If you usually present reports created on the Word platform, surely you have required to include a table of contents or index, in the first pages, so that the document retains a more formal structure, especially if it is long.
This resource is mandatory to include in many cases, and its creation can become somewhat tedious manually. Fortunately, Microsoft Word offers us the possibility of automating its creation and editing, we’ll tell you how right away.
Index( )
- What kind of tables of contents can you add in Word?
- How to insert a table of contents in Word?
- From the mobile device
- with your computer
- How to assign ‘Heading 1’ to the content you want to appear in the table?
- What is the way to make your table of contents update automatically?
What kind of tables of contents can you add in Word?
If you are a recurring user of the Word text editing software, surely you know a couple of tricks to get your tasks done faster, and that is that this tool is specially designed to simplify our work. We have a clear example with the creation of various formats of tables of contents.
Believe it or not, this is something very simple to achieve, it does not even involve showing the developer tab in Word , from its main tabs with a few simple steps you can save a lot of time in creating a table of contents. You can choose between three table styles , the first two are generated with an automatic format and the last one with a customizable format.
How to insert a table of contents in Word?
After downloading Word from its website and starting to investigate its functions and properties, of course, one of the first things that should interest you is the automated content creation option . Best of all, you can take advantage of these features in both the mobile and desktop versions.
Obviously, this classification of tools must be used with great care, because although the platform is quite intuitive, many times we can omit details that cause errors in the final result. In this specific case, you must verify that your content is well structured, so that when inserting the table it is as desired.
From the mobile device
For a long time, Word has been concerned with providing its users with solutions to the most demanding tasks, whether it be freezing or locking an image or creating an automatic table of contents. To guide your document in the mobile version of Word, you must initially format the headers of your report as titles.
Although this version does not provide the direct option to insert the table of contents, you can open a document that already has it, to copy it and then paste it, then you can update it so that the content that appears corresponds to the document, basically you would be taking advantage of the format of another file for this one.
with your computer
If you thought that the only way to produce a table of contents or index in Word, was by entering the titles with the page number one by one in an additional sheet, where you would have to navigate from top to bottom in the document repeatedly and with risk If you get any information wrong, you couldn’t be further from reality.
Even more so when you work from the desktop version of the program, where you can access the complete package of functions and tools that simplify your process, the sooner you master them, the more facilities you will find in each of them. In this sense, let us know in detail the tool in table of contents.
- Initially, you will need to run the program on your Windows or Mac computer.
- Once you open the file you are interested in editing, we will start by formatting its titles, you will see that the letters change color to blue.
- Now it is important that you position yourself on the sheet where you want to enter the table, preferably insert a break in the first pages, to have space.
- Then you go to the “References” tab, display the “Table of Contents” button and choose one of the first two automatic options.
- You will see that it immediately creates a field with all the page details and titles.
How to assign ‘Heading 1’ to the content you want to appear in the table?
It is possible that when inserting your table you notice that it does not have all the lines that it should, this has to do with the structuring that we talked about a few paragraphs above, that is, if you have not given title format to what you consider your titles , Word will simply ignore them.
You must manually select each word that makes up your titles and go to the “Home” tab, look for the styles section and click on the box called “Heading 1”. You must repeat the process with each of the items that you want to be listed in your table of contents or index, a shortcut would be that, while you are selecting, hold down the “CTRL” key and you can apply the same format to all at the same time .
When you are looking to customize a document, you should experiment with various options among which you can consider combining orientations in the files and even modifying the style of the titles. At this point you can modify the color and style that you just gave the title, by right clicking on the “Heading 1” button and choosing “Modify”, you can give it the font style you prefer.
What is the way to make your table of contents update automatically?
Now, if you make changes or corrections to the document headings after you’ve included the table, the table won’t reflect the updates unless you tell it to. To do this you must go to the page where it is included, right click on it and choose the option “Update field” , you will immediately see the new editions included.