Can anyone help with these Word 2010 TOC questions:

1. How do I delete an existing table of contents? My "Remove Table of Contents" selection on the References tab, Table of Contents menu, is grayed out.

2. How do I modify an existing table of contents so that the table entries are not shaded gray?

3. How do I change the list level shown in the TOC? I have a 2-level list now, but I would like to change that to a 1-level.

1. Alt+F9 (show field codes), delete the field.

2. File > Options > Advanced > Show document content, Field Shading: Never

3. Hack (short of recreating the TOC): Your field code may look something like ...

{ TOC \0 "1-2" \h \z }

Change the 2 to a 1 and refresh the field.

Here is some help:

How to create a table of contents in Microsoft Word by Shauna Kelly
Why use Microsoft Word’s built-in heading styles? by Shauna Kelly

The above is all correct. That said...

I agree with the recommendation by JimP of Shauna Kelly's pages.

I would set the display for fields to "when selected" rather than "never." I like to know when I'm in a field.

Thank you. That pretty much got me where I needed to be.

But I find that if I choose "when selected" on the field shading, it unshades references in the body of the document, but it still shades all the TOC entries. Any thoughts?

It will shade the TOC only when the cursor is in its body, or the body is in the selection, just as it will for all other fields. Move the cursor above or below.

Yup. That got it. Thanks.

You're welcome.

FWIW, I prefer to set the shading for fields to "always", rather than "when selected" or "never".

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Mine is 'when selected'

Thanks for the information! It was easy to find and took less than a minute to fix my TOC.