Note that if your Word window is wide enough, you may see the style options listed directly in the toolbar instead of the “Styles” button.

In the drop-down list that appears, select “Heading 1” to define your selected text as the first primary heading. Next, head up to the Word toolbar (or the “ Ribbon,” as Microsoft so adorably named it) and, from the Home tab, click the Styles button.

To start off, select your first chapter or heading by highlighting it in your document. Microsoft Word’s automatic table of contents generator relies on styles, which are special formats you apply to your document so that Word knows which parts of your text are headings, subheadings, paragraphs, and so on. Therefore, the first step to automatically generating a table of contents is to make sure that your document has the appropriate styles applied.