How to add clickable hyperlinks to table of contents?

Question

I've looked at every community post about this, but still haven't found anything that will work. I'm trying to add clickable hyperlinks to my Table of Contents in Word. I've already generated the Table of Contents using Automatic Table 2. It has generated fine, but I need to add hyperlinks to the Table of Contents. I've followed several videos online (including one from Microsoft) that instruct me to highlight the portion I want to hyperlink, then go to the insert tab, select the link option, and select the heading that I want to link it to. I've done this on several headings within the table, and I can even go back into the heading and see that the hyperlink is there. However, the text in the table of contents is not clickable. Whenever I try to click the text, it just opens up the Table of Contents to edit it rather than taking me to the linked page. I've used AltF9 to check the code as suggested in one of the community posts I saw, and it is correct. Like I mentioned, I can also tell that the hyperlink is there when I go in to edit the hyperlink, but the text itself looks unchanged (there is no blue text or underline that sometimes indicates it is clickable) and the curser clicks inside of the heading as if to edit it instead of sending me to the correct place within the document (even when I have clicked out of the table of contents field).

Answer 1

In Word, you get a hyperlinked table of contents by default. Depending on the settings in your Word installation, you may have to hold the Ctrl key as you left click to follow these links. Just clicking won't work unless you change your preferences.

This will become clear if you rest the mouse pointer on an entry in the TOC. You should see a screen tip that says, "Current Document. Ctrl + Click to follow link."

Answer 2

Even if you have opted not to have the entries hyperlinked, the page numbers in a TOC always are. The default TOC field code has an \h switch that makes the entries hyperlinked. If your TOC code doesn't have that switch, you can add it.

Answer 3

Thank you, I never would have assumed to do that. Any suggestions how I can change my preferences, so I don't have to ctrl+click?

Answer 4

Even if you have opted not to have the entries hyperlinked, the page numbers in a TOC always are. The default TOC field code has an \h switch that makes the entries hyperlinked. If your TOC code doesn't have that switch, you can add it.

Good point. I tend to forget about those hyperlinked page numbers. :-)

Answer 5

Thank you, I never would have assumed to do that. Any suggestions how I can change my preferences, so I don't have to ctrl+click?

In Word, click File > Options > Advanced and clear the check mark next to "Use CTRL + Click to follow hyperlink."