microsoft 365 apps for Enterprise, desktop version.
To update all tables of contents in document, try this -
Dim TOC As TableOfContents
For Each TOC In ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents
TOC.Update
Next
Using Allen's suggestion, try this -
Dim n as integer
if activedocument.tablesof contents.count >0 then
For n = 1 to TablesOfContents.Count
ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(n).Update
Next
end if
If the count is 0, I believe that nothing would be executed, but I haven't checked that, so I put the test at the beginning.
2022-11-14 16:34:01
Jim Moss
I can never seem to get your "one line" macros to work. I'm constantly updating tables of content in documents I write and this would have been great, but it does not work. What gives?
2016-09-27 08:13:10
Alana
Thanks for this, especially the one that checks if there is a TOC; works like a charm!
2016-09-16 10:46:46
John Gutwirth
Works fine thanks!
2016-06-24 11:16:05
Kevin
This does not update the TOC table for Appendices. This is what I need. Any ideas?
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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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