Use A Custom Style To Annotate A Word TOC

You can enhance a table of contents by generating summary information for specific sections. Adding a simple table of contents (TOC) to word is easy, but the basic list pf sections and page numbers would not always be adequate. For instance, you might want to add a short summary statement to a few section in the TOC.

I will show how to define and then apply a custom style that can map to our TOC for this purpose.

Adding an annotation to the TOC is a three step process :

1. Create a custom style for the summarizing text and apply the style appropriately.

2. Map the custom style to the TOC.

3. Generate the TOC.

After mapping the custom style to a specific TOC level, Word copies that styled content into the TOC at the specified level (that will make more sense) when you generate or update the TOC. You can modify the formatting of the summarizing text at the TOC level without changing its formatting within the body of the document.

 Generate the TOC

To get started, we need to generate a simple TOC similar to the one shown in Figure 1. Word creates a TOC using styled text (using one of the built in heading styles). You can update the TOC by changing a style or modifying a style’s attributed.  

Figure 1

The example document uses three heading styles : Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3. To generate the TOC, position the cursor, click the References tab , click Table of Contents in the Table of Contents group , and choose an option form the resulting gallery.

Create the style

You will need a custom style for the summarizing statement. To create this style, highlight one instance of the text you want to include in the TOC and do the following :

1. Open the Styles gallery and choose Create A Style (Figure 2). Word will highlight the style of the selected text in the Styles pane.

Figure 2

2. In the resulting dialog, give the style a name, such as TOC Summary (Figure 3). We do not want to modify the original attributed so do not click Modify. We are creating a duplicate style named TOC Summary.

Figure 3

3. Click OK.

The selected text does not look any different. We do not want it to. However, it now has two styles ;Normal and TOC Summary.

You can create the custom style without selecting any text, but the above route combines two tasks, so it is more efficient. We now have a custom style and some styled text using the new style.