Any work always begins with the development of an action plan, and ends with verification of the implementation of this plan. Including this rule applies to writing term papers, dissertations, essays. Work on the abstract begins with the creation of a rough plan, approval of it by the supervisor. After the task is completed, and the essay is considered ready, it must be drawn up properly. Often correctly formatted content is a prerequisite for accepting work for verification, so you need to know well how to make a table of contents in Word.
Of course, you can do it yourself, carefully looking through the work, collecting headings, subheadings, paragraphs for the table of contents, fixing page numbers. Firstly, this process will take you a lot of time. Secondly, if you have to fix something, the page numbers will change, the content will have to be redone. In addition, such content will not always look neat enough. Therefore, it is better to know how to do the table of contents in Word automatically. Then the program will not only collect it on its own, but will be able to easily refresh the page after editing the text.
How to make a table of contents automatically?
Before you ask yourself how to create a table of contents in Word, you need to understand that paragraphs are the unit of style in this program. That is, you can create a specific design style and apply it to any of them. Design styles are in the "Home" tab. When you change the style settings, you will automatically change the layout of the paragraphs to which it was applied. This will save you time when completing work in accordance with established requirements. The program has several ready-made styles, and you can make adjustments to them yourself.
Now back to the question of how to make a table of contents in Word. This text editor is able to independently insert a table of contents and arrange it. For the content of the work to be collected in automatic mode, it is necessary to mark the headings and subheadings in the text with styles of a certain level. The names of chapters in the work and headings are marked with the style “Heading 1”. Items of work are marked with the heading 2 style, and subparagraphs with the heading 3 and so on. When the work is completed, the word "Table of Contents" is written on the second page after the title page . Then the mouse cursor is placed in the next paragraph. In the “Links” tab we find the table of contents, select the style for its design. In the old version of the program, the table of contents was in the "Insert" menu. To set the content format, select the “Table of Contents” line at the bottom of the pop-up window. Here we can select the filler, remove or insert hyperlinks, choose the format of page numbers and the number of levels. After clicking on the “OK” button, the program will run through the text and automatically collect the content in accordance with the selected parameters.
If your work is quite voluminous, for example, it takes more than 100-200 pages, it makes sense to think about the question of how to make a table of contents in Word, at the initial stages of work. For example, immediately create headings and subheadings of the appropriate style, and then disclose them. It will be more convenient for you to work with text. And you don’t have to look for points and sub-items every time, because the automatic content allows you to immediately go to the necessary page. To do this, just hold down the "Ctrl" button on the keyboard and click on the desired page with the mouse. If any item changes or is added, then the content is better to update immediately. Another advantage of the table of contents is that it allows you to evaluate the structure of the work as a whole.
Now you know roughly how to do a table of contents in Word. However, be sure to carefully review it again, make sure that it includes all the chapters and points of work.
Table of Contents Changes
If there are changes in the text after the table of contents has already been prepared, do not worry. You just need to place the mouse cursor on the contents of the work, click on the right button and select the option “Update whole” or “update only page numbers” in the menu that appears. If the text has been changed slightly, and the headings and section names remain the same, it will be enough to update only the page.
If you still have questions, you can always refer to the “Help” item in the “File” tab and read in more detail about the design of the content. And you will succeed.