Table of Contents

Writer’s table of contents feature lets you build an automated table of contents from the headings in your document. These entries are automatically generated as hyperlinks in the table. Whenever changes are made to the text of a heading in the body of the document or the page on which the heading appears, those changes automatically appear in the table of contents when it is next updated.

Creating a table of contents

A table of contents or (TOC) is created from the headings of your document. Before you insert the TOC, make sure that you have applied headings and styled them consistently. For example, you can use the Heading 1 style for chapter titles and the Heading 2 and Heading 3 styles for chapter subheadings.

To insert a TOC:

1. Place the cursor in the position where you want it to appear.
2. Select the menu command:
   Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents

Next the Insert Index or Table of Contents dialog will appear. On the left side of this window you can see a preview of the TOC. Press OK to insert the TOC and continue.

The TOC is automatically created and appears with a gray background color around the text. This color is there to remind you that the text is generated automatically and does not appear in print.

Editing the TOC

Most of the time you will probably find the default table of contents (TOC) to be what you need. If you want to change the look and other settings of the TOC you need to edit it.

To edit a TOC:

1. Right-click anywhere inside the TOC.
2. Select the Edit Table of Contents command from the context menu.

In the Index or Table of Contents tab you can change for example the title of the table of contents.

Update and delete

Whenever you make changes to the text within the headings or add or delete one, these changes do not automatically appear in the TOC. To apply the changes and update the TOC, select the Update Table of Contents command from the context menu. Similarly, delete the TOC with the Delete Table of Contents command.