Most of us have sat for long hours in libraries, our heads buried deep in books as we prep and cram for exams, write research papers or study for quiz’s. As a result, you learned how important a well laid out table of contents can be when you are hurrying through a stack of texts, trying to focus on a specific idea. Indeed, the table of contents is an important part of any book, and necessary part of any book. The table of contents tells the reader where to locate chapters in novels, or chapters on specific topics in text and reference books. The table of contents is a guide which is an outline of the contents of the entire book.
When you begin to contemplate how to write out your table of contents, it is important to first become familiar with the source material. Close examination will tell you the level of complexity the table of contents will have to be. Some table of contents will just need top level headings, others will also add one or two subheadings, depending on the amount of detail in the source material.
Table of Contents are used for magazine journals, instruction pamphlets, books, research papers and reports of various types. It is important to note before we start, that the formatting of each table of contents will depend on the publisher. For example, if you write an ebook for Amazon, you will follow their formatting rules, if you write one for Grosset and Dunlap, you will format it according to their rules.
Before you begin to create your table of contents, make sure that the pages of your source material are numbered. Next, type the main headings, which is the name of each chapter, and their corresponding page numbers in the source material.
Now that you have all of your chapters and their corresponding page numbers, you can begin to write your table of contents. Remember to make sure that the chapter title you type in the table of contents, is the same as that of the source material. Next, make sure that you put your chapters on separate lines. The chapter titles should be typed in boldface. This is done to make sure that they are easily seen so the reader can detect them with ease.
Next, add any subheadings. Subheadings are also called sub chapter headings, or sub level headings. These will be placed beneath the chapter title, and indented 5 spaces. When you add the page numbers, remember to use dotted lines to connect the chapter titles and subheadings to their appropriate page number.
Let us begin to create a basic table of contents. For example, start by typing ‘table of contents’ at the top. Next, list your main headings on the left, and their page numbers on the right. Keep in mind that a table of contents is used to assist the reader in navigating the book. If you are a student you are familiar with browsing the table of contents to get a gist of the subject matter, and many text books have subheadings like those seen below.
Table of Contents
1 Title of first main section
1.1 First subheading………………………………………1
1.2 Second subheading………………………………….10
2 Title of second main section………………………………15
2.1 First subheading………………………………………20
2.2 Second subheading…………………………………..25
2.2.1 First division in the second subheading………..30
3 Title of third main section…………………………………35
Now that you are familiar with the basic outline of how a table of contents should look, it is easier to create one for yourself. You have two main options: First, you can create a table of contents using a word processing program, or second, you can type it out manually. Typing a table of contents manually in Microsoft Word is actually a very simple matter, if you follow the steps below:
Step One
In Step One, you type the header, which is the name of the chapter and add the corresponding page number. When you add the page number, remember to add the dots … which connect the chapter title to its page.
How to Buy a Puppy……………………………………….10
Step Two
In Step Two, you add any sub headers. Depending on the complexity of your source material you may have several. Remember, If there is a sub header, use your tab key and indent the sub header
How to Buy a Puppy………………………………………..10
1.2 Choosing a Breed…………………………………….15
In all honesty, it is just that simple to create a table of contents manually in word. The only differences will be in the styling of the headers and layout. For instance, the table of contents for an honors thesis will have a different layout than one for a research paper, technical paper or novel.
Many word processing programs allow you to generate a table of contents automatically. In this case, all you need to do is to decide your layout of how you want your table of contents to appear, and the program will create the table of contents automatically.
As can be seen, there is a vast variety of papers and books that use different formatting techniques for their table of contents. This can become a headache for some, as not all formatting styles follow the basic example shown above. It is for this very reason that people choose to use table of content templates.
Our table of contents templates are very easy to use, convenient and effective in achieving a polished and professional look. These table of contents templates are available in Microsoft Word and are simply to implement. All that you need to do is to download the template style of your choice, proceed to customize it by adding your data, and then either printing it out or saving it to file. By using our table of contents templates, you can be assured of having a table of content page that looks professionally designed and complete.
Free Printable Table of Contents Templates for Word
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