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new heading styles not showing up in table of contents

Anonymous
2025-06-03T21:56:57+00:00

I'm creating a table of contents as a I create a document (grant proposal). I had to create a new heading style because the default doesn't match the font and line spacing specifications of the granting agency. But these new styles aren't showing up in my table of contents. The only entry that shows up is the one I created with the default style, and I changed the font and line spacing afterward. I can't find any clues in MS Word Help.

I tried to attach a screenshot, but it shows up as a gray box with a sad face saying Not Found.

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Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2025-06-03T22:13:40+00:00

Even now, it would probably be best to modify the default Heading Styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) so that they had the formatting attributes required by the granting agency.

However, to have the text in styles that you defined appear in the Table of Contents, from the Table of Contents dropdown in the Table of Contents section of the References tab of the ribbon, click on Custom Table of Contents and in the Table of Contents dialog, click on the Options button and then locate the styles that you created from the list of available styles and then assign to each of them the appropriate TOC level.

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  1. Charles Kenyon 167.2K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-06-04T01:58:41+00:00

    I agree with Doug that modifying the built-in heading styles may be the simplest.

    One of the above will have the answer to your question and give you more ideas for creating automatic Tables of Contents.

    Guess: Assign an outline level of 1 to 3 to your custom paragraph styles.
    Outlining - Outline Level Styles

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-06-04T13:54:49+00:00

    Thank you! I modified the existing styles, and it worked.

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