Coming at Word 365 and Table of Contents

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Coming at understanding the process sort of backwards…

If I am just starting what will end up being a rather lengthy piece (250+ pages), is there any key piece or structure so that I can finish the project and THEN approach the TOC creation? M Like, is there a key code that if inserted, will tell Word “Okay, this is a Chapter/Topic to be recognized and associated with the page number?  SO that, I can then insert the “markers” as I write and create the TOC after the fact with everything in place?

For instance:  “Every time you start a line with “..TOC” Word will know this is a Chapter to be listed.”?

 

Chuck Billow

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Chuck,

The short answer is yes. First understand that Word is an enormous toolbox, which, if you know what tool you need and how to use it, you can probably accomplish whatever you want.

Before plunging into your project, I would strongly recommend some reading to help you identify the contents of that toolbox and how to make the best use of it. The reference that I would recommend is Dan Gookin’s “Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies”.

This book covers the tools in Word to efficiently set up, format and organize a large and possibly complex document if that is your plan. It includes a 5-chapter section entitled “Word for Writers”.

Hope this helped.

Regards, Phil

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CWBillow wrote:

If I am just starting what will end up being a rather lengthy piece (250+ pages), is there any key piece or structure so that I can finish the project and THEN approach the TOC creation? M Like, is there a key code that if inserted, will tell Word “Okay, this is a Chapter/Topic to be recognized and associated with the page number?  SO that, I can then insert the “markers” as I write and create the TOC after the fact with everything in place?

This is what I do when writing a book with sections (aka: chapters).

I create a separate section at the beginning of the Table of Contents with a next page section break.
Start the page numbering with the fist page of the first Chapter/topic.
At the place where I will enter the Chapter/Topic title I enter a Bookmark. I name the Bookmark with the title and page it starts on such as “Chapter1P1”. and for Chapter 2 that starts on page 11 I name the Bookmark “Chapter2P11”.
When finished I can then enter the Table of Contents which will not disturb the separate page numbering of the Chapters.
To enter the Chapter in the TOC I select to Insert a Hyperlink and select Place within this document which will display a list of all the Bookmarks (chapter titles) in the document. From the Bookmark you can enter the Title for that Chapter and what page is starts on. If you want you can make that Chapter title a link to that chapter. I strongly suggest using links to chapters as 250 pages is a long document to scroll thru to navigate manually.

NOTE: Bookmark names must start with a letter, contain no spaces, and limited to 40 characters. Can use underscore form spaces such as “Chapter_1_P1”.

There are other ways to do this with Styles and Find and Replace functions, but I think the above is easier.

I made the above real easy to do by adding the Insert Bookmark and Insert Hyperlink functions to the Quick Access Toolbar and created keyboard shortcuts for each function.

HTH, Dana:))

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However, if OP makes use of Styles (especially Heading1-n) and the Navigation Pane in setting up the document, he can easily build an outline and automatically create TOC entries. Word also has functions to create indexes (see References tab), cross references and many other things. Using styles also means it is no longer necessary to manually format everything.

The unfortunate thing about Word, over time (I first used it in the late 1980s), is the initial instruction stresses WYSWIG. Manual formatting is fine for a 2-page letter or memo, but a large document is better served with “power tools”. But it’s a good idea to know what they are and how to use them.

HTH. Regards, Phil

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