How To Make A Table In Ms Word – When you create or edit a long document, you will likely need to create a table of contents. This may seem like a lot of work, but luckily, you can do it in just a few clicks. Then, if you change the document, Word can immediately update the content.
Best of all, Word includes hyperlinks to different parts of your content, so it’s not only a visual aid for printed documents, it’s also perfect for viewing online documents and PDFs.
How To Make A Table In Ms Word
Creating content in Word itself is easy, but getting it to work the way you want is the hard part. In this tutorial, I’ll show you everything you need to create simple, auto-generated content and then make it look the way you want in any version of Microsoft Word.
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You can follow along with your document or, if you prefer, download the zip file included in this guide. It contains a document called Age of Einstein.docs, which is a physics textbook in the public domain (credit to author, Professor Frank W.K. Ferk).
Watch the video above or follow the instructions below for more details on how to create a table of contents in Word.
There are many ways to create a table of contents in Word, but only two that you will use
How To Create A Table Of Contents In Microsoft Word
Using MS Word’s built-in styles is the fastest and most common technique, and using custom styles just takes a bit more work. Sometimes you want to use both techniques in the same document. Once you have a table of contents (TOC) in your document, you can format it with your own styles. You don’t want to format the TOC as plain text, because formatting can easily be removed.
Before we do anything with this document, let’s see how it is organized. Page 1 is the title, page 2 is blank and contains content, page 3 is the introduction, followed by text. As you scroll down, notice that the headings and subheadings are formatted.
On a Mac, click the Sidebar option to display a drop-down menu. Click the arrow next to the option and click Navigation.
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On a Mac or PC, return to the Home tab if you’re not already there. Notice the Style box on the ribbon and click Items in the Book navigation pane.
Note that items with whole numbers—such as 2. Understanding the Physical Universe—are formatted as Heading 1, and items with decimals—such as 2.1 Truth and Pure Thought—are formatted as Heading 2. There are also some decadent items – such as 4.5 Space Travel – which are formatted as Title 3.
Word can now apply heading styles to the table of contents. Click on the top of page 2.
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In Windows, go to the Reference tab on the ribbon, click the Table of Contents button on the right, and select one of the two built-in tables from the list. Note that the thumbnails indicate that titles 1, 2 and 3 will be included.
It’s almost the same on the Mac. Go to the Insert menu, select Index and Tables, select one of the formats on the left and click OK. The dialog also indicates that titles 1-3 will be included.
You can paste content into Word by clicking a template. (Example shown in Windows.)
Table Of Contents In Word
As soon as you select one, the table of contents starts on page 2, and Word automatically inserts a few more pages, so everything is fine. In Windows, you can ctrl-click one of these items and it will open a hyperlink to the item in the document.
The table of contents is a field that you can update in MS Word. In Windows, fields have a gray background.
It works great, but there is a problem. Before the introduction, there is an introduction that should be included in the content. And just before the appendix, A1 is the heading for the appendix, and it should also be included. But they’re not, because they’re both formatted with a custom style called a large title, and custom styles aren’t included in the default table of contents. Another method of creating a table of contents in Word will solve this.
How To Draw A Custom Table In Microsoft Word
Word can include any style in the content. We have to tell him which one to choose. And we can update the table, instead of deleting it and starting over.
In Windows, go back to the References tab, click the Table of Contents button, and select Custom Table of Contents at the bottom of the menu. Click the Options button at the bottom of the dialog box to display the Table of Contents dialog box.
On a Mac, go back to the Insert menu and choose Index and Tables. In the Content section, click the Options button.
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On a Mac or PC, the Content Options dialog box shows that Heading Style 1 will have TOC Level 1, Heading Style 2 will have TOC Level 2, and Heading Style 3 will have TOC Level 3.
Scroll down to the bottom of the list (on a Mac you’ll use the bottom slider). Then, in the large title box, type 1 to set it to Level 1. Content levels come from more than one style.
Click OK in the Table of Contents dialog box, and then click OK again in the Table of Contents dialog box. When Word displays a message asking if you want to change the table, select Yes. The introduction and appendix are now included in the table of contents.
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After adding custom styles to the TOC list, text formatting with those styles will appear in the table.
There are other times when you want to update a table manually. This is useful when you change the text of a header and want the change to be reflected in the content.
Scroll down to the previous page. At the top of the page, replace FORWORD with FORWARD. Make sure it still uses the large header style.
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Go back to the content header and click on it. Note that it has a gray background; This means it is a field, and fields are usually updated.
Press the Update Table button either on the TOC (the button doesn’t always appear) or on the References tab, and the first entry changes to Forward. (On a Mac, right-click the table and choose Update Area from the pop-up menu. Select the Update Entire Table option and click OK.)
Refresh the content using one of the Refresh Table buttons or by right-clicking on the table and selecting Refresh Field. (A Windows example is shown here.)
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Each heading level in the content has its own style that is applied automatically. All we need to do is change the style to change the look of the table, here it is:
Changing the style of a TOC item is like changing the style of any other text in Word.
When you have a long document, you don’t need to be afraid to create a table of contents. If you use Windows or Mac, you can enter it in just a few clicks and then use the same dialog box to change the format.
How To Create And Edit The Table Of Contents In Word
As you learned in the content guide, remember not to apply formatting directly to the table, as it can be removed if you change it. If you make changes to the Word document yourself, remember to click at the top of the TOC and refresh it. Leave a comment below if you have problems creating or organizing content.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in 2014. Our staff has revised it extensively to make it current, accurate and up-to-date – with special help from Laura Spencer.
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How To Create A Table Of Contents In Word 2016 For Mac
Bob Flesser is the author of numerous videos and books on Microsoft and Adobe products, and has been a computer trainer since the 1980s. He is also a web and multimedia developer. Bob graduated from George Washington University with a BA in Financial Economics.
Start your 7-day free trial * Start your free trial * All individual plans include a 7-day free trial for new users; Then the selected package price is applied. Cancel at any time. Although you can easily insert a table with any number of columns and rows into your document, you may need a table with a non-traditional structure. You can use the Draw Table feature in Microsoft Word to create a custom table.
The Draw Table feature is available in Microsoft Word on Windows and Mac. It works in the same way and allows you to create the table exactly as you want.
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To draw a table, go to the Insert tab and click the Table drop-down arrow. Select “Draw Table”.
You will see the pointer change to a pencil icon. Drag to eject
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