Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Learn how to update the Table of Contents when changes are a made to a document.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
Exercise files
Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ Word documents from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
Update the Table of Contents.docx95.3 KB Update the Table of Contents - Solution.docx
103.7 KB
Quick reference
Update the Table of Contents
Learn how to update the Table of Contents when changes are a made to a document.
When to use
As a document is edited and changed, it is inevitable that the Table of Contents (TOC) will require an update. This is a surprisingly simple task as the video will demonstrate.
Instructions
Follow along with the video and make the following changes to the Exercise file:
- Enter the page breaks as marked in the Exercise file.
- Also, select the text at the bottom of the document, “Topic 7” and apply Heading 1 style. Select the text at the bottom of the document, “Sub Topic 7” and apply Heading 2 style.
- Move to the top of the document (Ctrl + Home)
Update the TOC:
- Left click into the Table of Contents area.
Notice the tiny menu on the upper left corner of the TOC outline.
- Click the “Update Table…” option and the following box appears:
Update page numbers only – will do exactly what it says.
Update entire table will capture all changes to heading text and page numbers as well.
- Left click again into the Table of Contents area.
Notice the tiny menu on the upper left corner of the TOC outline.
Click the first button that says “Table of Contents” when your mouse is over it.
- Choose the TOC Style you prefer.
The MANUAL option allows you to hand type the heading and page numbers, and it will at least provide the TOC format structure. Caution: Manual Table will not auto-link to headings.
Check for accuracy by using the Navigation Pane options or pressing
Ctrl + Click on any TOC entry to make sure it sends your insertion point to the matching location within the document.
- 00:04 Hello.
- 00:05 In this lesson we're going to update our table of contents and
- 00:08 basically build off our last lesson.
- 00:10 It's very normal for a document to grow,
- 00:12 have more text added, and more page numbers accumulate and so
- 00:16 you always have to come back again and update your table of contents.
- 00:20 If you look up the exercise file that matches this lesson,
- 00:23 scroll down to the second page in here, you'll see a red line of text.
- 00:28 In here,
- 00:28 what we're gonna do is force a page break cuz we wanna start adding more pages.
- 00:32 If you'll take a look down on the bottom left, right now it says pages two of four,
- 00:36 so let's go ahead and click right here on this red line.
- 00:40 You can press on your keyboard Ctrl+Enter, or
- 00:43 you can go the Page Layout ribbon, click on Break and Page.
- 00:46 Either way, it's your personal preference, just go ahead and force a page break.
- 00:50 Go head and scroll down to the next page, there's another red line of text.
- 00:55 Go ahead and click right there on that line and again,
- 00:58 force another page break with a Ctrl+Enter.
- 01:01 And let's go ahead.
- 01:02 I think that's it in this one.
- 01:04 At the very bottom I've got a couple new topics.
- 01:07 Now before, if you take a look at your navigation pane on the left,
- 01:10 it says topic four, five and six.
- 01:12 But here we're going to add topic seven.
- 01:14 So, as a quick review, you simply select the topic.
- 01:18 On your home ribbon come up to the styles and choose heading one and
- 01:22 now a sub topic select the topic home ribbon styles and
- 01:27 heading two, and notice that added into the navigation pane, and if
- 01:32 you checked down here on the bottom left, I now have five pages of information.
- 01:37 Time to update the table of contents.
- 01:39 Cntrl+Home on the keyboard will take you right back up there.
- 01:43 If you float your mouse into the table of contents area, it turns gray.
- 01:48 Basically, the mouse knows that you're in a special field area.
- 01:52 If you click once, at the very top, you'll see a couple buttons
- 01:56 on this little box that forms the outline of the table of contents.
- 02:00 And sure enough, the most important one, of course, says Update Table.
- 02:04 So when you click that you have two options.
- 02:06 Update page numbers only and then entire table.
- 02:09 Let's start with the page numbers only and observe what happens.
- 02:12 I'll go ahead and click okay and when I scroll down you can see it did
- 02:17 update those pages two, three, and five, I only had four pages when we started.
- 02:22 Now, it's got five, but it did not bring in my topic seven,
- 02:25 so let's click right back up there on the top of that Table of Contents again.
- 02:32 Click the update table, and this time,
- 02:34 watch the very bottom of the Table of Contents, I'll click update entire table,
- 02:38 hit OK, and there, Topic 7 and Sub Topic 7 just showed up.
- 02:43 There is one more update you can make and
- 02:45 that's to the style of the table of contents.
- 02:48 Right now, my title in here says Contents, cuz I chose this one originally.
- 02:53 Well, let's change it to the second one that says Table of Contents.
- 02:56 Nothing changes except for the title right there, but that means I can come out here
- 03:00 and renew my hand typed title, and I'll go ahead and hit delete on that.
- 03:05 I do want you to see the third option, and that is a manual table of contents.
- 03:09 Now notice my page numbers on the right say two, three, and five,
- 03:13 when I click this, suddenly it says page one, two, three, four, five, six.
- 03:18 My document doesn't even have six pages.
- 03:21 The manual table of contents is simply giving you the layout and
- 03:24 allowing you to hand type everything in there.
- 03:27 Now, I would rather have the automated table of contents
- 03:31 do all that typing for me.
- 03:33 So I think I'll go ahead and choose that one.
- 03:35 It's just really important that you realize,
- 03:37 as soon as you have a table of contents, always go back in and update it before you
- 03:42 call a document final, and you'll always look professional and update.
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