Troubleshoot tables of contents

Some of the content in this topic may not be applicable to some languages.

I made changes to my document, but the changes don't appear in the table of contents.

If you add, delete, move, or edit headings or other text in a document, click Update TOC on the Outlining toolbar to update the table of contents. For example, you should do this if you edit a heading or move it to a different page.

To display the Outlining toolbar, right-click any toolbar, and then click Outlining.

When I try to update my table of contents in a Web frame, I get an error message that the current document does not contain a table of contents.

In order to update a table of contents in a Web frame, you need to position the insertion point inside the frame.

The page numbers in the table are different from those in my document.

If you make changes in your document that affect page breaks, the page numbers shown in the index or table may need to be updated. Try the following solutions:

• Update the table field   A table of contents is inserted in your document as a field. To update the index or table field, click to the left of the index or table, and then press F9.

• Hide fields or hidden text   Index entries and table of authorities entries are inserted in your document as fields in hidden text format. To hide these fields or other hidden text in your document, click Show/Hide on the Standard toolbar. Then update the index or table of authorities by clicking to the left of the index or table, and then pressing F9.

• Remove the hidden text format   Your document may contain hidden section breaks or page breaks. First, display the hidden text, and then find and remove the hidden text format. After you remove the hidden text format, update the index or table field by clicking to the left of the index or table, and then press F9.

{TOC} appears instead of my table.

A table of contents is inserted in your document as a field. If you see something similar to {TOC} instead of the table of contents, the field is being displayed instead of the field results. To view the results for all the fields in the document, select the entire document, right-click the field code, and then click Toggle Field Codes on the shortcut menu.

I see "Error! Bookmark not defined" instead of my page number.

You need to update your table of contents. Click Update TOC on the Outlining toolbar.

Note   If you have multiple tables of contents in your document, position the insertion point inside the table of contents before you click Update TOC.

When I create or update a table of contents, some entries are missing or a message appears instead of the table.

When Microsoft Word builds a table of contents, it looks only in the text layer for headings or Table of Contents Entry (TC) fields. Word ignores any headings or TC fields that appear in the drawing layer ù for example, headings in text boxes or callouts.

If you've already inserted the headings, you can move the headings into the text layer, or convert the text boxes or callouts to frames.

My table of contents contains text other than my headings.

Try one of the following:

• Apply a different heading style to specific headings   Microsoft Word includes in the table of contents all text and graphics formatted with the following styles: built-in heading styles, styles that include outline-level formats, or custom styles you specified. If unwanted text and graphics appear in your table of contents, apply a style other than one of these heading styles to the unwanted text or graphics.
• Omit headings formatted with specific heading styles   You can also omit a heading (for example, a book title) from the table of contents without changing its heading style. On the Insert menu, point to Reference, click Index and Tables, and then click the Table of Contents tab. Click Options, and then delete the number for the appropriate style in the TOC level box. Note that all text formatted with this heading style will be omitted from the table of contents.

The table of contents isn't formatted correctly.

When you choose a design and build a table of contents, Microsoft Word automatically uses the TOC styles (for example, TOC 1 and TOC 2) to format the headings in the finished table of contents. If you want to change the formatting in the table of contents, choose a different design when you build the table of contents.

If you want to match the formatting of the headings in the table of contents with that of the headings in the document, you can modify the TOC styles. Note that if you manually format a heading in your document (for example, make it bold), this formatting is retained when you build or update the table of contents.

I marked part of a paragraph with a heading style, but the marked text is missing from the table of contents.

Although it's possible to mark a portion of a paragraph with a heading style, Microsoft Word includes this text in the table of contents only if the marked text is the initial text of the paragraph. To include text that occurs in the middle of a paragraph, select the text that you want to appear, press ALT+SHIFT+O, and follow the steps for creating a table of contents from TC fields.

The Go to TOC button doesn't go to my table of contents.

The Go to TOC button only goes to the first table of contents in your document, and it works only with tables created from built-in heading styles or styles that include outline-level formats. Therefore, if you have multiple tables of contents in your document or created your table of contents manually using fields, you'll need to use another method to locate your table.

The Update TOC button doesn't update my table of contents.

The Update TOC button only updates the first table of contents in your document, and it works only with tables created from built-in heading styles or styles that include outline-level formats. Therefore, if you have multiple tables of contents in your document or created your table of contents manually using fields, you'll need to update each table one at a time. To do this, click to the left of each table of contents, and then press F9.