Video: Add custom entries to a TOC

In this video, we’ll use the TC field to add custom entries to the Table of Contents. Learn how to create descriptive text for the Table of Contents and hide it in the field code, so that it appears in the Table of Contents but not the body of your document.

Want more?

Introduction to tables of contents (TOCs)

Format or customize a table of contents

Take tables of contents (TOCs) to the next level

Field codes in Word

In the first movie, we used a custom style to mark text to include in the Table of Contents.

But by using the TC field we have a lot more flexibility.

We can create descriptive text specifically for the Table of Contents and hide it in the field code, so that it appears in the Table of Contents but not the body of your document.

Click at the beginning of the first paragraph in this section. Then, click the INSERT tab, click Quick Parts, and Field.

With this dialog box, you can insert any field you want.

Scroll down and click TC. When you do, you get these options, which correspond to the switches that are available for TC.

Type the descriptive text you want in the Text entry box.

This is the text that will appear in the TOC, but not in the body of the document.

Then, under Field options, check Outline level and type 8.

This assigns TOC level 8 to the text, so that it will be formatted with the TOC 8 Style.

You can use any TOC Style you want. I chose 8 because it is not likely to be used for any other TOC entry.

And finally, check Suppresses page number, so that the page number doesn’t display. Click OK, and the field code is added.

To see it, go to the HOME tab and click the Show/Hide Paragraph Marks button.

Here’s the field code, the text and the switches that the dialog box added.

Click Show/Hide Paragraph Marks again to hide the field with the text.

To finish, go back up to the Table of Contents and press Alt+F9 to display the TOC field code.

To instruct Word to display TC field entries in the Table of Contents, click ahead of the 'T' switch and type backslash 'f', and a space.

That’s it. Now Update field, and press Alt+F9. And you can see the description below Domestic Partners.

The last thing we might want to do is format the text.

Go to the HOME tab and open the Styles pane.

Remember, we assigned level 8 to the TC entry, so go to the TOC 8 Style and click Modify...

Click Format and Paragraph, and indent the Left and Right margins, the same way we did in the Summary Style.

Click OK and add Italics. And click OK.

Now you have another way to add your own content to a Table of Contents.

Field codes may seem a little scary at first, but they do open up a whole lot of possibilities.

Up next, we’ll use field codes to add multiple Tables of Contents to our document.