How to create a Table of Contents in Word 2007

When you create very long documents in Word like theses, annual reports, or even books .You may need to provide a table of contents. Your readers will be glad you did. What's more, if you did a good job of creating headers and subheads, then most of the hard work is done.

Word generates the table of contents automatically from your headers, looks up the page numbers for each heading, and formats the whole table for you. All you have to do is tell Word where you want to place the table of contents, and then choose a predesigned format that compliments your documentall of which you do in the Table of Contents group on the References tab, or in the Table of Contents dialog box.

Here's how to insert a table of contents into your document:

1) Place the insertion point where you want to put the table of contents.

The traditional spot for a table of contents is right after the title and before the main part of the text. It's best to put the insertion point on an empty line, so the table doesn't interfere with any other text. If you agree, click after the title, and then press Enter.

2) Choose References Table of Contents, and then choose one of the Automatic table styles from the drop-down menu.

The Table of Contents menu gives you a few choices. You can choose from two: Automatic tables Contents and Table of Contents. Or you can choose to create your table of contents manually. If you used custom headings in your document (instead of Word's standard Heading 1, Heading 2), you must create it manually.

When you click the style of your choice, Word automatically creates a table of contents and inserts the results in your document. To create the table, Word takes paragraphs you've formatted with heading styles, such as Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3.

3) Review the table of contents.

Don't forget to inspect the table of contents that Word created. You never know when something unexpected may happen. Maybe you forgot to format a heading with a Heading style, and it doesn't show up in the table. Or worse, some paragraph is mistakenly tagged with a heading styleoops, it's in your table of contents.

Tip: If you'd like to reword the entries in your table of contents. Shorten overly long headings, or add some descriptive text, for example you can edit the contents directly, like any Word text. The headings in your document aren't affected. Remember, though, that if you update the table of contents, be sure to update only the page numbers, not the entire table. Otherwise, you'll lose any hand-entered changes.

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