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How to make an index in Microsoft Word manually and automatically? step by step guide

UPDATED ✅ Do you need to CREATE a table of contents in Word software and don’t know how to do it? ⭐ ENTER HERE ⭐ and discover how to do it step by step with this TUTORIAL ✅ EASY and FAST ✅

The indexes help us a lot in those moments when time is short and obtaining information from a document must be precise. These are nothing more than a structure that helps us organize different sections of a document, whether they are sectors, references, among other things, to access it quickly and easily.

It is very simple when the document has little information, but when we talk about textbooks, theses or even works that gather a large amount of information, searching for an exact section can become a tedious task. In addition, the annex of an index to our document gives a touch of professionalism and elegance quite important when it comes to being readmaking the information within it more trustworthy.

in this walkthrough you will learn to perform by your own means automatically or manually an index or table of contents of quality and with a professional appearance, taking into account the factors that affect it. We will guide you step by step, so that it is easy for you to follow the tutorial and you do not miss anything.

Steps to make an index in Word automatically

In this case, we will show you how make an Index that is written and created automatically in your document as you create the titles. However, there are some specific factors that must be followed to perform this method:



  • have the activated version of Microsoft Word as in the free version the option is not available.
  • The indicated format must be used without any variation Well, this is the one that will generate the index as we update it, using the appropriate options for our titles and subtitles that will form the table of contents and the sub-indices.
  • It is recommended to leave a blank page at the beginning of the document in which our index will be generated. In this way save time and avoid possible errors or damage to the writing.

Once you know all this, it is time to get down to business and tell you the steps to follow to create your own table of contents automatically.

  • The first step is highlight the titles and subtitles that will be placed in our index and which are found throughout the document. To do this we will add a style among the default styles of Microsoft Wordthus ensuring and indicating to the program what the index and sub-indices to generate will be.

styles

  • Once the titling and style annexation process is finished, go to the blank page where the index will go and place the cursor on it. At the top of the text document, go to the tab of “References”. On the left you will find an option called, “Table of Contents”, access this option.

References Table of Contents

  • Select the second option that says “Automatic Table of Contents 2” and shows a short example of it. And so, as easy as a couple of clicks, your table of contents has been created with all the indexes and sub-indices that you have previously marked.

We have already created the index. However, if we want to edit or add more indexes and sub-indices, all we have to do is select and apply the styles to the texts that we want to add to the index. We go to the table of contents (Index)and we select everything, we right click on it and a dropdown menu will appear.

We look for the option “Update entire table”, we mark it and we accept, and thus the table of contents will be updated with the new titles that we add.

Update Word Index



If, on the contrary, we want to remove, we only have to, instead of placing the styles, remove them by selecting default in the appropriate options bar. After that do exactly the same, and thus the unwanted title will be removed.

How to create a table of contents in Microsoft Word manually?

To create a manual table of contents we will use the rule function of our Microsoft Word. Follow the steps properly to avoid making mistakes.

  • We will place ourselves on the upper ruler of measures. If by any chance this does not appear in your Word window, it is easy to fix it. Go to the tabs above the one that says “View”. To the center of the section “To show” You will see several options among which “Rule”, check the box and they will appear on the screen.
  • Well, once located in the tool Rule, we are ready to move the cursor on it. We will create a tab stopthis point will be where the page numbers belonging to our document sections will be, to guide you, the reference is 14 centimeters and its surroundings, doing it with the right click.
  • Once located there, we double right click on the same point to bring up the Tabs menu.

tabulations

  • Once these options are chosen, we proceed to create the table of contents manually. Write to us by placing the name of our chapter or entry on the configured page and after that We press the TAB key. Immediately the fill characters will appear, and we put the number of pages in which it is found.

manual index

Repeat this step as many times as necessary pressing the “Enter” key at the end to jump to the next line where we will introduce the entry and create our index manually.

How to create subscripts in Microsoft Word and format titles?

We already know how to create the Indexes or tables of contents, in the two possible ways, manually and automatically. Now, though, it’s time to shore up a couple things; format titles with the correct styles and create subscripts in our table of contents, both manually and automatically.

As we have already stated in previous moments, to create a table of contents, it is required to assign styles to various titles and subtitles that will become the indexes and sub-indices of our table. Now we will explain step by step how these formats are created and added, to generate the sub indexes automatically.

To start with, we have our default table that we have generated with each of the titles that we have already created. To add the certain title style, we must do the following:

Update Index

  • First we select the text fragment that we are going to apply the formatwe go to the tab of “Start” in the upper right part where it puts styles, and we click on the double arrows pointing down to display all the formats. We look for the one who puts “Title 1”, for the indices, Y “Title 2” for the sub-indices. We click on the style we want and it is applied correctly.
  • We have already applied the proper styles, it is time to make our new index and sub-index appear in the table of contents that we created, for this, we go to the table of contents that we have there and click inside its content .
  • When we click, a frame will be created and in the upper part of it it will say “Update Table”, we click there and a pop-up window will appear, with the update options.
  • We choose the option that says “Update the entire table”, and we click accept, then it will load the indexes and subindexes that we have added to the content of our table.

Computing