Nearly every book requires a table of contents (TOC) and so do many documents. Word allows you to create a TOC automatically, as long as you have previously applied heading styles or outline levels to all the headings you want to include in the TOC.

Start by creating a new style to use as a basis for all the styles in the TOCs so you don’t have to keep applying the same tab settings to all levels and types of TOC style.

Create a TOC style

1. Press Ctrl+alt+shift+s to open the Styles dialog box.
   
2. Select the A+ button on the bottom left. The ‘Create new style from formatting’ dialog box pops up.
3. Type TOC in the Name textbox.
4. Tick ‘Automatically update’ so manual changes are saved to the template.
5. Tick ‘New documents based on this template’ so you don’t have to create this base style again.
   

   Create New Style from Formatting dialog box – TOC

6. Click on the dropdown arrow beside the Format button and select the Paragraph option
   ___a. Set the Alignment to ‘Left’.
   ___b. Set the Indentation Left to ‘0 cm’.
   ___c. Set the Indentation Right to ‘0,75 cm’.
   ___d. Set the Spacing Before and After to ‘6 pt’.
   ___e. Set the Line spacing according to the client’s guidelines.
   ___f. Tick ‘Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style’.
   

   Paragraph dialog box with TOC settings

7. Click the Tabs… button. The Tabs dialog box pops up.
   

   Tabs dialog box with a right tab set to 15,8 cm and a dotted leader

   ___a. Enter 15,8 for the Tab stop position so it is 0,2 less than the right margin. In this case, the margin is at 16 cm.
   ___b. Click on the Alignment ‘Right’ option.
   ___c. Click on the Leader ‘2’ (dotted) option.
   ___d. Click on the ‘Set’ button.
   ___e. Click on the ‘OK’ button or press Enter.

8. Save.

Edit the TOC 1 style

1. Press Ctrl+alt+shift+s to open the Styles dialog box, find the TOC 1 style, which is the default TOC style for Heading 1. Click on the down-arrow beside it, and select Modify … in the dropdown menu that pops up.
   

   Styles > Modify > TOC 1

2. The Modify Style dialog box pops up. Change the ‘Style based on’ option from ‘Normal’ to ‘TOC’.
   

   Modify Style so the TOC 1 style is based on the TOC style

3. Do the same for TOC 2 and TOC 3 (Headings 2 and 3), and as many other levels as you need or your style guide allows.

Insert an automatic table of contents

1. Go to where you want the TOC. If necessary, remove any manual list of contents.
2. Go to References > Table of Contents and click on the ‘Automatic Table 1’ if you want your heading to be ‘Contents’ or ‘Automatic Table 2’ if you want your heading to be ‘Table of Contents’.
   

   Insert an automatic TOC

Adjust indents

1. Go to View > Show and make sure Ruler is ticked.
   

   Show the ruler bar at the top of the screen

2. Go to an example of each TOC level in turn and drag the Left Indent and Hanging Indent sliders in the Ruler to where you want them. In the figure below, the cursor is in TOC 3, where the Left Indent is at 2 cm and the Hanging Indent is at 3,25 cm. (If your ruler shows inches, go to File > Options > Advanced > Display > Show units in measurements of: Centimeters.) There is no need to set tabs as well as indents.
   

   Set indents for TOC levels. Note that the only tab is the right tab at 15,8 cm.

3. Save.

Go to ‘Formatting tips’

Published 28 April 2025
516 words