Most of the time the writers start to think about adding a Table of Contents(ToC) at the completion of the document. It is not a good thing to practice. I was used to do this in past. I faced a lot of troubles since I planned at the end and ended up with adding tables and content separately.
We need to apply built in Styles or our own creations (user defined styles) to the document as the initial step, before adding a Table of Contents. So that we have a structure and also we are aware of the text that is going to be appeared on our ToC.
So start the below steps when your ready with your document.
1. Click on the page to add table of contents.Go to References tab and locate Table of Contents panel.
2. Click on Table of Contents
3. You will get a menu with built in ToCs. If you have your own preferences, then these built in ToCs might not be useful to you.Still there is an option for you. Click on Insert Table of Contents to start customizing your own.
Table of contents tab will be open for you to edit fields once you have selected Insert Table of Contents option.
4. Change Show levels field to increase or decrease the number of heading levels to be appeared on your ToC. The Print Preview will change accordingly, giving an idea on the ToC's appearance.
5. Use Options button to open Table of Contents Options.
If you want to remove a particular heading from the Available styles then click on relavent TOC level text boxes and delete it. Then assign the TOC level numbers to the preferred TOC level fields.
6. Use Modify button to change the font style appearing on the ToC. We can modify each ToC level by selecting each TOC.
After doing all the modifications click on OK and the Table of Content will appear at the selected page.
Then what you have to do when you have updated your document with new content.Simply right click on your table of contents and select on Update field. Select from the options; Update page numbers only or Update entire table according to the requirement.
