Microsoft Word: How do I create a horizontal TOC with just Heading 1?

Question

I'm trying to add this in the footer:

Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3

It has to be horizontal, and auto update the linking if needed. I am using a macbook, if that matters.

I have tried asking ChatGPT and even followed the instructions from: Table of content doesn't have hyperlinks in PDF exported from Word

Answer 1

If you know that your document will only have 7 headings, then the easiest method is to use cross-references.

1. Go to the "Insert" tab and in the "Links" section, click on "Cross-reference"

2. In the new window, select the reference type "Heading" and insert a reference to "Heading text". Then select the first heading from the list and click on "Insert".

3. Repeat the previous step for the remaining headings
4. Insert the "|" characters between your fields

Answer 2

In the footer of all pages by insert on page 1. You can insert hyperlinks as normal line entries, they will contain whatever abbreviation you wish so you could have a short line of

Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4 | Section 5 | Section 6 | Section 7
and they still link to any long section name, they will automatically be repeated unless you alter the section footers.

In a PDF export they will be separate from but hyperlink just the same as bookmarks, thus a good idea to switch both on.