We can use a list to help the word processor to search and locate text more quickly, moving to your content without having to search the text. In this way, using the indicator is considerably faster than having to browse the entire document to find the data we are looking for. If we use a document in Word, pressing the «Ctrl» key and clicking on one of the titles in the list, we will access its content. This will be done regardless of the page number we are on.
If we want to create an indicator in our document, we can use both Microsoft Word and Google Docs for it.
How to Create a Table of Contents in Word
If we have the Office tool installed on our computer, we can make an indicator of all the content of a document in a simple way. For this, it will be necessary to mark the index entries, where we must specify the main entry, the cross reference in the document to, finally, generate it.
Once we have the document open, to create an index we must mark highlights, selecting them either by phrases, single words, or individual symbols, for any topic that spans a page range or references another entry, such as “Transport. See cars ».
By selecting the text and marking it as an index entry, we’re telling Word to add a special entry that includes the main entry we’ve marked along with any other cross information we want to include. Once all the entries are marked, we choose a layout and Word will sort them alphabetically, create the references to their page numbers, remove duplicate entries from the same page and display it in the document.
mark the entries
Next, we are going to see how to mark the words or phrases of our indicator. Although we can also mark the entries of any text that spans several pages. Once the text that we are going to use as a list has been selected, click on the “References” tab and click on “Mark entry” in the “Index” section.
This will open a new window called “Mark index entry”, where we will be able to customize it. From here we will also be able mark the subentries. It is also possible to add other levels of subentries, for which it will be necessary to include a semicolon in the “Subentry” field.
we can also create cross reference to another entry by clicking on “Cross Reference” in the “Options” section and typing the text box of the other entry. Also, we can apply formats to the page numbers that will appear in the index. To do this, we check the Bold or Italic box, which we find in the “Format of page numbers” section.
In order to get the most out of this functionality integrated into the Microsoft Word editor, we must also do our part. With this we want to tell you that our creativity and imagination when creating these indexes will positively affect the indexing of the general document. Hence precisely the importance of knowing the entire document in detail DOCX in order to create the corresponding indices in the best possible way. Also, if we use the aforementioned cross-reference feature, we will give this text file more functionality for when other users consult it.
In this way, those who do not know the document structure and wish to consult a specific section, they can do so quickly and easily without having to navigate through all its pages.
Therefore, once we have finished in this section that we are discussing, we click on “Tick”, so that in this way the entries are marked. In the event that we want to mark the text anywhere it appears in the document, click on “Mark all”.
create the index
Once we have marks the entries we can create our indicator in the document. To do this, it will only be necessary to click on the place in the document where we want to add our list of titles. This is something that we will do by clicking on the “References” tab, and within the “Index” section, we will click on “Insert index”.
This will make a window appear from where we can choose the text input format, as well as page numbers, tabs, and padding characters. We can also change the appearance of the indicator from the options found in the Formats drop-down menu. Here we can select the “Personal style”, “Classic”, “Sophisticated”, “Modern” or “With bullets”. We can see how the style of each one from the “Preview” at the top. Once finished, click on “OK”.
update index
But of course, as will probably be usual in most cases, the document that we have indexed in the past may undergo changes. By this we mean that it may be the case that we add new content or delete some of the existing ones. Therefore, the index that we created at the time about this DOCX will no longer be the same.
Well, at this point it is worth mentioning that we will always have the possibility of avoiding the index created to adapt it to the current content of the document. This is precisely what we are going to show you below in order to keep the indexes that we have created at some point on a Word file updated.
If after the creation of the list we wish to make any changes, we must update it. To do this, click on the “Reference” tab, and in the “Index” section we will have the “Update” option enabled. We can continue to mark additional entries after creating your index and simply update it. In this case, yes we edit or delete entries, you will also need to update the index.
This will obviously be very helpful in the event that we want to improve the current index if the text document has been modified. Also, surely those who access this content in the future will thank us, especially if the file we are working with is large.
To do this we must click inside the index area of our document and then click on the button update index in the toolbar in the tab References. If the button is grayed out, we need to make sure the cursor is inside the index.
In the event that we want to remove the index completely, we select all the text and press the DELETE key. Then we probably need to remove the entries from the index, otherwise their use will become a bit silly.
Delete an index in Word
Sometimes, it is more advisable to delete the entire index and start again from scratch than to modify the index to adapt to the ones we are looking for. Unfortunately, Word does not provide us with a tool that, suddenly, allows us to eliminate all the indica from a document. This forces us to go to all the entries in the index and delete them manually from the document to later recreate them following the steps that we have indicated above. To avoid having to edit the index, it is recommended to separate the future indexes into independent sheets so that, once we have finished the work, we can put all the sheets together and recreate the indexes that, on this occasion, should be the definitive ones. .
Create a title list with Google Docs
If we are one of those who prefer to create or edit our documents with a free tool like Google Docs, we should know that we will also have the possibility of creating indexes. To do this, the first thing we must do is upload the document to our Google Drive account. This is something that we can do directly from both our Drive and from Google Docs that we access from. To do it directly from the tool Google Docsit will only be necessary to click on the folder icon and then click on the “Upload” option.
Once we have loaded the open document in Google Documents, we will pass add the headers that we need to form our list. This is something we can do quickly and easily by selecting the text we want to highlight. Later we click on the “Format” option in its menu and then in “Paragraph style” we must choose the title we want.
Once we have marked all the titles, in order to make the indicator we only need to click on the link to the document where we want to add it. Later, we click on the “Insert” menu and select “Index”. Now we only have select style that interests us the most and it will be created automatically.
The indicator that we have created will be in charge of containing all the titles of our document, so we can edit it at any time. To do this, we open the document in Google Docs, add a title and click on the icon “Update”. In the same way we can delete it if we no longer need it, for which we right-click and select the “Delete” option.