You create a table of contents by choosing the heading styles — for example, Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 — that you want to include in the table of contents. Microsoft Office Word searches for headings that match the style that you chose, formats and indents the entry text according to the heading style, and then inserts the table of contents into the document.

Microsoft Office Word 2007 provides a gallery of automatic table of contents styles. Mark the table of contents entries, and then click the table of contents style that you want from the gallery of options. Office Word 2007 automatically creates the table of contents from the headings that you marked.

Note This article explains how to add a table of contents. It does not cover tables of authorities or tables of figures.

What do you want to do?

The easiest way to create a table of contents is to use the built-in heading styles (heading style: Formatting applied to a heading. Microsoft Word has nine different built-in styles: Heading 1 through Heading 9.). You can also create a table of contents that is based on the custom styles that you have applied. Or you can assign the table of contents levels to individual text entries.

Mark entries by using built-in heading styles

1. Select the heading to which you want to apply a heading style.
2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the style that you want.
   
   For example, if you selected text that you want to style as a main heading, click the style called Heading 1 in the Quick Style gallery.

Notes

• If you don't see the style that you want, click the arrow to expand the Quick Style gallery.
• If the style that you want does not appear in the Quick Style gallery, press CTRL+SHIFT+S to open the Apply Styles task pane. Under Style Name, click the style that you want.

Mark individual text entries

If you want the table of contents to include text that is not formatted as a heading, you can use this procedure to mark individual text entries.

1. Select the text that you want to include in your table of contents.
2. On the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click Add Text.
   
3. Click the level that you want to label your selection, such as Level 1 for a main level display in the table of contents.
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 until you have labeled all of the text that you want to appear in the table of contents.

After you mark the entries for your table of contents, you are ready to build it.

Create a table of contents from built-in heading styles

Use this procedure if you created a document by using heading styles.

1. Click where you want to insert the table of contents, usually at the beginning of a document.
2. On the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click Table of Contents, and then click the table of contents style that you want.
   
   Note If you want to specify more options — for example, how many heading levels to show — click Insert Table of Contents to open the Table of Contents dialog box.

Create a table of contents from custom styles that you applied

Use this procedure if you already applied custom styles to your headings. You can choose the style settings that you want Word to use when it builds the table of contents.

1. Click where you want to insert the table of contents.
2. On the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click Table of Contents, and then click Insert Table of Contents.
3. Click Options.
4. Under Available styles, find the style that you applied to the headings in your document.
5. Under TOC level, next to the style name, type a number from 1 to 9 to indicate the level that you want the heading style to represent.
   Note If you want to use only custom styles, delete the TOC level numbers for the built-in styles, such as Heading1.
6. Repeat step 4 and step 5 for each heading style that you want to include in the table of contents.
7. Click OK.
8. Choose a table of contents to fit the document type:
   • Printed document If you are creating a document that readers will read on a printed page, create a table of contents in which each entry lists both the heading and the page number where the heading appears. Readers can turn to the page that they want.
   • Online document For a document that readers will read online in Word, you can format the entries in the table of contents as hyperlinks, so that readers can go to a heading by clicking its entry in the table of contents.
9. To use one of the available designs, click a design in the Formats box.
10. Select any other table of contents options that you want.

If you already have a table of contents in your document, you can change the options. To do this, you need to insert a new table of contents by using the Table of Contents dialog box.

1. Select the existing table of contents.
2. On the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click Table of Contents, and then click Insert Table of Contents.
   
3. In the Table of Contents dialog box, do any of the following:
   • To change how many heading levels are displayed in the table of contents, enter the number that you want in the box next to Show levels, under General.
   • To change the overall look of your table of contents, click a different format in the Formats list. You can see what your choice looks like in the Print Preview and Web Preview areas.
   • To change the way heading levels are displayed in the table of contents, click Modify. In the Style dialog box, click the level that you want to change, and then click Modify. In the Modify Style dialog box, you can change the font, the size, and the amount of indentation.