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Tables of Contents

  
     
Overview

Automated tables of contents are one of the most useful functions in MSWord. You can use them to:

  • see an overall map of the structure of your document;
    •  find your way around a large document;
  • go to a specific locations in a document at the click of your mouse; and
    •
  • create and maintain the structure of a document while you are writing.
    •

Automated tables of contents work by automatically searching your document for text that is formatted in the Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 styles. When MSWord finds a heading formatted in one of these styles, it displays the heading text and the page number on which the heading appears in the table of contents. This saves you the effort of having to create a table of contents manually once you've completed a document.

 
Create a Table of Contents

The Scribe Template comes with a pre-formatted table of contents you can use in all your documents. To add a table of contents to a document:

  1. Click on the location in which you would like the table of contents to be placed (usually straight after the title page).
    2.
  2. Click on Scribe on the menu bar. (The Scribe menu will open).
    3.
  3. In the Scribe menu, click Table of Contents. (A table of contents will be placed in your document).

Note: If your document does not yet contain text formatted in the Heading 1, Heading 2 or Heading 3 styles, your table of contents will show the following error message:

Error! No table of contents entries found.

This will disappear after you add some headings and update your table of contents.

 
Update a Table of Contents

Before you update your table of contents, add some headings to your document as described in the previous topic.

To update your table of contents:

  1. Right click on the table of contents field. (A fly-out menu will open).
    2.
  2. In the fly-out menu, click Update Field. (The Update Table of Contents dialogue box will open).
    3.
  3. In the Update Table of Contents dialogue box, click the radio button beside Update entire table.
    4.

  1. Click OK. (The table of contents will display all headings formatted in the Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 styles.
    2.
 
Shortcut to Update a Table of Contents MSWord provides a shortcut key for updating tables of contents. The shortcut key is the F9 key on the top row of your keyboard.

To update a table of contents using this shortcut:

  1. Click on the table of contents field. (The field will turn grey).
    2.
  2. Hit the F9 key on your keyboard. (The Update Table of Contents dialogue box will open).
    3.
  3. In the Update Table of Contents dialogue box, click the radio button beside Update entire table.
    4.
  4. Click OK. (The table of contents will be updated).
  
Use a Table of Contents to Move Around A table of contents provides a great way to move around a document, especially if your document is large. Automated tables of contents contain things called hyperlinks. These work in the same way as buttons on a web page: you click the link, it takes you to where you want to go.

To move around a document using an automated table of contents:

  1. Scroll to the table of contents field.
    2.
  2. Update the table of contents.
    3.
  3. In the table of contents field, find the heading you want to go to.
    4.
  4. Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and click on the page number displayed to the right of the heading. (MSWord will take you to that page).
 
Fix Broken Links Occasionally when you click a page number in your table of contents, MSWord will not take you to that page. This is because you have deleted or changed a heading in the body of your document, but have not updated your table of contents. Update your table of contents to fix this problem.  
Troubleshoot a Table of Contents

An automated table of contents will pick up any text formatted in the Heading 1, 2 or 3 styles. For example, if you have four pages of text formatted in Heading 3 style, these four pages will appear in your table of contents. Note that text can be manually formatted to look like body text, but still be attached to a heading style. To solve this problem, go to the text in your document that is incorrectly formatted and Ctrl+Shift+N to replace the Heading style with the Normal style. The text will disappear from the table of contents when it is updated.

At other times, you may find additional line spaces or duplicated headings in a table of contents. This is caused by surplus carriage returns formatted in a Heading style. Carriage returns formatted in a heading style have a dot to the left of them and look like this:

Before you go looking for these carriage returns, make sure your formatting marks are switched on. (On the Scribe toolbar, click on the Show/Hide Formatting Characters button ). Delete these carriage returns and the extra line spaces will disappear from your table of contents when it is updated.

  
 
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