I need to format a table of contents

[CLo]

Basic question. I have a 150 page ish document that needs a table of contents
that can be auto updated as things are added to the document. Using the
simple "Insert, TOC" it puts my chapters in there, but it's also extracting
all sorts of weird info to be placed into the TOC. I know that within the
document I need to change to formatting so that it recognizes appropriate
stuff but I just don't know where to start.

 

[Jezebel]

To understand what's going on:

1. Each style has a 'Level' value, displayed on the Format Paragraph dialog.
For headings, the level corresponds to the heading type (Heading 1 = level
1, etc). For all other styles the level is zero unless you have defined the
styles otherwise.

2. A TOC is normally built from heading levels, by default levels 1 - 3.
Through the options dialog when you create the TOC you can choose to include
or exclude any levels, or to build the TOC from any styles at all.

3. For your TOC to work properly, whatever method you use, you need to be
disciplined about your use of styles through the document (any number of
other good reasons for this also).

By the sounds of it, you haven't been disciplined about this -- 'all sorts
of wierd stuff' suggests paragraphs formatted using the wrong styles, and
presumably manually reformatted. As a general principle, particularly when
working on a large document, you should *never* manually apply font or size
changes: always apply a defined style.

So the place to start is to fix the use of styles throughout your document.
Write yourself a little style guide listing the styles you're going to use
(fewer the better!), then invest some time bringing the document into line.
Word has several functions to help. Ctrl-Q and Ctrl-Space reset the
formatting of the selection back to style; with W2003 the style pane lists
all the styles used including the deviations from definition, and can select
the affected ranges; Find and Replace can select on, and apply, formatting.

 

[CLo]

The document was created and "auto formatted" if thats what you mean, but I'm
not the one who wrote it. It just landed on my desk.

Anyhow, I wouldn't know where to start with "adjusting the styles" to make
them make a workable table of contents. I guess thats what I'm
asking.........how can I go through the document and "fix" it so that the TOC
only "picks up" what I WANT it to. I've looked through adjusting and
modifying the TOC and I keep reading about the styles but I can't for the
life of me figure out precisely what that means.

FWIW, the TOC is picking up my chapter headings, and it's also picking up
the subheadings within the chapters (good) but then it also picks up random
paragraphs and makes them points in the TOC when they shouldn't be. I tried
making it only pick up two levels, and that didn't change it.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can start by looking at the TOC Options. If there are any styles besides
Heading 1 and Heading 2 that have numbers beside them, delete the numbers
and see if that helps. If not, you're going to have to look through the
document to find the paragraphs formatted with heading styles that should
not be. In Normal view with the Style Area displayed is a good way to do
this.

 

[Stefan Blom]

In the TOC Options, also make sure that the check box next to "outline
levels" is cleared, so that the table of contents doesn't include
paragraphs with an outline level specified as direct formatting (that
is, via Format>Paragraph, Indents and Spacing tab).