Longer text documents with many chapters are usually organized using a table of contents. This provides readers with an overview, which lets them review the document, while providing a reference to where in­for­ma­tion can be found.

When you create a table of contents, the headings and page numbers don’t have to be added manually. Microsoft Word lets you create a table of contents with its “Ref­er­ences” function, which will sig­nif­i­cant­ly simplify your work. In our il­lus­trat­ed, step-by-step guide, we’ll show you how to do it.

Insert a table of contents in Word

To create a pre-formatted table of contents in Microsoft Word, you should follow these steps.

Note

Our step-by-step guide is based on Microsoft Office 2010. However, the “Ref­er­ences” function, which au­to­mat­i­cal­ly creates a table of contents, is included in every current version of Word.

Step 1: Move your cursor to where you want to insert your table of contents in the Word document.

Image: Microsoft Word 2010
Microsoft Word 2010

Step 2: From the top menu bar, select “Ref­er­ences” and then click on the “Table of Contents” option.

Image: Microsoft Word 2010: References
Microsoft Word 2010: Ref­er­ences

Step 3: From the drop-down menu, select a format type for your table of contents. Word provides two formats for an automatic table of contents and one format for a manual table of contents.

  • Automatic table: Pick one of the two formats if you want Word to au­to­mat­i­cal­ly use your headings to create the table of contents.
  • Manual table: Choose the “manual table” format if you want to manually fill in the table of contents without the contents of your Word document.
Note

Creating a table of contents with an automatic table only works if the headings in your text documents are formatted with the styles provided by Word.

Image: Microsoft Word 2010: Format examples for table of contents templates
Microsoft Word 2010: Format examples for table of contents templates

You can also choose to insert a custom table of contents.

Image: Microsoft Word 2010: Dialog box to configure a custom table of contents
Microsoft Word 2010: Dialog box to configure a custom table of contents

The table of contents in Word will be created in your format of choice at the position of your cursor.

Image: Microsoft Word 2010: Table of contents in the “Automatic Table 1” format
Microsoft Word 2010: Table of contents in the “Automatic Table 1” format

Updating a table of contents

To update an automatic table of contents, follow these steps.

Step 1: Select the table of contents in your Word document.

Step 2: Click on the button “Update Table of Contents…” just above your table of contents.

Step 3: Choose whether you want to update only the page numbers or the entire table of contents.

Image: Microsoft Word 2010: Edit view of a table of contents template
Microsoft Word 2010: Edit view of a table of contents template
Note

To create certain text documents you don’t always need Microsoft Word. There are other writing programs that offer a wide range of functions. In our article on Microsoft Word al­ter­na­tives, we take a closer look at the most popular options.

Reviewer

  • Jeanna Raffa

    Jeanna Raffa

    With over 18 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in online marketing, Jeanna Raffa possesses extensive expertise in digital marketing. Since 2020, her focus has been on providing practical in­for­ma­tion regarding email, office, and cloud storage solutions.

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