How to create your thesis with Word 2007 and 2010: Step 9 - How to Create an Automatic Table of Content

Creating an automatic table of contents for a structured document like thesis in Word 2007 or 2010 is the most fun to do. It is even more enjoyable if you have numbered your chapter and sub chapter headings with multilevel list numbering. I recommend you to see previous articles on how to do this.

In the previous articles, we have created a document called Academic Document 4 which has applied Heading styles to chapters and sub chapters and we have also numbered them appropriately. We have also separated each chapter with a section break.

Follow below steps on how to create a table of contents for your thesis or other similar documents

1. Open your Academic Document 4
2. Create an empty space before Chapter 1 or anywhere you want to place your Table of Contents, but make sure the empty space has a 'Normal' style
3. Under Reference menu, click Table of Contents and then Insert Table of Contents (see image below)
 
4. In the appearing box, clear box next to 'Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers'

5. Click OK
6. Save Academic Document 4 into Academic Document 5

Your Table of Contents will look like below:

 

And you can see in the Style Panel that styles for Table of Content levels are also created automatically. They are called TOC 1, TOC 2, TOC 3, etc.

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How to create your thesis with Word 2007 and 2010: Step 3 - Understanding the Use of Heading and Other Styles in Word 2007 or 2010

As mentioned in other post that when you are creating your thesis or other documents with Word 2007 or 2010, it is highly recommended to expand your style panel to see all styles available in that document. You may also want to expand the style panel when you are reading a Word 2007 or 2010 document created by other people to see whether they have applied styling system to that document or not. A document created with a good styling will have a very consistent look throughout that document and in the style panel you can see all the styles being applied to the document.

When you type any text in a paragraph on your document, by default that paragraph text will use the style 'Normal' as you can see on Style panel. Whatever the style and formatting being associated with style 'Normal', that will appear in the text.

In regard to thesis creation, it is generally recommended to use style Heading 1 for your Chapter headings, style Heading 2 for Sub-chapter headings, style Heading 3 for Sub sub-chapter headings, etc. This is very important to remember because Word 2007 and 2010 by default will use Heading style to be included in Table of Contents. By applying Heading styles appropriately, you will produce a very nice and consistent document.

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Activating Style Panel

Activating Style panel is a good practice and recommended by many Word 2007 and 2010 professionals as it is very helpful during your Word 2010 creation. In Style panel, you can see all the styles available in the existing opened document. Default styles brought by Word or styles you have created yourself will all be displayed. So, when you want apply a particular style, you just need to place your mouse cursor on the text to which you want apply the style and click the style name in your Style panel. And when you place your mouse cursor on any text in your document, the style the text is using will be surrounded by a blue-colored box on the style panel.

To activate (expand) or inactivate the Style panel:

1. Click the small arrow on the right bottom of the Style box as shown on the image (under Home menu)
2. Once expanded, drag that Style panel to the most right of your screen so it will fit into its position on the right of your document window.
3. Select or unselect the box next to Show Preview on the lower left corner of the Style Panel and see the difference
4. Click the arrow once more to inactivate the Style panel or the cross sign (x) on that panel.

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How to create your thesis with Word 2007 and 2010: Step 2 - Thesis Structure

Undergraduate and graduate thesis or dissertation is a type of academic document with certain structure. From front section to the end, you will find in a thesis or dissertation front pages which consist of at least Thesis Title, Acknowledgment, Table of Contents, List of Tables, List of Figures, and List of Appendices. Then there is a thesis body which consist of chapters, including Introduction, Literature Reviews, Methodology, Results and Discussion, and Conclusion. After that, a thesis ends with closing pages which include List of References and Appendices. These are generally found in a thesis or dissertation. You may find variations from one institution to another, but the basic principle is the same.

When we look at a thesis Table of Contents, it will look like the following

Acknowledgment
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Appendices
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1
1.2
1.3
Chapter 2. Literature Reviews
2.1
2.2
2.2.1
2.2.2
2.2.3
2.3
2.4
Chapter 3. Methodology
Chapter 4. Results and Discussion
Chapter 5. Conclusion
List of References
Appendices

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How to create your thesis with Word 2007 and 2010: Step 1 - Introduction

I have decided to make a series of articles that will ease people on how to create a graduate thesis with Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010. This is intended primarily to undegraduate or graduate students who are currently writing their thesis or are preparing to do that. Hopely, these articles will provide help them, so that thesis creation becomes more enjoyable and less painful.

But, as you go along with these articles on how to use Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 to create a thesis, you should see that the principles also apply to other documents having the same structure with a graduate thesis. Including here are research proposals, research reports, even books. Thus, the articles are actually useful for anyone who in their daily activities are dealing with creation of such documents.

The articles are divided into several steps to make it clear to everyone (especially beginners in this topic) to follow all the steps. It is advised to follow all the steps from the beginning so that you can really learn and feel yourselves anything that we are talking about. With these articles laid down in consecutive steps, you can always go backward and forward anytime you like to the individual article you want read.

Please be informed that practices based on these steps are required to get a better skill in using Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. So, please do practice! If you are stuck, you are please to post question anytime.

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