I have been having this problem with a document that I have been working on. The primary problem is that a few items show up in my TOC that I do not want there. The items are such things as Figures/Table Caption and more importantly random paragraphs in my text body?!?!



So if I select the offending text and right click menu item "paragraph...", I do indeed find that the Outline level is set to Level 1. I change the level to "Body Text" and voila it disappears from the TOC like I want. I then save and close the document. When I re-open it, the same text reverts back to Outline Level 1?!?!?!?!

I have tried turning on the field codes to see if there was some hidden field that was messing up the text, but I didn't see any field codes in the offending paragraphs.

What am I doing wrong?

B2

Your document probably has a setting to update styles from the template. This setting should (almost) never be turned on in a document in use.

Under the Developer Tab click on the document template button and see if the box to update styles is checked. If so, uncheck it.

The "Automatically update document styles" is not checked Any other ideas?

B2

If you have that data appearing in your table of contents then you have the styles of those particular graphics, text or whatever set to one of the heading styles of the TOC (commonly Heading 1, Heading 2 or Heading 3).

The "quick fix" is to set those styles to something other than the Heading 1, 2 or 3. For example, if you are using Body Text for the textual content of your document, use that same setting for the text that appears in the TOC. For the figures or other data do the same as other figures of your document. Then update your TOC and they should disappear.

The "real fix" though is to understand and use the styles throughout your document. There are many links out there (web) that can help you (I just don't have them handy from this CPU or I would provide them).

Hope this helps...

I have already tried the "quick fix" many times. It only works while the document is open. If I save and reopen, the problems reappear

This statement tells me that it is a styles issue. However, I have been wrong before. If you adjusted the styles as suggested and updated the TOC, saved the document and did not get the results...I am at a loss. That should have rendered a fix (even after re-opening the file).

I will assume that it is too big of a file, or something that you would not want to attach?

OK, not dealing with the styles at all, let's address the TOC field.

Delete your Table of Contents and go to insert a new one. This time, instead of choosing one of the options you are given, click on the Insert Table of Contents at the bottom. This brings up the dialog box. Select the number of levels you want and then click on the options button.

It will show you all styles that are captured for your TOC with their levels. Go into the box for the level for the styles you do not want captured and delete the level numbers. (I put the insertion point after the level number and backspace.)

OK your way out.

If you press Alt-F9 to reveal codes you will see a field something like:
{ TOC \o "1-1" \h \z \t "Heading 2,2,Heading 3,3,Heading 4,4,Heading 5,5,Heading 6,6" }

instead of one like:
{ TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u }

Press Alt-F9 again before you forget!

The guide to these "switches" in the field can be found at
Field Codes: TOC

I suspect the crucial one is the \u switch.

This seems to have fixed the problem with the TOC. Thanks Charles!! I notice in the Document Map view those odd paragraphs still show up there Not nearly as a big a deal as the TOC though So something is still changing the "Paragraph Outline Level" when the document is reopened. How do I see what "style" a paragraph is set to?

Thanks,
B2

There is a known issue with the Document Map (in some versions of Word), which causes it to actually change the "Outline level" for paragraphs it thinks are headings.

As Charles has already suggested, the quickest fix for the TOC is deleting the \u switch from the TOC field code. There is no fix for the Document Map itself, unfortunately. You could use Outline view instead.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

As Stefan pointed out, the problem may be the use of the Document Map feature itself. I don't think this was fixed until Word 2010 and your use of it could be the cause of your problems.

Yes, the "fix" was replacing the Document Map with the Navigation pane. :-)

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional