Structuring your report: Headings and table of contents

A well-structured report is essential for presenting your artistic research clearly and professionally. Microsoft Word provides powerful tools to organize your document using headings and automatically generate a table of contents. This guide will help you master these essential skills.

This guide is mainly for using Word. Explainer videos for LibreOffice Writer are at the bottom of this post.

Why use headings?

Headings serve multiple important purposes in your report:

• They create a clear visual hierarchy that guides readers through your document
• They enable automatic generation of a table of contents
• They improve navigation through the Navigation Pane
• They make your document more accessible
• They allow you to quickly reorganize sections by moving headings

Understanding heading levels

Microsoft Word uses a hierarchical system of heading styles:

• Heading 1: Main sections (e.g., Introduction, Methodology, Conclusion)
• Heading 2: Subsections within main sections
• Heading 3: Sub-subsections for more detailed organization
• Heading 4 and beyond: For complex documents requiring deeper structure

How to apply heading styles

1. Select the text you want to turn into a heading
2. Go to the Home tab on the Ribbon
3. In the Styles group, click on the appropriate heading level (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.)
4. The text will be formatted according to that heading style

Tip: You can modify the appearance of heading styles by right-clicking on the style and selecting “Modify” to change fonts, colors, and spacing to match your preferences. If it feels like to much of a hassle to click a style in the Styles group, you can also open a separate pane.

Creating a table of contents

Once you have applied heading styles throughout your document, creating a table of contents is straightforward:

1. Place your cursor where you want the table of contents to appear
2. Go to the References tab
3. Click on “Table of Contents”
4. Choose a built-in style or customize your own

The table of contents will automatically include all your headings with their page numbers.

Updating your table of contents

When you make changes to your document (adding content, changing headings, or reorganizing sections):

1. Click on the table of contents
2. Click “Update Table” at the top of the table
3. Choose “Update page numbers only” or “Update entire table”
   Update page numbers only: When you’ve only added text to your document, this option works well
   Update entire table: When you’ve added sections to your documents, this option is the best.

Video tutorials

The following video tutorials demonstrate these techniques step by step:

LibreOffice Writer