Creating a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word - Assignment Example

Name : xxxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxxx Title : Instruction Writing Institution : xxxxxxx @2011 Creating a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word Introduction The main aim of this paper is to offer clear and concise instructions to a Mrs. X on how to go about when creating a table of content for the handbook she is completing. Mrs. X uses Microsoft word in creating the table of content. These instructions provide both a detailed and informed manner creating a table of contents in word to users of all levels that is the experienced users, partially experienced users and the inexperienced users. Moderate training ought to be offered to her so that she is able to use and follow the set of instructions for creating a table of contents using the various versions of Microsoft word that is ms word 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2010(Alred, Brusaw, & Oliu 2002). Most individuals opt to create a table of content manually without taking note of built in styles in Microsoft word this ultimately leads to a poorly formatted table of contents which have no identical spacing and font size. The manual creation of a table of content wastes a lot of time when new fields and entries are incorporated and they need to be updated. A table of content is generally used in effectively in large documents such as companies’ annual reports, books, journals and other types of documents. A table of contents is basically comprised a list all the major headings and sub headings that are to be incorporated in the final document clearly stipulating a clear outline of all the major issues in a certain document. A table of contents can be created by using manually means or by using built-in heading styles and outline-level formats in Microsoft word. Subsequent to evidently stating and categorizing the headings to be included in the tale of content, a method to be applied when building the table of contents has to be selected (Cronan & Matthews 2005). The manual method entails the less complex and easiest way to be used when creating a table of contents is using the word’s built-in heading styles. When applying this method, Ms Word explores the specified headings, and groups them according to the heading levels, and displays the table of contents in that document. Prior to creating table of contents one should ensure that all the headings are formatted in a consistent way. For instance chapter headings can be named as heading one while sub headings can fall under heading two and three this will give a clear distinction between the main headings and the sub headings that are on the document. Equipments to be used For every aspect to be generated there are certain equipments that need to be used so as to attain the required results. The creation of a table of content either manually or automatically basically requires various equipments for the table of content to be generated. These equipments include, a computer with Microsoft office software. Manual creation of a table of content Manually created table of contents are essentially used for much smaller documents and reports that are have minimal chances of being changed or the manual method can also be used when the heading in the document do not use the built in headings. A manually created document requires more work to update than an automatic table of content because it must be updated manually whenever a component is added, modified or removed from the document (Duffy & Cram 2007). The following are instructions on how to insert a table of content using the manual method. 1. In the document, select the location where the table of content will be inserted. Tip: if one wishes to insert a table of content on detached page or one need to incorporate dissimilar page numbers for the table of content than the other parts of the document, the table of content ought to be placed in a separate division this is done by adding section breaks prior to and subsequent to the table of contents. 2. In the word document click the view menu, this directs one to another page and one ought to select print layout. 3. On the document elements tab, under table of content, point to a table of content style click, and then immediately below the manual table of content tab, select the desired design. Note: if word displays an error message that says that table of content was not found, it signifies that an automatic table of content generation was selected and that none of the headings has been formatted using the built in heading styles in word. Thus one ought to repeat the third step and ensure that the manual table of content generation design is selected. 4. The headings and page numbers should be typed to coincide with the location where they appear in the document. 5. When adding additional components in the table one ought to copy the existing and pasting it the preferred position in the table of contents. Automatic creation of table of content Microsoft office has inbuilt table generation which assists the user in creating a table of content. The automatic creation of table of contents is much easier as compared to the manual creation of the table. This is because when updating a table this is done automatically and in a timely manner thus it is better to use the automatic table generation in ms word. The automatic table generation can be done using various methods such as using the built-in heading styles. I. How to create a table of contents using the built-in heading styles When creating a table of contents using this method one ought to follow the following systematic steps: 1. identifying the headings that are supposed to appear in the table of contents i. Open the word document that table of content need to be inserted. ii. Open the document and press CTRL + Home keys to move on the top of the document. iii. On the main menu select Insert and then choose Insert break iv. From the dialog box select page break and press ok. v. Move to the blank page where the table of content will be created i. Identify the text that will appear as the heading Styles in the table of contents i. From the main menu Choose Format menu and select the Styles and then formatting tab. ii. Select the text that will appear in the table of content as the major heading. iii. Move down the pages repeating step (ii). iv. Move back to page two of the document. v. Select the text that will appear as sub headings and repeat this in all the pages. vi. Repeat step (v) for sub-sub headings. 2. Creating a table of contents in word 2000, 2002 and 2003 i. The first step is to click on the page that you want the table of contents to appear. ii. Show the Table of Contents dialog box. When using word 2000, select insert from the main menu and then select the index and Tables tab. When creating a table of content using Microsoft 2000 and 2003, select insert from the main menu and then choose the reference tab. This is best illustrated in the picture below. A dialog box then appears and one is prompted to choose from one ought to select the Table of Contents tab. Then confirm by clicking OK. Note: by clicking okay it means that you have accepted the default settings. The final result that is generated ought to be similar to the image below. II. Updating changes in a table of content and Deleting a table of contents If a document is modified and it initially had a table of content for instance, a paragraph or pictures are added to the document, this will ultimately lead to change in page number positions as well as the headings in that document. As a replacement for of the table of content word display an error message. Thus it is important to save nay changes made to a document prior to closing it (Joyce & Moon 2007). a. The following steps clearly stipulates how to update a TOC 1.1 Click on the table of contents. The text in table of contents will appear to be selected as shown in the diagram below. 1.2 Right click the mouse. 1.3 From the pop up menu, select the update field option 1.4 Word will show an image like the one shown below. 1.5 If the changes made do not have styles, choose the first button this updates only the page numbers. 1.6 If the changes made have style, the second option is selected and it updates the whole table. 3. Creating a table of contents in word 2007 and 2010 using built in heading styles i. The first step is identifying the text to appear in the TOC ii. click the Home tab iii. select the style for the desired headers iv. Repeat these steps for all the other Headers. v. If you want to select a different header, click on the down arrow in the headers tab vi. Select the appropriate header vii. On the Insert tab, click Blank Page. viii. Click the new page. ix. On the References tab, click Table of Contents x. Choose the automatic table generation to insert a table of contents based on the identified headings. Note: in word 2007 or in word 2010, one ought to choose the options that you want to be applied to the TOC dialogue box, and then click ok (Cox, Lambert & Frye 2010). Note: if the text contained the document is not marked to be incorporated in a TOC, one gets an error in the document instead of a table of content. Error! No table of contents entries found. 4. Update a table of contents If headings and table entries are added or removed from the existing table of contents, the table needs to be updated so that it gives clear information about what is contained in the document. Word presents four basic ways to update a table of content, so one chooses the method that works best, the methods include: One method is by using the shortcut menu- Alternates and click anywhere in the table of content and then select the update field from the shortcut menu. Another way is by the use of the keyboard- one click anywhere in the table of content and then presses the F9 key. The third way is by selecting the text that need to be updated and then pressing the F10 to update all fields in the chosen region. The last method is the updating a table is when printing. One selects the options from the tool menu; the print tab is later selected. This in turn updates the table of content as well as all other fields in the document every time when the document is printed (Murray 2010). There are two common options when updating table of content. The options include: one updating page numbers only. In this option word repaginates the word document and updates the number which might have changed during editing. Any manual editing or formatting that may have been done on the table of content is preserved. The other option is updating the entire table. In this option word updates the table of content headings and the page numbers. If manual editing had been done the changes are eventually lost. Thus the most common way of updating a table of content done by following the steps stated below. 4.1 Click the table of contents 4.2 In toolbar which papers at the top of the table, click Update Table or, 4.3 References tab, click Update Table. 4.4 If the change made have style, select update page numbers only. 4.5 If the changes made do not have style, select update the entire table. 5 Delete a table of contents 5.5 Click the References Tab on the Ribbon 5.6 Click Table of Contents 5.7 Click Remove Table of Contents Warning: writer won’t prompt you to confirm the delete! Use caution when deleting a table of content. Bibliography Alred, G, Brusaw, C, & Oliu, W 2002, Handbook of Technical Writing. Bedford/St. Martin's, New York. Cox, J, Lambert, J & Frye, C 2010, Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student Edition Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft)), Microsoft press, Washington. Cronan, J & Matthews, M 2005, Microsoft Office Word 2003, McGraw-Hill Osborne, New York. Duffy, J & Cram, M 2007, Microsoft Office Word 2007, illustrated complete, Course Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Joyce, J & Moon, M 2007, Microsoft Office 2007 Plain and Simple, Microsoft press, Washington. Murray, K 2010, Microsoft Office 2010, Plain and Simple (Plain & Simple), Microsoft press, Washington. Read More