Dissertation Table of Contents

The table of contents is an index of everything in the dissertation - it should not include the title and contents page!

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The table of contents must list in sequence, with page numbers: all chapters, sections and subsections; the list of references; the bibliography; list of abbreviations; and any appendices. The list of tables and illustrations must follow the table of contents, and should list, with page numbers, all the tables, photographs, coloured photocopies, diagrams, etc., in the order in which they appear in the text.

"It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous." (Robert Benchley)

Creating a Table of Contents in Word

You need to use headings in word for the table of contents to work. So as you are typing your dissertation, highlight the text that you want to use as a heading, and next to the font at the top, choose 'heading 1', 'heading 2' etc.

Creating a table of contents in a Microsoft Word document is a two-step process. First, identify the text that you want to appear in the Table of Contents. Second, tell Word to insert the Table of Contents. Having created your Table of Contents, you can then customize it in several ways, to suit your needs.

Step 1: Identify the text that you want to appear in the Table of Contents

In your document, click within the first major heading that you want to appear in the Table of Contents. Apply the Heading 1 style to that paragraph. The easiest way to apply the Heading 1 style is to click the Style box on the Formatting toolbar and choose Heading 1.

In the same way, apply the Heading 1 style to other major headings in your document. Apply the Heading 2 style to sub-headings, Heading 3 style to sub-sub-headings etc.

Step 2: Create the Table of Contents

Click where you want your Table of Contents to appear.

In Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003, choose Insert > Reference > Index and Tables. Click on the Table of Contents tab. (Elsewhere on this page, this is called the Table of Contents dialog.) Click OK.

In earlier versions of Word, choose Insert > Index and Tables. Click on the Table of Contents tab. (Elsewhere on this page, this is called the Table of Contents dialog.) Click OK.

Step 3: Customize the Table of Contents (if you need to)

Once you have applied your Heading styles, choose View > Document Map. You can now see roughly what will be included in your Table of Contents.

Right-click in the Document Map to choose which levels of heading to view.

  • If you don't like the way your headings look (eg you want a different font, font size, colour, more or less spacing before or after the heading), don't choose Format > Paragraph or Format > Font. And don't use the font size or bold buttons on the toolbar. Instead, modify the Heading style.
  • To change the font, font size, colour etc used to create the Table of Contents itself, you need to do two things in the Table of Contents dialog. First, make sure that, in the Formats box, you have chosen "From Template". Second, click Modify and modify the relevant TOC style. Word uses style TOC 1 for the top level of contents, TOC 2 for the next level etc.
  • By default, Word shows three levels in your Table of Contents. That is, it puts the text from Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 in the Table of Contents. If you want to show more or fewer levels, in the Table of Contents dialog, change the number in the Show levels box.
  • There are very good reasons for using the built-in Heading styles. But if you really need to use other styles (other built-in styles, or custom styles), you can put them in your Table of Contents. In the Table of Contents dialog, click Options, and allocate your style(s) to the appropriate level(s).
  • For sophisticated customization, you can edit the switches in the TOC field.
How to create a table of contents for several documents
  • To create one table of contents for several documents, you need to do the following.
    • Create a separate document to hold the table of contents (this is the ToC document).
    • For ease, put all the documents, and your ToC document, in the one folder.
    • In your ToC document, use an RD (Reference Document) field for each document that you want to include in your Table of Contents.
    • To insert an RD field, do ctrl-F9 and, within the brackets that Word gives you, type RD "filename". For example { RD "Chapter 1.doc" }. You can't type the curly brackets by hand. You must do ctrl-F9.
    • If you can't put all your files in one folder, you must use double backslashes and double quotes. For example, { RD "C:\\My folder\\Chapter 1.doc" }.
    • In theory, you can use relative path names. But it never seems to work properly<g>.
    • Use an RD field for each document that you want to reference, in order.
    • Create the Table of Contents in this ToC document in the usual way.
    • Remember the page number rule: "The Table of Contents will pick up whatever pagination appears in your document". It applies when using RD fields to create a ToC for many documents. You may have to set the starting page number manually in each document if you want pagination to run consecutively through your project.
Other tips about Tables of Contents
  • If you have Word 2003, Microsoft has some great online training about Tables of Contents available for free. See
  • A Table of Contents is a field, not ordinary text. To see fields in your document, do Tools > Options > View. Set the Field Shading box to Always. This will show the ToC with a grey background. The grey doesn't print, but it reminds you that this is a field, not ordinary text.
  • Tables of Contents don't update automatically when you add a new heading to your document. This is because a ToC is a field. To update a Table of Contents, put your cursor in the Table of Contents and press F9 to update it. Or ctrl-a F9 to update all fields in the document.
  • When you update your Table of Contents, always choose to update the Entire Table (Figure 1).
    Updating the Table of Contents

    Figure 1: Whenever you see this box, always choose the second option and update the entire table.

  • To ensure that Word always updates the Table of Contents when you print your document, do Tools > Options > Print. Tick the Update Fields box.
  • By default, all versions of Word make the page number in a Table of Contents a hyperlink to the heading within the document. But Word 2000, by default, makes each entry in the ToC a hyperlink. This can easily drive you crazy.

    To solve the problem, select the whole of the Table of Contents (selecting a few paragraphs either side is OK). Do Shift-F9. You'll see the field codes exposed, and they'll look something like { TOC \o "1-3" \h \z }. Edit these codes to remove the \h. Press F9 again to re-generate the ToC and hide the field codes. (By the way, you can't type the curly brackets yourself. If won't work. If you want to type out the field codes manually, use ctrl-F9 to create the curly brackets.)

Note: It is also possible to create a Table of Contents by marking each individual paragraph that you want to appear in the ToC. Then, you tell Word to use your marked paragraphs to create the ToC. You do this using { TC } fields. It seems to me that the chance of human error in accidentally omitting to mark a heading is large. I wouldn't risk it. But if you're interested, look at Word's help under TC.

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