Word Table of Contents: Build and Update It Automatically

A hand-typed table of contents is out of date the moment someone renames a section. Then it's back to retyping lines and checking every entry against the document. On a report that changes several times before it's final, that happens more than once.

Word can build the list from your headings and refresh it on demand.

TL;DR: Apply the Heading 1 style to your headings, insert a table of contents from the References tab, and update it after edits.

Steps

1. Click each heading and apply the Heading 1 style from the Styles group on the Home tab.
2. Click where the table of contents should go, then go to the References tab and insert a table of contents. Word collects the headings into a list.
3. After you change a heading, click inside the table of contents and choose the update option. The list changes to match.

In the example, the last heading was renamed to "Plan and Budget". One update later, the table of contents showed the new name.

Checked in the free Word for the web.

Why it depends on styles

Word doesn't guess which lines are headings. It looks for heading styles. A line that's bold and large but uses the Normal style won't appear in the list. The habit pays off elsewhere too: headings with styles show up in the navigation pane and can be restyled all at once.

Common mistakes

• Headings formatted by hand. If a heading is missing from the list, check its style. Apply Heading 1 and update.
• Editing the table of contents directly. Changes typed inside it are overwritten on the next update. Change the heading in the document instead.
• Forgetting to update before sending. The list doesn't refresh on its own. Make updating it part of the last check before a document goes out.

For generated documents

If you produce Word files with python-docx, add headings with doc.add_heading("Plan and Budget", level=1) so they get real heading styles. python-docx can't build the table of contents itself, because page numbers only exist once Word lays out the document. The usual approach is to keep the table of contents in a template and update it in Word before sending.

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Written with AI assistance and checked against the original Word for the web steps.