It may look like working with this list can take a long. But we have one proposal for our users. Instead of writing a table of contents manually, create it automatically in Microsoft Word. You do not need any specific tech knowledge to do this. Let’s go through this process step-by-step and explain how to make a table of contents for a research paper or dissertation in a few clicks. Open Home tab and choose the style for your table of contents (ToC next). Apply heading 1 to your chapters, heading 2 to the subheading, and if needed heading 3 to the level 3 heading. Next, you are going to create a research paper or PhD dissertation table of contents. Open References and choose ToC. Choose the citation style for your work. For example, let’s choose APL for now. Meeting all style requirements (bold font, title formatting, numbers) is essential. Define the number of levels for your dissertation or thesis table of contents. In case you want to have 3 levels, choose Automatic Table 2. You are done! Click ok, and here is your page with listed chapters! You see how easy it can be! Every time you make changes to your text or headings, it will be automatic. Updating Your Table of Contents in MS Word Table of contents of a research paper or dissertation is created, and you continue to edit your work until submission. It is common practice, and with MS Word, you can automate all the updates. Let’s outline this process in our step-by-step guide! Right-click on your ToC in a document. Update field section is next. Choose “update ToC." Here, you can update your entire ToC — choose an option that works the best for you! As you may see, working with automated solutions is much easier when you write a dissertation which has manifold subsections. That is why it is better to learn how to work on MS Word with the content list meaning be able to manage it effectively. Table of Contents Examples From our experience, students used to think that the content list was quite a complicated part of the work. Even with automated solutions, you must be clear about what to include and how to organize formatting. To solve the problem and answer all your questions, use our research paper or dissertation contents page example. Our paper writers designed a sample table of contents to illustrate the best practices and various styles in formatting the work. Check our samples to find advanced options for organizing your own list. Example of Table of Contents in Research Paper As you can see, this contents page includes sections with different levels. Thesis/Dissertation Table of Contents Example Have a question about your specific case? Check samples first, as we are sure you can get almost all the answers in our guides and sample sets. >> Read more: APA Format Table of Contents Tips on Creating a Table of Contents To finalize all that we shared on creating the table of contents page, let’s go through our tips list. We outline the best advice to help you with a dissertation table of contents. Use automated solutions for creating a list of chapters for your report, research papers, or dissertations — it will save you time in the future. Be clear with the formatting style you use for the research. Choose the best level type of list based on the paper length. Update a list after making changes to the text. Check the page list before submitting the work. [Original source: https://studycrumb.com/dissertation-table-of-contents]