I have a word document with multiple different headings levels used. In my table of contents however, I just want Heading #2 displayed - not Heading #1. Is there a way to do this?
1 Answer
Yes. Use a Custom Table of Contents or modify the TOC Field.
In Word, a Table of Contents is a Field which can be modified using switches.
Here is my article on the Microsoft Site on Dealing With Fields.
You can create the field using the Custom Table of Contents option under References > Table of Contents > Custom Table of Contents. That will bring up the classic Table of Contents dialog with many options.
Above is a screenshot of that dialog after the Options button has been pressed.
- Uncheck the Outline Levels box and
- make sure the Styles box is checked.
- Then scroll down to make sure that only the styles you want are checked.
- You uncheck a style by removing any TOC level number for it.
- Then OK your way out of these dialogs. This creates a TOC field with the options.
Here, we are still leaving Heading 2 as TOC level 2, which will use the TOC 2 style for formatting. You could change it to 1 if you wanted.
This creates a field that when shown looks like this: { TOC \o "2-2" \h \z } As discussed in my article, you can simply edit an existing field to look like that and get the same results as using the dialog.
Here are more references on Tables of Contents in Word:
- How to Create a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word by the late Word MVP Shauna Kelly
- TOC Tips and Tricks by Word MVP Suzanne Barnhill
- TOC (Field) Switches by Word MVP Suzanne Barnhill
- Table of Contents Field documentation - Microsoft
The above directions are for the Ribbon versions of Word (2007 and later). Here is a link to my page on Complex Documents which also gives directions for the menu versions. Editing the field is the same in all versions. This is for desktop versions of Word, not the online or mobile versions which do not have as many features.
answered May 28, 2022 at 15:50
