Dynamic Table of Contents in Word (How The Experts Do It)

The 'No Fluff' guide to building a dynamic Table of Contents in Word.
(TOPIC TIME CODES & SHOW NOTES are listed below).

In this video you'll see exactly how to build a table of contents in Word that updates and reflects changes made in your document, thesis or report.

From setting up and formatting headings (inc. multilevel headings) to building, modifying and updating your table of contents, this comprehensive video leaves no stone unturned.

You'll discover which settings are important and which you can leave alone. It even covers how to format your Table of Contents' quickly and efficiently.

😃 TIME CODES (click the link to go directly to that spot in the video)
- (0:00) Who is this video for?
- (0:20) Why you need to listen carefully
- (0:35) The CORRECT way to build a dynamic Table of Contents (TOC)
- (1:30) Apply the Heading styles
- (2;25) An interesting fact about styles
- (2:50) A VERY IMPORTANT styling attribute
- (4:22) The quickest way to add multilevel numbering to your headings
- (5:26) How to build the Table of Contents and an exposition of the TOC options available and my recommendations
- (7:13) How to format the Table of Contents while you are building them.
- (7:57) Our VERY IMPORTANT styling attribute (again)
- (8:17) How to create a TOC from your custom styles instead of the standard Heading styles
- (9:06) Update the TOC content (to reflect changes in the document)
- (10:16) Update the TOC positioning
- (11:17) Update the TOC formatting
- (11:48) Change the level of the document content (including a quick tip to promote and demote text), then reflect those changes in the Table of Contents

😃 If you found this video useful, don't forget to give a thumbs up.

😃 What ONE thing resonated with you the most? Let me know by adding a quick COMMENT or question below.

Go get ‘em.

😃 USEFUL LINKS:
A deep dive into setting up your Word Styles:

How to reuse your custom styles in other documents:

How to set up multilevel numbering in Word from scratch:

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😃 HIRE JASON to fix your broken documents or to get private 1-on-1 Zoom coaching

😃 ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
Jason Morrell helps people of all levels to leverage the power of Microsoft Office. Delivering training since 2002, he loves to simplify the hard stuff and provide helpful, actionable advice that has been proven to slash hours from daily computer tasks. Jason lives with his wife and 4 kids on the beautiful Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

😃 LET'S CONNECT!

Have a fantastic day!

[caramellattenas]

The best video explain about styles & numbering so far..

[peoplespowerhellyeah]

Hats off, u bring me to the next level....keep posting such dynamic video..for the sake of learner like us.

[wademaingot]

All of your videos are excellent and have allowed me to fully understand Styles and Tables of Contents. Thank you very much !!

[hamedramy]

You have no idea really, how meaningful this and the other related video for me. brilliant informative one. Thanks for rescuing me I just completed my document and submit it to the client.

[MonoChorMe]

Thank you for sharing this, it really helped me for my thesis... :) Thanks!

[lydiaplace]

When making my TOC I checked to make sure "automatically update" is selected for all TOC headings. Even though it is selected, if I edit TOC 1 in the table it still does not automatically update any other TOC 1 further down. I'm not sure why this might be happening!

[abrahamj]

Thanks a lot for this informative video. Can you do one for citations and Bibliography as well? Like, in reports, when we have to make a list of references at the end. Also, a tutorial for footnotes would be helpful.

[alfsilva]

I think the explanation is excellent, except for one thing, you speak a little fast. You should slow down a bit. I have seen several of your videos and the pace is similar

[laurenransford]

How do I save a multi-level list and the corresponding heading styles to be available to use in all documents? Also, do I need to format the TOC? It is formatting differently from the heading styles. Can I save a TOC style to use across multiple documents? Thank you again for your great videos!

[TheJoshtheboss]

9:10 Just wondering how can I modify the actual CONTENTS style? I hope my question makes sense 🙂.

The TOC options allows you to style Heading levels. But how do I control the style of the title of the table of contents? Which usually by default is blue.

I see in this video it's already modified as black and centred.

[lauriegrant]

Hi, not sure if you're still taking questions, but I have one: I'm trying to update someone's Table of Contents while they're tracking changes.
When I update the ToC, my new section is not added. IS there a way to do this when tracking changes is activated? Thanks!

[MrUtoobee]

I tried placing a shape behind the TOC and it didn't work. Alternatively, when i cut the TOC and pasted on top of the shape it worked.

Can you share the reason why shapes don't go and sit behind the TOC using the Send to back option but works when I do it the other way round?

[jillbader]

Q: My table of contents font continues to change to be <Hyperlink> style even when using the "Formal" format. I need the font of the TOC to be Normal or another style and nothing seems to work. Help

[joan-mariacbrooks]

I have been using Word 2019 and found some issues with Cross-Referencing. Will you be covering that in future videos? (Microsoft admits that there's an issue with paragraph numbering and cross-referencing.)

[sarveshpandey]

Hare Krishna thanks for the wonderful explaination
one problem i am facing is that the font style of navigation pane and the headings are not matching means its showing caps and small in the navigation or random caps and small
how to resolve?

[Situacion_Envergadura]

Bro, I like your videos, but your accent is difficult for Americans to understand when you speak so fast. Legit, I had to check my playback speed, lol. May I suggest you slow it down a bit in future vids? Other than that, I think your videos are extremely helpful and thorough. Great work man!