What should table of contents look like

This way, you do not have to worry about moving the Table of Contents around in the document later. Doing this can end up throwing off the page ordering in the Table of Contents. The Table of Contents should be on its own page. Do not include the introduction or a dedication on the same page as the Table of Contents. List the headings of the document in order.

Start by listing the headings of each section in the document in order. Include only the major titles or headings in the document first. Write them down vertically on the page, using the same font and font size for each heading. Add subheadings if applicable. The subheadings will be subtopics under the main topics or sections in the paper. They should have their own titles in the document. Write down all subheadings underneath the applicable main headings.

If this is the case, skip this step. Write page numbers for each heading. Write down the page number of where each heading starts in the document. Only include the page number that marks the beginning of the heading. You do not need to include the page number of where the section ends in the table of contents.

Put the content in a table. Make a table with two columns. Then, place the headings and subheadings in the first column in order. Put the applicable page numbers in the second column. Check that the subheadings are located underneath the correct headings, indented to the right. Make sure there are page numbers for the subheadings listed as well. You can center the content in the table using the table options if you want the content to appear a few spaces away from the lines of the table.

You can also leave the content indented to the left if you'd prefer. Title the Table of Contents. Add a title on the top of the Table of Contents. Method 2. Confirm the headings and page numbers are correct in the document.

Before you use a word processing program like Microsoft Word to create the Table of Contents, make sure the headings and page numbers are correct.

Note each heading and subheading in the document, checking that every section has an applicable heading. Each page should be numbered in order. Having the correct page numbers will ensure the Table of Contents is created correctly when you use the word processing tool. Open the Styles tab. The Styles tab will on the Home tab in Microsoft Word and The Styles tab will allow you to label each heading in your document.

Doing this will make it easy for the word processing program to create the Table of Contents for you. Label each heading in the document. Most Table of Contents follow the title page in a document. Have a new page ready so you can populate it with the table of contents. Click the new page on the spot where you want the Table of Contents to appear. Go to the Reference tab and choose the Table of Contents option.

The Table of Contents option will appear under the Reference tab. Once you click on the Table of Contents option, the Table of Contents should appear automatically on the new page with the applicable headings and page numbers. You can also go for from a list of custom Table of Contents, where you choose the font color and size based on your preferences. Then place your cursor two lines below this and go to the References tab.

Click on Table of Contents and select Custom Table of Contents… In the popup window, select how many levels of heading you wish to include at least two under Show levels , then click OK :. Now you have a table of contents based on your current headings and page numbers.

If you continue working on your text after this, be sure to go back and update your table of contents at the end, as headings and page numbers might change.

You can do this by right-clicking on the table of contents and selecting Update Field. Then you can choose whether to update all information or just the page numbers. I noticed that when I first generated it, the Contents included my cover page and the title of the paper again from the first page of actual content.

I went back and removed the heading formats from those and just reformatted them manually. Are there other sections that should apply to? You're right that the cover page and paper title shouldn't be included in the table of contents. Other parts to omit from the table of contents are the acknowledgements and abstract, if your paper has these. These should come before the table of contents, so it's not logical to include them.

Additionally, make sure the table of contents itself isn't listed; that's obviously not much use to the reader! You can read more about this issue here. I would really like to know if the headings must be numbered or not. APA Style does not recommend numbering headings. Just use the recommended formatting for different levels of heading—shown here —without numbering, unless your university tells you otherwise.

Though it is difficult to find the right format as the table of contents because there is a space between the 'Figure 1' and the 'Title'. So, the list of tables and figures only automatically generates the 'figure 1' without the title.

Would be appreciated. You're right that auto-generating the list won't quite work in that instance. I'm afraid your best option in this case is probably to generate the list in that way and then add the titles manually by typing or copying them into the list.

Maintain double spacing. Tables should be labeled with a number preceding the table title; tables and figures are labeled independently of one another. Tables should also have lines demarcating different parts of the table title, column headers, data, and footnotes if present.

Gridlines or boxes should not be included in printed versions. Skip to content What should a table of contents look like in APA format? How do you format a table of contents in APA 6th edition?