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Step 2
Now that you have formatted all your headings and subheadings using the style box as shown in Part 1, it's time to create the table of contents.

1. Go to the part of your document where you want to place a table of contents

2. Now go to the file menu, press <Insert> and select "Index and Tables"

3. You'll be shown the dialog box below:

4. Click on the Table of Contents tab (where the white arrow is pointing in the screenshot above) and you'll get the dialog box shown below:

5. Click OK (Ignore all the confusing advice - if you really want to know, read about Options below.)

6. You should now see a table of contents appear, as if by magic:

7.. You'll note that the field is highlighted in grey. That's because this is not normal text, it's a dynamic field. That means, anything in this grey area is dependent on other text in the document. That's good news for us, because it means if you change anything in the document, the table of contents will update automatically when you save or print the document.

8.. If you change something (more pages, different titles etc.) and want to see these changes reflected in the table of contents, RIGHT click on anywhere on the grey-shaded table of contents. You'll get this:

9. Generally speaking, update the entire table. The only occasion on which you wouldn't is if you had applied some super-duper formatting or additions to the index. Please don't do this, ever, ever, ever, however tempting it might be. Let Word do the work. If a title is wrong, change it in the body of your dissertation, not the contents (the contents will change themselves). If you don't like the style, change it using the style box, or the "Format" options which Word gives you.

10. The options in the Index and Tables dialog box:

If you followed the directions in Step 1 carefully, you should be able to press "OK" and go. However, this is what the options are:

• 'Formats' gives you the option of allowing Word to apply different fonts and styles to your table of contents. A nice idea, but this can be as welcome as having Carol Smillie redesign your living room while you're away. Leave it as "From Template"
• The Preview shows you what the table of contents will look like.
• Show levels gives you the option to show anywhere between 1 and 10 levels of heading hierarchy. Three levels are probably enough. If you only have Titles (Level 1) and Subtitles (Level 2), two will be enough.
• Options gives you the chance to change what things in your text will be considered worthy of including in the table of contents. Let's not go there unless we have to - you'll only need it if things don't work out as you'd hoped. If they don't, read the Indexing FAQs page.
• 'Modify' refers to the style (bold, italic etc.) of the table of contents.
• Tab leader gives you the option of putting dots between the entries in your contents page and the page numbers. If it ain't broke, don't fix it - dots are just fine thank you.
• Show page numbers/Right align page numbers. You wouldn't be doing this exercise unless you wanted page numbers, and you'll probably want them on the right of the page, so leave these boxes ticked (i.e. do nothing).