For more info, see Custom table of contents. Use the settings to show, hide, and align page numbers, add or change the tab leader, set formats, and specify how many levels of headings to show. To apply a heading style, select the text you want to format, then choose the desired heading in the Styles group on the Home tab. To customize your existing table of contents: Go to References > Table of Contents. In the table of contents above, each chapter uses a heading style, so there are four sections.
When you insert the table of contents, it will create a section for each heading. If you apply a heading style, you're telling Word that you've started a new part of your document. Styles also serve another important purpose: adding a hidden layer of organization and structure to your document. If you've already read our Applying and Modifying Styles lesson, you know they're an easy way to add professional text formatting to different parts of your document. To do that, we go to the References tab and find the Table of Contents menu on the far left: That brings us to the Table of Contents dialog box. Next, we can re-define the Table of Contents the way we want. However, with the right formatting, Word can create and update a table of contents automatically. First, we select the entire Table of Contents with the mouse and hit Delete. And if you ever decide to rearrange your sections or add more information, you'll have to update everything all over again. You could create a table of contents manually-typing the section names and page numbers-but it would take a lot of work.