How to make an index in Word automatically

Learn how to create indexes in Microsoft Word automatically is something that will make your life easier. It may seem somewhat unimportant, but we assure you that knowing how to make an index in this simple way it will save you a lot of time.

In addition to being fundamental to authors, indices are also key references so that readers can know the contents of the document and navigate through it.

The Word indexes are automatic so, with the push of a button we can update it therefore, making any changes to the structure of the document is not a heavy task as the entire index has to be changed by hand. If you are one of those who were still doing that, we understand you. Read on to jump into the future.

How to make an index in Word

1. The first thing to do is select titles and subtitles that you want to be marked in the index. When selecting the title, in the start menu you have the title bar available at the top right. Select the box that shows the different styles and levels of titles, and choose the option “title 1” for your first selected word. This is how we will mark it as the level 1 title.

You will notice that the appearance of your title will change. If you do not want the format or font to change, go back to the styles menu, and by clicking the right button on “title 1” you will get the first option of “update title 1 to match the selection” and from this In this way, the characteristics of our title will be maintained. We will proceed to mark all the titles, and subtitles by levels, guiding us with the table of titles of the start menu in Word.

2. If you are going to place the index template at the top, then place the mouse cursor just in front of the main title. Now go to the “page layout” tab, select “breaks” and within this, “page break”. This will make the first page of our document empty so that we can add our index to it. The space button can also be done through several selections, but we believe that the professional method is much better, in addition, knowing all the tools that this program offers you will make you much more professional in your work.

3. Once you have established all the levels of the titles and have emptied the first page of your document, go to the references tab and select the table of contents option. There are several available in this table index templates. These templates are completely modifiable: you can vary the format, the font of the letter, the color, the size, etc.

4. For update your indexYou just have to click on the index and then on “update table”. A small window will appear in which you have to select the option that says “update the entire table”, and finally click on “accept”. You will see how your index will update instantly.

How to switch from levels to titles

If you want to make any changes, like changing the level of a title, for example, select any title that is marked as a level two title and move it to the level three title.

1. To go where this title is located press the control key and at the same time click on the text and it will take you to the selected title. This can be very useful when you are working with an especially large document, as it helps you move through the entire document more easily.

2. Once you are there select the text and assign the level to it what do you want.

3. Go back to your index and update in the same way as above and voila! We already have our title two as a level three title and thus we can modify the level of all our titles.

How to add numeric hierarchy to the index

Select any of the document titles, go to the home tab and in the option multilevel list select the option in which the numerical hierarchy appears and you will see how the change has been applied to your document, all the topics organized numerically.

As you have seen, it is not difficult to create indexes and it will always be better to do it this way to have a clean work and, above all, very well organized. We hope this article has helped you learn to develop your computer skills!