Page Numbers, Headings, and Table of Contents

These tools are especially useful when you are working on a longer document with several sections or chapters.

They can help you:

• keep headings consistent
• move around your document more easily
• number pages properly
• manage different sections of a document
• create and update a contents page automatically

Using Word’s built-in tools is usually quicker and more reliable than formatting these elements manually.

Once you have applied heading styles, you can use Word’s Navigation Pane to move around a long document more easily.

Headings also help make documents easier to navigate and more accessible. For more on this, see Accessibility in Office Documents.

Problems often happen when students try to manage longer documents by hand.

Common examples include:

• Typing headings manually instead of using styles. This can make your document harder to navigate and prevents Word from creating a reliable table of contents.
• Creating a contents page manually instead of using Word’s automatic tool. Manual contents pages are easy to forget to update.
• Adding page numbers without using section breaks where needed. This can make numbering difficult to control, especially if your title page, contents page and main text need different numbering.
• Pressing Enter repeatedly to force content onto a new page. This often creates blank pages or layout problems later.
• Changing heading formatting one heading at a time instead of updating the style. This makes the document harder to keep consistent.

These problems usually make documents harder to edit and more difficult to keep consistent.

Before you submit your work, check that:

• heading levels are used consistently
• page numbering appears where it should
• your contents page matches the final version of the document
• new sections start in the right place
• there are no blank pages or unexpected layout changes

If you convert your work to PDF before submission, check the PDF as well to make sure the formatting still looks right.