Think of this as a challenge in a good way. What you have just seen is the
"peek behind the curtain" that gives you an idea of how Word is working. You
can learn what all the gobbledygook in the TOC field is about from
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TOCSwitches.htm, but the TOC field is
only one of many fields that you can use in Word. Have a look at the Insert
| Field dialog and explore it to find some of the others. Although almost
all these fields have been available in Word for many versions, in each new
version Microsoft makes some of them easier to use by adding a user-friendly
dialog to create them. The Insert | Index and Tables (or Insert | Reference
| Index and Tables) dialog is just one of them. Others (all available from
the Insert menu) are Cross-reference, Hyperlink, Date and Time (a dangerous
one; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/DateFields.htm), Footnote and
Endnote, Caption, etc.
Once you know how fields are constructed, there are many you can create "by
hand," by pressing Ctrl+F9 to insert the field braces and then typing the
required text between them (you can also type the text first, select it, and
press Ctrl+F9). Some fields that you may use all the time without realizing
they are fields are Page and NumPages, which you can use the buttons on the
Header and Footer toolbar to insert (you can also use the "Page X of Y"
AutoText entry to insert "Page { PAGE } of { NUMPAGES }"); when you need to
use these fields in more complex nested field constructions, it is helpful
to realize that they are fields and to know how to insert them using the
buttons or by hand to combine with other field syntax that you can type.
