How to Insert a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word

Amanda Derrick is a mechanical engineer, business strategist, and former Lifewire writer who has also written for USAF Civil Service, ATK, and Boeing.

What to Know

• Go to References >Table of Contents and choose a style. The table appears where the cursor is located.
• Update the table: Choose Update Table from the table drop-down menu. Choose to update page numbers only or the entire table.
• Customize: Highlight the text and go to the Home tab. Choose More Options for advanced settings, or right-click and select Edit Field.

In Microsoft Word, you can create a table of contents that instantly updates to reflect changes made to a document. The easiest way to build and maintain a table of contents is with styles. In this guide, we show you how to do so using the following versions of Word: Word for Microsoft 365, Word Online, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, Word 2007, Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac, Word 2019 for Mac, and Word 2016 for Mac.

How to Insert a Table of Contents

A table of contents in Microsoft Word is based on the headings in the document. Headings formatted with the H1 style become main topics, while headings formatted with H2 become subtopics.

You may be working with a document that's already written and needs a table of contents added, but you want to preserve the font and formatting of the document. If you want to customize the automatic headings to match what's already in the document, format them with the H1 or H2 styles as appropriate.

Once that's done, follow these steps:

1. Place your cursor where you want to add the table of contents.

Go to the References tab.

For Word 2003 and earlier, select Insert > Reference > Tables and Indexes, then select the Table of Contents option.

How to Update the Table of Contents

To update the table of contents when you make changes to the document that affect the table of contents, select any place in the table of contents and choose Update Table. Then, choose to either update page numbers only or the entire table of contents.

When applying heading styles that are incorporated automatically, update the entire table to account for any text edits or page changes in the document.

How to Use and Customize the Table of Contents

An automatic table of contents has hyperlinks built in to navigate through the document quickly. To use a hyperlink, hover the mouse over the appropriate entry in the table and Control+Click to follow the link. This is an especially helpful tool for long documents.

There are also many ways to customize a table of contents. To adjust the font and size, highlight the text as you normally would in a Word document, then go to the Home tab to select a font, size, color, or other text format. To access advanced font customization options, select the More Options icon.

Additionally, to find more customization options, right-click the table and select Edit Field. Scroll down and select TOC, then choose Table of Contents. Here, you can choose whether or not to show page numbers, page number alignment, general formatting, and more.

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