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 All right, continuing on from our previous Table of Contents lesson.
- 00:08 This time we're gonna talk about updating the Table of Contents.
- 00:11 As a document is edited and changed,
- 00:13 it's inevitable that the Table of Contents is going to need to be updated.
- 00:17 It's really a simple task, and you can just follow along with the video, and
- 00:21 then practice on the exercise file that's provided.
- 00:24 So, I'm scrolling down to page one because I've got a red line right here, and
- 00:27 I'm going to click on this line and
- 00:28 I'm going to press control enter to force a page break.
- 00:32 You could go to Page Layout and click Break Page,
- 00:34 but Control Enter is really fast.
- 00:37 Okay, and I've got another one of those red lines.
- 00:39 I'm scrolling down.
- 00:40 I'll click here and press Control Enter.
- 00:43 Notice on the bottom left of my screen it happens to now say Page 5 of 5.
- 00:47 I've also inserted at the very bottom a couple
- 00:50 new topics that need to have heading styles applied.
- 00:53 So I select the topic, click on Home,
- 00:55 and I'll with Heading 1 and Sub Topic in Heading 2.
- 00:59 There we go.
- 01:01 Now page 5 of 5 on the bottom left,
- 01:03 when I click that line, it opens up to my navigation pane where I have to
- 01:08 activate headings to make sure you're just looking at headings.
- 01:11 Now, I'm going to press Ctrl home to go to the top of my Table of Contents.
- 01:15 Now, let's just quickly observe.
- 01:16 Nothing changed on my Table of Contents.
- 01:19 So what I'm gonna do here is I'm actually going to click in here so
- 01:24 you can see this brand new rectangle.
- 01:26 Now this rectangle right here shows Table of Content actions, and
- 01:30 then the Update Table.
- 01:32 When I activate Update Table, it gives me the option to Page Numbers Only, or
- 01:36 the entire table.
- 01:37 Well, I just want to demonstrate to you that the Page Numbers Only,
- 01:41 some times we don't want to adjust the words on the Table of Contents, so
- 01:44 I'll just click this so you can see that yes, they updated from Page 2 through 5.
- 01:50 But notice down here, Topic 7 did not come in.
- 01:53 So right up here on this same little rectangle, I'm gonna click Update Table.
- 01:58 I'll choose Update Entire Table.
- 02:00 When I click OK, sure enough, Topic 7 came in.
- 02:03 Now you can check the accuracy by doing a Ctrl+Click on any one of these.
- 02:08 Or of course, you can click right on here, Table of Contents, I'm sorry,
- 02:12 the navigation pane on the left.
- 02:14 Just make sure everything's working properly.
- 02:17 Ok control home.
- 02:18 I also want to change the style of my Table of Contents.
- 02:21 So I have this drop down arrow right here.
- 02:24 I have Auto Table 1, Auto Table 2.
- 02:26 And further down it says Manual Table.
- 02:27 You cant see that.
- 02:29 So I'm just going to very quickly collapse my ribbons, and
- 02:32 double click on my Home Ribbon.
- 02:35 And now when I hit this, now you can see Manual Table right down here.
- 02:38 The Manual Table of Contents will basically wipe out everything.
- 02:43 I don’t even have 6 pages in this document,
- 02:45 see bottom left corner says Page 1 of 5.
- 02:48 Manual Table forces you to hand write everything in here.
- 02:52 I think that takes a lot of time, I prefer the Automatic Table of Contents, so
- 02:56 I'm gonna go right back to this second option this time.
- 03:00 Previously I used this one,
- 03:02 I'm gonna choose this one because it gives me nice formal Table of Contents title
- 03:06 which allows me to get rid of the one that I hand typed myself earlier.
- 03:10 All right so now we have all this, our subtopics are all in,
- 03:13 our page numbers are accurate.
- 03:16 That is how you update your Table of Contents as your document
- 03:21 becomes longer and as you add more options.
- 03:24 All right thank you.
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