I use MS Word 2016, with a template for APA style documents. It comes with a built in Table of Contents, but when I try to update it using the provided function, it adds an entire section of my paper to the table. Instead of a heading with a page number, and I do not want his to happen. • in the Show document content section, set Field shading=Always to cause any field code content to be set with a light gray background so you know it is a field code result and not typed content (i.e. Table of contents, cross-references, page numbers, styleref content in header/footers, etc.).
(adapted from a ‘Writing Tip’ email I recently sent to work colleagues Word 2007 environment). Bottom line: Before releasing your document, turn off Track Changes then update the Table of Contents, List of Tables, and List of Figures so that they reflect the current headings, captions, and page numbers. Some recent questions from my authors have related to updating the Table of Contents (TOC), List of Tables (LOT), and List of Figures (LOF), common things that can go wrong when doing so, and how to fix them. Why does my Table of Contents look a mess? In this example, the TOC entries are all in red and there’s a change bar to the right of the TOC. There’s also a deleted TOC below the inserted TOC.
How did it get like this? You had Track Changes turned on when you updated the TOC. To fix it, turn off Track Changes ( Review tab), then update the TOC again (see below for how). Super easy with an immediate reduction in stress related to things going wrong with your document just before your deadline;-) 2.
Why aren’t the things I’ve added, changed or deleted reflected in the TOC/LOT/LOF? The second issue relates to why the new tables/figures, sections etc.
That you’ve added to the document aren’t appearing in the TOC/LOT/LOF, or why your changes or deletions aren’t reflected in the TOC/LOT/LOF. Typically, the reason is that you’ve forgotten to update the TOC/LOT/LOF – these lists don’t update automatically. There are several ways you can update these lists, but the safest way that seems to work properly every time, is to use the ‘Update Table’ buttons on the References tab in Word.
To update a TOC:. Turn off Track Changes. Click anywhere inside the TOC. Go to the References tab. Go to the far left of that tab, and click the Update Table button in the Table of Contents group. If asked, select the option to Update entire table and click OK.
To update a LOT:. Turn off Track Changes.
Click anywhere inside the List of Tables. Go to the References tab. Go to the middle of that tab, and click the Update Table button in the Captions group. If asked, select the option to Update entire table and click OK.
To update a LOF: Same procedure as for updating a LOT, but for step 2, you click anywhere inside the List of Figures first. Why aren’t all my tables/figures listed even though I’ve updated the lists using the methods above? This issue invariably relates to Track Changes. If you’ve inserted or deleted a table or figure, then it’s possible that the table or figure caption won’t get listed in the LOT/LOF. Dealing with the table/figure Track Changes by accepting/rejecting them usually sorts this out.
After accepting/rejecting the change, update the LOT/LOF and all should be well again. I haven’t found any other way of solving this one. I get an ‘Error! Reference not found’ message in the TOC/LOT/LOF instead of a page number. I’m not sure what causes this, but turning off Track Changes and updating the TOC/LOT/LOF should fix it. Sub XREFCHECK ‘ ‘ XREFCHECK Macro ‘ ‘ ActiveWindow.ActivePane.VerticalPercentScrolled = 0 With ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.DefaultSorting = wdSortByName.ShowHidden = True End With ActiveWindow.ActivePane.VerticalPercentScrolled = 56 Selection.Find.ClearFormatting With Selection.Find.Text = “Reference source not found”.Replacement.Text = “”.Forward = True.Wrap = wdFindContinue.Format = False.MatchCase = False.MatchWholeWord = False.MatchWildcards = False.MatchSoundsLike = False.MatchAllWordForms = False End With Selection.Find.Execute End Sub joan thomas June 20, 2012 at 7:48 pm. Hi Stephen and Joan Ctrl+A (select the entire document) then F9 (update all fields) still works in Word 2007 and Word 2010 for me.
I’ve not encountered any issues with it, so if it’s not working for you, perhaps that key combination (Ctrl+A) has been assigned to another action, such as a custom macro? The reason I didn’t suggest Ctrl+A/F9 to my colleagues (as above) is that it doesn’t always update everything in our documents because we also have a custom ‘update field’ macro, which only updates the TOC/LOT/LOF the first time it’s used.
![Word Word](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125356774/906519669.jpg)
–Rhonda June 26, 2012 at 6:05 am. Hi Stephen You can minimize the ribbon in Word 2007/Word 2010 to get it out of the way and give you some extra screen ‘real estate’. There are two methods:. right-click anywhere in the ribbon and select ‘Minimize the ribbon’, OR. double-click on any ribbon tab (NOT the ribbon — the tab for that ribbon) To maximize it again, just click the tab you want.
To minimize it again, click the tab again. To turn off the minimize function, right-click anywhere in the ribbon and select the checked ‘Minimize the ribbon’.
–Rhonda June 26, 2012 at 6:09 am. Thanks Rhonda – while using Word 2007 at a client site I also downloaded ‘Classic UI.dotm’ which changes the interface to that of Word 2003. It worked but I continued to use the standard 2007 interface. Well I did have two 22″ screens to work with so the vertical space mattered much less.
On my own PCs I have continued with Office 2003 rather than pay for an ‘upgrade’, the interface being the main feature, I might have to switch on and off. If I must update to save conversion times for a remote working project using complex dotx files, I would charge it as a project cost. Otherwise I see no added value; nor do I in Windows 7 Professional – it feels like Vista 1.5 Beta but I must stop moaning here:-). June 26, 2012 at 3:20 pm. Hi Rhonda, Many thanks for your extremely useful blog, which is written in a language that I can understand.
It provides solutions I can apply without having to learn how to program or create macros. I have just managed to fix the infamous ‘Jason tab’ in my Table of Contents (mine was splitting entries over lines) thanks to your advice.
However, I have another problem, for which I don’t seem to be able to find a solution. The TOC duplicates the word ‘Contents’ as the first TOC page entry. When I applied numbered headings to the style (Word 2007) as requested by the client, the ‘Table of Contents’ heading was automatically numbered ‘1’. I changed the numbering to ‘0’ and removed the words ‘Table of’. However, that seems to have generated the duplication. I have tried to change the TOC headings, but to no avail.
Do you perhaps have a solution? Thank you in advance, Felicity July 9, 2012 at 4:38 pm.
Hi Felicity The reason you’re getting the ‘Contents’ heading listed in the TOC list is that is has a Heading 1 style (or similar) applied to it. If the TOC is set to pick up Heading 1s (as it is by default), then it’s going to pick up every Heading 1 whether it has outline numbers or not. There are two solutions — the first one is the easiest to implement. Solution 1: Word 2010 (and 2007; possibly 2003?) has a built-in style called ‘TOC Heading’ (it may be hidden by default). It’s based on Heading 1 but doesn’t ever appear in the TOC because it doesn’t have a ‘heading’ outline level. Use that style instead. Modify it if you want.
Solution 2: Create a new style that looks like the Heading 1 style (font, font size etc.), but that isn’t automatically part of the styles that the TOC picks up. You do this when you create the new style by making sure it has ‘Body Text’ as the outline level in the Paragraph dialog box. This is essentially the same as solution 1, but you’re creating your own style instead of using Word’s built-in style. –Rhonda July 10, 2012 at 6:39 am.
Hi Linda You can check the codes used in compiling the TOC by putting your cursor in front of the first TOC entry (NOT inside an entry — it must be in front of the first one). Then right click and select Toggle Field Codes.
Repeat to turn the field codes off again. (Note: ‘Show all’ only shows formatting marks, not field codes. To see ALL field codes in your doc, in Word 2010, go to File Options Advanced, scroll down about halfway and select the check box for ‘Show field codes instead of their values’. You will probably want to turn this off after you’ve checked!) As far as paragraphs getting included in the TOC, they likely had a Heading style applied to them and then were manually formatted to look like normal text. You need to apply a normal style to those paragraphs. See this blog post: –Rhonda February 28, 2015 at 6:21 am.
Having the same problem with TOC. When I make changes and go to update the TOC all of the format of the text just changes to a basic font and size. No more italic subtitles. I have worked on the same document before using Windows 7 or one machine and Windows 10 on another. The problem only happens on the Windows 10 machine. Any suggestion. I figured an update or something happened.
As I’ve worked on the document, updated my TOC and the italic font carried over to the TOC. Help, it is frustrating not to be able to work on the document at home. Nicee December 9, 2016 at 2:25 am. Hi Diane When you say you ‘added the TOC3 formatting’, did you apply it manually or did you modify the TOC3 style? If you applied it manually, it will disappear the next time you update the TOC. If you modified the style, then it should hold.
To modify the TOC3 style: 1. Open the Styles pane (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+s). Hover over the TOC3 style to show the drop-down box icon, then click that icon. Select Modify. Change the settings either on the Modify Style window, or for more settings, click the Format button.
Once changed, click OK to close all style windows. –Rhonda December 30, 2016 at 8:20 am. Using Word 10, using styles appropriately, updated a TOC (also tried deleting hte TOC and inserting the TOC from scratch) and I get extra characters in some of the headers on the TOC that are not in the document. For example, one of my headers in the document is “2. Purpose” and I get 2.9 on one line and then Purpose on a separate line in the TOC. Auto numbering is off within my document. Another header (in the same document) shows 8 on one line and a separate line shows Scope.
Both link to the same header which, in the document, is clearly “8. Scope.” The 8 and the Scope are NOT on separate lines.
Any solutions? February 22, 2017 at 2:18 am. Hi Doug I haven’t encountered anything like that before. But the first things I’d try would be:. Make sure track changes is off before you update the TOC. Reinsert a new TOC — check how in the ‘Extras’ section of this blog post:. Follow the instructions under ‘Insert your own TOC’ and ‘Add or remove a level from the TOC’.
Try updating a different way — F9 is one option, but also try right-clicking and selecting ‘update field’, OR go to the References tab Table of Contents group then click Update Table (if asked, select the option to Update entire table and click OK). Other than that, I’m out of ideas. –Rhonda May 6, 2017 at 6:46 am. My name is Boakye 1. In my TOC some of the first paragraphs, just after the headings or subheadings, have been included in the TOC. How do I remove those unwanted paragraphs from the table of content.? When I try to update the TOC, the whole content of the old original table still appears instead of the newly updated table.
How do I solve this issue? What is the easiest way of doing TOC for large document ( more than 200 pages ) without going through all the pages to click on the headings or subheadings on each page one after the other.
Boakye Atuahene July 14, 2018 at 7:36 pm. Hi Boakye First, I assume you’re creating/generating your TOC from the heading styles in your document. If you’ve added the TOC entries manually (i.e. NOT using the heading styles) then you can’t update it using the automated method. Now to your issues: 1. The reason you’re getting some paragraphs included is because they have a heading style applied to them.
Someone has then manually changed the font, font size etc. To what you use for body text, but hasn’t applied a body text paragraph style (e.g. Body Text, Normal). Apply a paragraph style to those paragraphs and the issue will go away next time you update the TOC. The cause and solution is the same if you get pictures in your TOC (see ). I’m not sure why that’s happening if your TOC is an automated one. If it’s manual, I can see why it would happen, but not if it’s automated.
The only other thing I can think of is that you have track changes on when you update it. I don’t understand what you’re trying to do or why you need to click on the headings/subheads. If you’re trying to create a TOC from heading styles, you don’t have to click on those headings at all (assuming they have a heading style already applied to them). Follow these instructions (which apply to Word 2007 and later versions): –Rhonda July 15, 2018 at 7:15 am. Hi, after updating my table of contents, it no longer has the function where I could click on any one of the headings and it will lead me to the right page. The document was given to me by a friend where the table of contents page was working. However, I edited the document and subsequently also had to change some of the headings within hence I had to update the table of contents but the TOC just stopped working after I updated it.
I’m not sure why this is so and would really like to know how to fix it please. Thanks, Rachel Rachel August 6, 2018 at 11:00 am. Hi James Have you double checked that the page numbers in the footers are in one sequence? It’s possible that Section 1, for example, has 6 pages (1 to 6), then Section 2 starts its page numbering with 1 again. If they are in the correct sequence, then my only suggestion is to update the TOC again.
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There are several ways you can do this — put your cursor anywhere in the TOC then: right-click and select Update Field; press F9; or go to the References tab, then select Update Table (the one on the far left of the References tab). –Rhonda September 26, 2018 at 5:43 am.