I have used the default heading styles (ie. Heading 1, Heading 2 etc) throughout my document. The format for Heading 1 has a bullet point - using a Wingding font character as the bullet.

The problem is that the bullet for Heading 1 gets drawn into my TOC, and I can't see to get rid of it (apart from backspacing it out, but then they are reinserted when I update the TOC).

I've tried formatting the TOC style to no avail. It seems as though the Heading 1 bullet, when inserted in the TOC, is interpreted as just text. So it pulls it in as if I had just entered it as text along with the other text in the heading.



Hope that makes sense. Grateful for any suggestions. Thanks.

Word always adds paragraph numbers, or bullets, to the TOC if the heading includes them. What you can do is omit Heading 1 from the TOC and add the corresponding text with TC (table of contents entry) fields. See http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/TOCTips.htm#TCFields.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks Stephan. I've explored the TC option but it's going to take away the dynamic nature of the TOC. I need to be able to quickly enter new headings based on the styles and have those automatically appear in the TOC, without manually then adding TC entries. Seems like I want it all, but it's just not possible. As an interim solution I've set up a macro which just finds the bullet (as formatted in the TOC) and replaces it with nothing. Now I have to figure out how to trigger the macro each time the TOC is updated!

As a workaround, you can make use of two paragraph styles: one with bullet formatting and one without it. Use the first style to create a bullet paragraph (no text); use the other style to add the text below the bullet.

To create the appearance of text being in the same paragraph, format the paragraph mark (¶) following the bullet paragraph in hidden text.

To show/hide paragraph marks, as well as other nonprinting marks, click the ¶ button on the Home tab.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional