Did you know that MS Word 2007 has a function that automatically creates and updates a table of contents in your document?
Peg Boyle Single points out in
her new book that this is highly useful for creating and maintaining a one page working outline of a paper as you write. Imagine how useful it would be to have at your fingertips an outline of what you've written so far that automatically updates itself as you write! I confess that I am a visual/kinesthetic learner (I learn by seeing and doing) and maybe that's why I find this tip so useful. It makes clear to me where there are gaps in my writing that need to be filled or sections that would really flow together much better in a different order.
To try out this useful tool:
Use the heading styles in the Styles box under the Home tab to identify sections as you write. Then place your cursor at the point in the document where you want to place the table of contents/outline. Finally, select Table of Contents from the References tab in Word 2007.
Microsoft has a couple of useful recorded tutorials that give some greater detail on the use and customization of tables of contents at
http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC102616991033&CTT=6&Origin=RP102617091033.
