WD: Table of Contents Shows Wrong Formatting

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, versions 6.0, 6.0.1
• Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

Formatting applied directly (that is, manually) to heading text appears in the table of contents, even though the TOC style doesn't include that formatting in its style definition.

By contrast, the table of contents does not use any formatting defined in the text's style and uses only the formatting defined in the TOC styles.

For example, if you select a portion of a Heading 1 paragraph and apply bold formatting to that text, the corresponding entry in the table of contents will also appear in bold. However, if you instead modify the attributes of Heading 1 style to include bold formatting, this formatting does not appear in the table of contents. The table of contents shows only the formatting that is defined in the TOC 1 style.

NOTE: The only exception to this rule is All Caps formatting. If All Caps formatting is applied through any means to text in the body of the document, the table of contents uses it when it includes the text.

CAUSE

Word considers direct formatting to be deliberate; thus, Word retains direct formatting when it formats the entries in the table of contents. By the same token, Word considers style definitions to be deliberate and adheres to the settings in the TOC styles.

WORKAROUNDS

If you do not want to accept the reformatting that was applied from the Heading style changes, use either of the following methods.

Method 1

Select the table of contents and press CTRL+SPACEBAR to force Word to revert to the built-in TOC styles.

When you update fields and Word asks if you want to update only page numbers in the table of contents or the entire table. Do not update the entire table, as this causes any changes to the Heading styles to be reapplied to the table of contents text. Be sure you clear the Update Fields check box before printing the document, or the TOC field will be updated automatically. (To change this option, choose Options from the Tools menu. Select the Print tab, and under Printing Options, clear Update Fields.)

NOTE: This method works in all cases of direct formatting or style redefinition, except for All Caps formatting.

Method 2:

If you have finalized the table of contents, select the table of contents and press CTRL+SHIFT+F9 (Command key+SHIFT+F9 in Word for Macintosh) to unlink the TOC field and cause the TOC results to become normal text.

NOTE: Once the TOC field is unlinked, it becomes normal text instead of a field and you will not be able to update it.

Select the text to manually apply any formatting changes you want. Note that reapplying the appropriate TOC styles does not correct the formatting changes.

STATUS

We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior does not occur in Word version 2.0 for Windows. For additional information on how Word 2.0 handles table of contents entries, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q70029
   TITLE     : Table of Contents Entries Lose Character Formatting