How do I make the Table of Contents function work?

Are you running Word for Windows? Press Alt+F9 (or Alt+Fn+F9) to reveal field codes. Instead of the table of contents, you should see something similar to { TOC \o "1-3" \h \u }. Delete the \u switch and then update the TOC with F9 (or Fn+F9). Press Alt+F9 again to hide field codes. Does this fix the problem you described?

Try below for creating a clean table of contents:

1. Use Built-In Heading Styles

Make sure your chapter titles are formatted using Word’s built-in heading styles:

• Heading 1 for main chapters
• Heading 2 for sub-sections
• Avoid manually formatting text (e.g., bolding or enlarging) without applying a heading style.

To apply a heading style:

• Select the chapter title
• Go to the Home tab
• Click on Heading 1 (or Heading 2, etc.)

2. Check for Unintended Headings

• Go to the View tab and enable Navigation Pane
• This shows all headings in your document, scan for anything that shouldn’t be there
• If you find stray entries, reformat them to Normal style

3. Insert the Table of Contents Properly

• Place your cursor where you want the TOC
• Go to the References tab
• Click Table of Contents and choose an automatic style

4. Update the TOC

Whenever you make changes:

• Right-click the TOC
• Select Update Field
• Choose Update entire table to refresh everything