You know that feeling where you need to type up some instructions and you think it is not going to be too extensive but ends up being pages and pages, well that was one of the tasks when I recently had to wrap things up before moving on to my new job. To make it easier for whoever was taking over I figured a table of contents would make it easier for them to find what they were looking for.
A table of contents provides your reader with a list of chapters or topics they can look forward to or for reference. This is not only useful for a book but for manuals, recipes and dissertations to name but a few.
Now you do not want to have to manually type out a table of contents only to have to and changes when you make changes. Thankfully it is easier than that in Word. Using headings it is possible to create a table of contents in just a few clicks. If you make changes to your document you can then easily update the table of contents.
If you want to know how to create an index click here.
Gary Schwartz's Blog 