Your Table Of Contents can appear on its own page, or it can just take up a few lines on the top of the first page of your document. Either way, a Table Of Contents offers at least six benefits to the authors and recipients of technical documents. Specifically, a well-planned TOC can help:
1. Make a good impression.
A document with a table of contents has a more professional appearance than a document without one.
2. Arrange your material.
When you're creating or editing a document, a Table Of Contents helps outline and organize your thoughts so you don't leave out anything important.
3. Manage reader expectations.
The Table Of Contents gives readers a high-level view of the content in the document. The author can use the Table Of Contents to set the tone and the framework for the document.
4. Provide a road map.
Readers need familiar points of reference for quickly locating important information. The Table Of Contents page numbers help when users thumb through a hard copy. When viewing a soft copy of the Word document, users can enjoy Web-style navigation by clicking on an item in the Table Of Content.
We will show you how to use Web-style navigation.
a. To open the Navigation pane, press Ctrl+F, or click View > Navigation Pane.
b. In the Navigation pane, click the Headings tab.
To go to a heading in your document, click that heading in the Navigation pane.
5. Make the document easier to discuss.
Have you ever been in a meeting reviewing a document and the copy that was distributed didn't have page numbers, much less a table of contents? Set the standard for documents that require group discussions, and include a Table Of Contents in your key documents.
6. Complement your training outline.
When writing how-to manuals or documentation to be used as a handout in technical training, one of my favorite tricks is to use my training outline as the entries in the table of contents. The Table Of Content acts as an executive summary or cheat sheet for the content of the document.
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