Change default table of contents linked styles and styles

[ajkessel]

By default, a style-based TOC uses styles Heading 1, Heading 2, and
Heading 3. The TOC levels can be changed to link to any arbitrary
style under the "options" menu. Is there any way to make that change
permanent, for example, in a template? I haven't been able to figure
out anyway to avoid linking the TOC to my desired header styles each
time I create a new TOC in a new document.

As a related question, is there any way to change the names of the
styles used for the different levels of TOC to something other than
"TOC 1," "TOC 2," etc.., and to have that change also be associated
with a template?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can save your desired TOC (that is, the TOC field) as an AutoText entry
or copy and paste it from one document/location to another. For more on
customizing TOC fields, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TOCSwitches.htm

 

[Stefan Blom]

By default, a style-based TOC uses styles Heading 1, Heading 2, and
Heading 3. The TOC levels can be changed to link to any arbitrary
style under the "options" menu. Is there any way to make that
change
permanent, for example, in a template? I haven't been able to
figure
out anyway to avoid linking the TOC to my desired header styles each
time I create a new TOC in a new document.

As Suzanne said in her reply, you can store a field code as an
AutoText entry, which means that you can easily insert it as needed.

Alternatively, since you are creating a template, you could copy and
paste an existing TOC (field) into that template. Any custom-formatted
TOC would work, as long as the referenced styles are in the template.
Of course, updating the TOC would generate an error message before
you've added text using those styles, either to text in the template
or to text in a document created from that template.

As a related question, is there any way to change the names of the
styles used for the different levels of TOC to something other than
"TOC 1," "TOC 2," etc.., and to have that change also be associated
with a template?

No, you can't change the styles used for the TOC entries, but you can
modify them. Again, since you are creating a template, this would be
quite useful.