Create or edit a table of contents

For Word to create a table of contents automatically, you must first apply heading styles to the items that you want to include in the table of contents. Once this step is complete, you insert the table of contents into the document. The style formatting of the headings does not affect the formatting of the table of contents. The styles for each are controlled separately.

Caution

If you insert a table of contents from the Document Elements tab into a document that already contains a manually formatted table of contents, Word replaces the entries in the existing table of contents with placeholder text.

Do any of the following:

Add a table of contents

Change the number of levels in the table of contents

Update the table of contents

Customize the formatting for the table of contents

Save the table of contents style as a template