Table of Contents

Organize Your Microsoft table of Contents TOC

So, you have made some notes using Microsoft Word, and programmed a table of contents, but now it is becoming a mess as those topics are not listed in alphabetical order.

That happens to me often. So much so, that, years ago I researched the subject and found a solution to my dilemma.

My table of contents consisted of headers and sub headers.

I wanted to, at least, reorder the header 1, which represented my major topics.

Well, I found out that I couldn’t really list my table of contents alphabetically, unless my topics were also written in that way.

So, how could I rearrange the topics in alphabetical order?

MS Word can help if you known how.

Before attempting this, please remember that sorting topics is only appropriate if the comprehension of those topics does not depend on the original sequence in which they were written. Sorting the Table of Contents will also sort the contents in the document. Topics should only be sorted if they are independent and meant for later consultation.

Additionally, ensure that the names used for the topics make sense when sorted. Edit the titles before sorting to make them more comprehensive.

Here's how you sort the major topics to begin with.

Warning: Please try it on a copy of your document until you know how to do it.

  1. First, switch the view mode to Outline (this is very important, otherwise you will make a mess).
  2. Then, place the cursor on the left side of your first major topic header (not on the TOC).
  3. Now, press the following key combination to select everything:
    CTRL SHIFT END.
  4. Next, press the HOME tab.
  5. Then, in the paragraph group, click on the sort group (the A/Z icon).
  6. When the dialog box pops up, accept the default values [heading] by clicking on the OK button.
    Your major headers are now sorted.
  7. Next, change the view mode to your regular mode such as, for example, Print View.
  8. Un-select the text by clicking anywhere on the page.
  9. Although all the heading 1s of the document are now sorted, you still need to refresh the TOC.

Let’s update your table of contents.

Highlight all text to select it (CTRL a), then click on F9 and choose ‘Update entire table’.

That’s it.

Alternatively, use the manual procedure:

  1. To update your table of contents,
    1. right-click on the table,
    2. and choose “Update Field”
    3. and then choose “Update the Entire Table”.

Great, you’re all done.

What we did here, was sorting the pages in the document by topic names.
You can, of course, do the same for subtopics within each individual topic.
From here on you can add new Headings alphabetically, or, follow this procedure periodically to sort all the new headings if you forget to do it while writing.