When preparing structured documents, you cannot do without a table of contents. With its help, the navigation of the document is established, and the layout takes on a finished look. In other words, for multi-page documents, the table of contents is a good form rule, and for scientific papers it is an obligatory element.
To establish a table of contents in a Microsoft Word document, you need to structure the text. For this, it is divided into chapters. The structure can be broken down even smaller - paragraphs and text elements of a lower level can be set in each chapter.
Table of contents in a Word are based on subheadings. To do this, each element of the text must first be titled, and then, using styles, set a style for each subheading. This function is available in the "Home" - "Styles" tab.
After all the text is structured and the headings are highlighted, it is necessary to place the cursor in the fragment of the document where the content will be set. Typically, this is the first page after the title page. Next, in the "Links" tab, select "Table of Contents". In the menu that opens, the type of table of contents is determined:
- Auto-Collected Table of Contents - automatically replenishes when a new title is selected. Suitable for texts that have not been completed yet, as well as documents that a group of authors is working on;
- Manual table of contents - does not replenish itself when a new title appears. Suitable for completed texts.
Each type of table of contents reflects a hierarchy of headings by chapter and paragraph. Thus, the structure of the table of contents can have several levels depending on the structure of the document itself.
