Table of Contents (TOC) - How to format an Audit Report – Part II

Table of content in your Reports

This is the second area that needs to be concentrated while we format our audit reports or any other reports.  

To know how to create cover page for your report, refer post: COVER PAGES – How to format an Audit Report – Part I.

Table of contents (TOC)

TOC is nothing but the ‘Contents’ we see in books which mostly appears after the preface/About the Author page. It helps us to navigate through the topics easily, i.e. we can simply locate the information that we want to read in the book.

TOC includes the title of the Chapter (in word, we call it as Level 1 header), Section headings (Level 2 Header) and Sub-Section Headings (Level 3 Header).

Let me explain you with the contents of an Annual Report. Annual Report that we prepare may have many of the headings listed below - 

Picture A: List of Headings in an Annual Report

 

How to create TOC:

Creating a TOC and updating it is simple in MS-Word. We can do that in just 3 steps.

Step 1: We have to find the text that should appear in the TOC (refer Picture A).

Step 2: Select the Heading and apply the Outline level. On the References tab, in the Pages group, click Add Text and select the Level (Alt + S + A, then select the level)

Picture B: Define the Outline Level

 

The same way apply the outline level to all the headings and sub-headings.

Step 3: Click where you want to display your TOC and select any of the built-in TOC Style. On the Reference tab, in the table of contents group, click Table of Contents, and then select the built-in TOC Style (Shortcut Alt + S + T, then select the TOC Style).

There are two built-in 'automatic' tables of contents: Automatic Table 1 and Automatic Table 2. If you click the thumbnail for either of these, your table of contents will be inserted into a content control, and Word will add a heading.

Once you apply the TOC style, your TOC will look like Picture C

Picture C: Table of Content

 

You can modify the style and update the TOC. Click anywhere in your TOC. Word will show you update table options, refer Picture D

Picture D: Update Table Options

If you click update table button, word will show you ‘Update Table of Contents’ dialog box (refer Picture E)

Picture E

 

If only page numbers have changed in the document, select Update page numbers only; if headings also have changed, select Update entire table

Note:

Tables of Contents do not update automatically when you add a new heading to your reports. To update a Table of Contents, click anywhere in the Table of Contents and press F9 to update it.

Heading Style Option

We can build table of contents easily with Heading Style options. We just have to apply the predefined heading style to our text and create table of contents.

Tips:

To ensure that Word always updates the Table of Contents when you print your document:

In Word 2003: Go to Tools > Options > Print. Tick the Update Fields box.

In Word 2007/2010: Go to word Options > Display > under print option, enable update fields before printing option.